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I didn't know this existed:Nero's Golden Palace to partly reopenIt sounds like an interesting place to visit – one which (from the sounds of it) might not be around in 50 or 100 years. I don't recall seeing many structures built during Nero's reign when I was in Rome which makes this place all the more rare.
Alright, try this one instead:http://www.livescience.com/history/070102_ap_nero_palace.html
Cool, I had no idea about this palace. Unfortunatly it seems they are having a hard time keeping it together.
We had just been talking about the Domus Aurea in my class yesterday, so it was interesting to see this news story this morning:Nero's dining room unveiled in RomeThe Domus Aurea, or “Golden House”, was built by Nero on a huge chunk of land right in the center of Rome after the great fire of 64 A.D. destroyed many homes there. Nero would blame the fire on the Christians, but I think that other people felt that Nero had lit the fire to accomplish his larger ends of building his great palace. The Domus Aurea was so over the top that people felt indignant, and after Nero commit suicide in 68 A.D. and Rome went into civil war, Vespasian dismantled the palace (or at least part of it) and built the Colosseum on what had been Nero's large artificial lake. The Colosseum was constructed near the Colossus, a huge bronze statue of Nero (hence the name of the amphitheater). Anyway, it's neat to hear how archaeologists are still excavating the house since excavation originally began as far back as the 16th century, when diggers found the famous statue of the Laocoon (now in the Vatican Museum).
Apparently this part of the Domus Aurea is on a different hill (can't remember which) than other parts of the house that have previously been excavated. My professor said that based on the photos, this “new” find has probably been excavated for one or two years (the ancient Romans filled in the underground cavities with rubble when they wanted to build on top of previous structures). It will be another few years before we actually see scholarly works published on the find, so right now we don't have much to go on regarding the site.
Here's Seutonius's reference to it:
The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings, inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while they contained pipes which shed unguents upon the guests. The chief banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, in imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies.
Source (Chap XXXI)
Looks like time may be of the essence for those of us who would like to see this some day:
Part of the ceiling of ancient Roman emperor Nero's Golden Palace collapsed on Tuesday, rekindling fears that site is unsafe for the hordes of tourists who come to see it every year….Workers were undertaking repairs when part of the roof collapsed, causing a section of the garden above it to fall into the palace over an area of some 100 sq metres, officials said. No injuries were reported.
