Horti Lamiani

The Horti Lamiani (Lamian Gardens) was a luxurious complex of an ancient Roman villa with large gardens and outdoor rooms located on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, in the area around the present Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. They were created by the consul Lucius Aelius Lamia, a friend of Emperor Tiberius, and they soon became imperial property. They are of exceptional historical-topographical importance. Along with other ancient Roman ''horti'' on the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills, they were discovered during the construction work for the expansion of Rome at the end of 1800s.

The villa and gardens were scenically divided into pavilions and terraces adapted to the landscape, on a model of Hellenistic tradition. They were eventually filled with exceptional works of art, from original ancient Greek sculptures to exquisite frescoes and marble floors.

A museum of the nymphaeum excavations is planned to open in 2021.

History

Lucullus started the fashion of building luxurious garden-palaces in the 1st century BC with the construction of his gardens on the Pincian Hill, soon followed by Sallust's gardens between the Quirinal, Viminal and Campus Martius, which were the largest and richest in the Roman world. In the 3rd century AD the total number of gardens (''horti'') occupied about a tenth of Rome and formed a green belt around the centre. The ''horti'' were a place of pleasure, almost a small palace, and offered the rich owner and his court the possibility of living in isolation, away from the hectic life of the city but close to it. A fundamental feature of the ''horti'' was the large quantity of water necessary for the rich vegetation and for the functioning of the numerous fountains and nymphaea. The area was particularly suitable for these residences as eight of the eleven large aqueducts of the city reached the Esquiline.

The land for the Horti Lamiani was originally a cemetery just outside the ancient Servian Wall but was purchased by Lucius Aelius Lamia, the Roman consul in 3 AD, who developed the property. He seems to have bequeathed the property to the emperor probably during the reign of Tiberius, and it became imperial state property. Emperor Caligula loved the place so much he established his residence there and further developed the property. In an evocative eyewitness account, the philosopher Philo visited the gardens in 40 AD and accompanied Caligula inspecting the elaborate residence ordering them to be made more sumptuous. Caligula was briefly buried at the site.

The Horti Lamiani adjoined the Gardens of Maecenas and the Gardens of Maiani. Under Claudius (41–54) the Horti Lamiani and Maiani were united and administered by a special superintendent (''procurator hortorum Lamianorum et Maianorum'').

The property survived until at least the Severan dynasty (193–235), when it became the emperor's private property as shown by a stamped lead water pipe. By the 4th c. the gardens were no longer in use as evidenced by the statuary found broken in pieces and used in the foundations of a number of spas.

Excavations

The first discoveries took place in the 16th century, and finds such as a copy of the ''Discobolus'', the thirteen Medici ''Niobids'' (a variant of the ''Laocoön and His Sons''), and the fresco ''Nozze Aldobrandini'' were unearthed, which are now located in museums.

In the 19th century Rodolfo Lanciani noticed ancient remains in building works in the area and found beautiful sculptures in subsequent excavations that he organised. Decorations of the complex included frescoes, architectural elements in coloured marbles, and innumerable gilt-bronze sheets with inset gemstones. He reported:
:I saw a gallery seventy-nine metres long, the floor of which was made up of the rarest and most expensive varieties of alabaster and the ceiling supported by twenty-four fluted columns of antique yellow, resting on gilded bases; I saw another room, paved with slabs of peacock eyes, whose walls were covered with black slate plates, decorated with graceful arabesques executed in gold leaf; and finally I saw a third room, the floor of which was made up of alabaster segments, framed by glass pastegreens. In the walls of it were all around various jets of water one meter away from each other, which had to cross in various ways, with extraordinary light effect. All these things were discovered in November 1875.

A collapse of land gave access to an underground chamber full of statues. The first to appear was a semi-colossal head of Bacchus, crowned with ivy and corymbs and eventually others appeared:
*the semi-extended body of Bacchus
*the busts of two Tritons on whose hair traces of gilding were preserved
*the magnificent bust of Commodus as Hercules bordered by tritons and the various parts of the complex allegory
*two statues of Muses
*the beautiful statue of Esquiline Venus preparing to enter the bathroom by tying a ribbon around her hair

Parts of the complex of the Horti Lamiani were brought to light in these excavations but were quickly re-buried.

Other important sculptural finds connected with the gardens are the so-called Ephedrismòs (in the Capitoline Museums) from the Piazza Dante and the statues at the Centrale Montemartini from the thermal complex of via Ariosto.

The unity of the archaeological context was recreated for the exhibition "The quiet abodes of the gods" in 1986 based on the archives of Lanciani and on municipal deposits.

Between 2006 and 2009, excavations found unknown areas of the Horti Lamiani under the future ENPAM building, where Lanciani had documented the long ''cryptoporticus'' with an alabaster floor and precious wall decorations, punctuated by columns in precious yellow ''giallo antico'' marble with bases in gilded stucco.
The museum is centred on a Roman hall attributed to Alexander Severus (222–235), who built the nearby nymphaeum of Alexander (known as the Trophies of Marius) and by stamped water pipes (''fistulae aquariae'') which prove emperor's ownership; the hundreds of fragments of painted plaster and precious decorative materials, date the imperial residence and are extremely refined, and the new sector is related to the complex discovered by Lanciani by decorative marble elements identical to those unearthed in the nineteenth century.

Other excavations in 2005–6 took place during the construction of metro line A in the gardens of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II.S. Barrano; D. Colli; M. Teresa Martines. ''Un nuovo settore degli Horti Lamiani'', 2007, pp. 1-13.

Gallery

File:Testa di Dioniso - Horti Lamiani - Musei Capitolini Roma.jpg, Dionysius, Horti Lamiani (Capitoline Museum)
Image:Commodus Musei Capitolini MC1120.jpg, ''Commodus as Hercules'', Horti Lamiani (Capitoline Museum)
File:Opus sectile da pavimento galleria horti lamiani, 02.JPG, ''Opus sectile'' marble floor, part of the "Alabaster floor" (Capitoline Museum)
File:Ephedrismos (Ancient Greek original) - Palazzo dei Conservatori - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg, Ephedrismos (Ancient Greek original, Capitoline Museum)

See also

*Roman gardens

References

External links

Capitoline Museums site
(London: Oxford University Press) 1929: Horti Lamiani
La villa di Caligola. un nuovo settore degli ''Horti Lamiani'' scoperto sotto la sede dell'ENPAM a Roma
- Report of archaeological excavation (2006-2009)

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Lamiani