But just like animal species, languages and scripts can become extinct, narrowing the range of diversity and beauty left for future generations to experience. More than 6,000 languages remain in use in the world today, represented in about 100 different scripts. In the wall, you will find a high niche.Languages don’t just express our thoughts and feelings they shape them and structure them, permitting us to experience the world in unique ways that can never fully be translated. If my analysis of the drawings in the Atlas is correct, this part of the wall can be found in the place where the ramp changes gear (next to the plate with information about the latrine added in Hadrian’s time). Well, looking carefully at “Atlas” I noticed that a small fragment of the back wall of one of the dining rooms located behind the courtyard with the pool, was probably used in the construction of the Domitian ramp leading from the Forum to the Palatine. The only clearly visible reminder of the palace of Caligula is the outline of the aforementioned rectangular pool, which today we can see in the courtyard in front of the church of Santa Maria Antiqua.īut maybe there is one more detail preserved. It is its majestic ruins that we can see today while visiting the Roman Forum. Ultimately, however, it was almost completely demolished, and in its place, a completely new building was erected by Emperor Domitian. At the time of Caligula’s successors – Claudius and Nero – it was still undergoing some minor reconstruction, so it probably remained in use. The layout of the Kaliguli Palace proposed by archaeologists suggests that this building did not have a residential function, but only a representative one – it was great for organizing banquets and official receptions (besides, the proximity of a noisy street and forum meant that living in this place would probably be quite a nuisance).Ĭaligula’s headquarters did not last long. Statues were probably placed in the wall niches. Stone slabs adorned at least the lower parts of the walls, whose higher parts and ceilings decorated the frescoes or stucco. How? Again, based on other buildings from the era, we can assume that the floors were lined with multi-coloured pieces of marble forming geometric patterns (fragments of similar floors can be seen on the Palatine). Their location suggests that these were the most representative and best-decorated rooms. from Pompeii or Herculaneum), it can be assumed that the rooms on the first floor were only above part of the house.įurther behind the atrium, there was probably a rectangular courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, to which were three large dining rooms open to the courtyard.
What could it look like? This of course will always remain a secret. Preserved traces suggest that there were also stairs leading to the first floor.
There were additional rooms on both sides of the atrium. According to the reconstruction proposed in the “Atlas”, unlike other Roman houses, in the middle of the imperial atrium there was no pool collecting rainwater, but there was a small sanctuary dedicated to the divine spirit of the emperor ( templum Numinis Gai ). Inside, behind the terrace, there was a spacious atrium with walls decorated with stone columns. From the front, it was preceded by a large, elevated terrace from which the emperor could observe Vicus Tuscus street (one of the busiest thoroughfares of ancient Rome, connecting the Forum with the port on the Tiber). What did he look like? Only small fragments of its foundations, included in later buildings, have been preserved and examined.Ī collective work entitled “The Atlas of Ancient Rome” edited by Andrea Carrandini shows that archaeologists believe that the palace stood on a high podium. The Caligula Palace called “Domus Gai” or “Domus Caligolae” was actually part of the extensive imperial complex located at the foot of the Palatine, next to the Forum, at the back of the temple of Castor and Pollux. Rome’s contacts with Africa and Far East.
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