Object 11: Domus Aurea
20 Objects: Object 11
Transcript
You guys all here just in case anyone missed the class to the Aeneid on Thursday, if you get a chance, if you could get a copy of the Indian.
It's actually there's a PDF up on the page for the Aynida.
And get a read of this one before. Okay, so today we're going to look at object 11 together, which is the Domus Aurea Golden House.
And today we're going to go through the normal kind of structure, thinking about what the object is, who commissioned it, what it's made from, what the building materials are, then maybe about some of its decoration, how is it designed and why it matters.
So what does it tell us about the ancient world? And so for this module you'll have to write an essay later in the semester tying together a couple of objects and give you some ideas of how you could maybe tie this in with some of the other pieces.
So what is it? The first thing I want to say is that the Domus Aurea, a Golden House, is not just one thing.
It's not just one building. What we're talking about, the Golden House, we're actually referring to a whole series of buildings that were built in the city of Rome.
A really vast landscaped area which actually even included an artificial lake.
And it was built between the years 64 and 68 CE, so the first century CE.
And this was a site that because of its scale and its grandeur, was actually legendary even in its own time.
The entire project was really extravagantly crafted.
And the main building included rooms and hallways decorated almost entirely in gold in some areas.
And this is how it came to be the Golden House. However, because it was so ostentatious, it was so over the top, it actually contributed to its creators own downfall.
But before we get into that, I just want to give you a better sense of the scale at the site and kind of where it's located.
So here, this whole section within my green there you can see is part of the Domus area complex.
Scholars estimate that it covered somewhere between 100 and 300 acres.
However, unfortunately today most of it is destroyed.
A lot of it is actually under underground. And you can see that it's built in between the Palatine Caelian and Opium Hills in Rome.
Palatine Hill here, this is an area of Rome that's often associated with the houses of emperors.
The House of Augustus here, the House of Tiberius here, Achelian Hill and the Opium Hill there.
And it stretches throughout this whole area here.
Massive structures like even just to compare the size of the House of The justice with it, this is just tiny in comparison to this huge complex.
And for those of you who are familiar with Rome, have many of you guys been to Rome before?
Many, yep. I'm sure you've been to see the Colosseum. And actually the Colosseum ends up being built on top of this.
So the Colosseum is actually within that green section there today.
So most of the Aurea survived. And this map gives you a sense of what we think was included in the site.
So there were two nymph Fayons. These are little monuments. There's one here, I don't think one was here. Dedicated to the nymphs and like, with a little fountain with them and often statues.
There is a public bath as well. And then there is the main part of the house. You can also see there's what's called the stagnum, so this means pool, where we get the word stagnant from.
And so here the stagnum. And then there's an entryway. And these little lines here represent columns that would have been running on either side.
And in the middle there could be called the column Glosses Neuronis.
So this was a massive statue that will come back to as well that would have been there.
So the main thing to take away first is that it's a complex, it's not just a building.
And there are lots of different components to it.
Just to give you an idea of where it is in the city, you can see the yellow lines circling a large area.
I think it was kind of spread across that area. And you can see with the little red part here, this is the bench that has been excavated so far.
And again, it's because you can see there's houses you cannot excavate under them.
The Coliseum, you can't excavate under that. It's only a small part of it has been excavated. So. But that being said, even as recently as 20. So just five years ago, actually six years ago now, they were selected part of the site discovery.
Okay, so it's massive. We've got that. But who commissioned this massive building? The site was actually commissioned by one of the most notorious Rome emperors, Nero, who ruled as an emperor from the year 54 all the way up to 60.
And what's interesting is that a lot of stories and rumors have built up around the reign of Nero.
I mean, if you've heard anything about him, I'm sure you've heard that he was a wicked tyrant, that he was exceptionally cruel, that he treated people badly.
He's known for killing his own family members. But these stories are often told by later sources, and oftentimes these sources that are extremely biased.
So that makes the Golden Pass particularly useful to us because it's one of the few things we have left that were actually created by Nero that can show us how he himself was trying to present himself, as opposed to reading accounts of how other people described him later on.
I'm sure you guys can all understand how important it would be, as a figure like that, to make sure you could control your own narrative in some way, and so you can get a sense of how he's trying to do it.
So before we really look at this site, we need to get a little bit of more of a sense of the world that Nero grew up in and what Rome looked like at the time.
And that way we can understand what he thinks he's doing by building this site.
So the first thing that's important to say is that Nero grows up in a Rome that's incredibly crowded.
And it is the great city of opportunity in the world at this time, or at least in the West.
You have people traveling from all around the Mediterranean and even further abroad to try to make their fortunes in this city.
And we have accounts from Roman writers such as Seneca, who was living at the time of Nero.
He was actually his advisor, and he tells us about the hustle and bustle of the city.
And you get this sense from reading Seneca of Rome as this incredibly noisy place where if you're walking down the street, minding your own business next to the time, you could get a wallop off somebody who's carrying something like a large object that flatters you as you're walking the street, or somebody might elbow you in the woods.
It's the type of place that's absolutely swarming with people.
And there are estimates that there were over a million people in the city of Rome at this time, which is absolutely huge population.
So, on the one hand, it's a city of great commercial successes and also great scholars and writers who come to be trained and educated there.
But it's also a city of desperate misery and poverty.
And we have other early accounts that tell us how disgusting and dangerous it can be to live in a city of narrow streets that are smelly and overcrowded.
And in fact, it's in Rome itself where we see the first development of tenement blocks, structures like this that go up five or six feet.
And even Roman writers will tell you how unstable these structures were.
They had to be patched up. Time and time again. And some of them end up collapsing and killing the tenants inside.
This very ricky tenacity in many ways. And against these bad conditions during Nero's reign, a very devastating event took place.
And that was on the 18th of June. July, sorry, in the year 64, the worst fire that Rome had ever experienced begins.
And fanned by strong winds, actually, much like the fires that have just happened, happened in California, very similar circumstances.
Really strong winds are around the city at the time.
And the fire takes off. It sweeps through the ancient city, down these not narrow, winding streets, through the tenement sites, and it ends up destroying about 71% of the city of Rome.
10 out of 14 districts are destroyed. And this is the event that we often now call the great fire of Rome.
Now, the popular myth, which I'm sure any of you who have heard of Nero have heard, is that Nero himself burnt the city down.
And in fact, not just did he burn it down. The story goes that he actually fiddled while the city raged.
And you can see here, this is a painting done from the 18th century of the fire of Rome.
And if you see at the top in the center there, there's this statue that's supposed to represent Nero in the painting, looming over the fire as it destroys the city around him.
You can see just beneath him, a mother and the child are trying to get out of their children.
But in fact, most experts believed that Nero actually had nothing to do with the fire.
Nero wasn't even in Rome when fire broke out. And when he heard about the disaster, we're told he rushed back to help with emergency housing and food for many people, people who were now homeless and had lost everything.
However, even though he probably didn't set the match or didn't organize this fire to take place, it doesn't mean that he didn't benefit in certain ways in the fire.
And what we find is that Nero uses this clean slate of the city of Rome now being destroyed beneath him to set out for his own building projects.
And that includes the Donasar rail. At the time of his fire, Nero was 26 years old. And he came to the decision that instead of restoring the entire ancient city center, he would instead redesign it.
And this is where he comes up with the idea of building this huge complex of palaces, pavilions, fountains, and a lake in luxury stardust.
When it began, Nero's project was really unprecedented and unexploding scale as well.
Why did Nero want to get so involved in these building projects?
And in particular, why did he want to build the domesairea.
And it's hard to understand why he's done this. If you're going off the Hollywood version of Nero where he is a delusional, evil drunkard who is not strong, strategic in any way, but is essentially driven by his ever changing whims and desires.
The version Hollywood has given us. But of course this version of Nero is a myth. History is often written by winners and Nero does not end up as a winner.
And oftentimes these accounts are based on rumors that are started by your enemies.
And so what I want to suggest to you today is that Nero's decision to build a golden house was not just another one of his irrational acts where he is trying to be over the top and we can see his kind of megalomania.
No, he was actually a serious person and he was trying to take a strategic step to solidify his rule and to maybe give him a legacy as a ruler.
Now what evidence do we have that this wasn't international act, that he was actually being strategic doing it?
What we know is that by the time Nero comes to power, you can see him on the right there, the last of the five.
Rome has been an important center for about 800 years, but it's only been 80 years since, since the first emperor has come to power.
Augustus on the left. And when he did that, Augustus started the first dynasty of Roman emperors that we now call the Julio Claudian dynasty.
And what's important to note is that all of these people that come after Augustus there had some links to him, personal links, but not only did they rule because they had a linked to him, maybe they were a relative or he adopted them or something like that, but they actually all had their own political and military successes and achievements.
Tiberius the second person there on the left, Claudius on the right next to Nero, and Caligula, who was actually hated.
But even Caligula had gone into battle, had fought on behalf of Rome.
And so. So even though they had direct links to Augustus that helped get them into power, they maintained their power for a while by being able to justify their right to rule.
And they could do that in the traditional Roman way by talking about their military victories, how they have gone out and fought on behalf of the Roman state and the Roman people.
Now the problem for Nero is on the right. He is the last one in the Julio Claudian dynasty. He's not like the others. And he's not like the others because he only becomes emperor when he's only 17 years old.
@ that time, he has no political experience. Really, Claudius is his stepfather and he comes into power because his mother, Claudius wife, is wheeling and wheeling behind the stages.
But Nero has really no political experience and he also has no military achievements to his name.
And of course, this is the problem with these types of dynasties is that eventually you end up often with this situation where somebody comes to power and they don't really have the suitable skills to keep them in power, or they don't have the same skills that have worked for everybody else so far.
And what we find is that not only did Nero not have the prerequisite skills, but he wasn't actually interested in, in having a military career.
Instead he was really interested in public art and in public works.
And so the accounts we get of Nero, which I'm going to put in the last slide, so you can click into them there and get any of the primary sources, they all suggest that when Nero first came to power, essentially he was willing to do whatever his advisors told him to do to take guidance from them.
But there were certain things he was really determined about, and these were related to things like poetry.
He was determined to be involved in poetry, in music and painting, and he was far less interested in building up the proper skills that had already been associated with this categorical life.
So he didn't want to get into making too many political speeches, he didn't want to lead soldiers in battle, and he didn't want to get into are publicly arguing on behalf of certain strategic moves.
We know Nero was extremely well educated. He was a lyre player. So it's like a little small stringed instrument that you can hold in your hands, like a little harp.
So he's really, he fancied himself a really good player.
We don't know actually was he good, but he did compete professionally in it.
And we're told he took himself really, really serious as an artist.
In fact, Linny the Elder tells us that for time he only ate chopped leeks that were put in olive oil with chais because he thought it would make his voice stronger when he sang, when he performed.
And also that he wore heavy, heavy plates on his chest to try to improve his lung capacity so that he could sing louder when he performed publicly.
Okay, so how do these personal interests of this ruler square with his real task?
And his task is really ultimately to make sure he holds on to power, to make sure the dynasty doesn't end, to make sure that Rome is not invaded.
And what we see is that he tries to use his particular skill set in order to hold on to power.
And that's part of what the Golden House is all about.
And the grandeur of this building is meant to demonstrate to his audience that Nero, and Nero alone, should be emperor.
When he decided to commission the project of the Golden House, the first job Nero would have needed to do was to get rid of a huge amount of rubble that had been left after the great fire.
After that, he had to find good architects to build this fight.
And one of the things that wealthy Roman people did to gain popularity was to commission impressive public amenities.
And Nero had already proven himself interested in this area.
So even before the fire took place, he would have built a market and he built a theatre as well.
The theater actually was only rediscovered in August 2023.
And these types of projects would have been built and gifted to the Roman people to keep the support of the Roman people.
But because of this and because there were so many building projects going on, the best architects often to live in Rome.
And Tacitus gives us a sense that Nero was really, really serious about this project and he was willing to go above and beyond to get it done correctly.
So Tacitus says, and I would say Tacitus is quite a biased source, so we're keeping that in mind as we read it.
He says Nero availed himself of his country's desolation.
So he took advantage of the fire and he erected a mansion in which the jewels and gold, long familiar objects, were quite vulgarized by our extravagance, were not so marvellous as the fields and lakes, with woods on the one side to resemble wilderness, and on the other open spaces of extensive views.
The directors and contrivers of the work were two men.
So these are the two key archivists, Severus and Keller, who had the genius and audacity to attempt by art even what nature have replaced.
And to away an emperor's resources, they had actually undertaken to sink a navigable canal from the lake awareness to the mouths of the Tiber, along the barren shore, or through the face of the hills where one meets with no moisture which could supply water except the Pomptine marshes.
The rest of the country is broken rock and perfectly dry.
Even if it could be cut, though, the labor would be intolerable and there would be no adequate results.
Nero, however, with his love of the impossible, endeavored to dig through the nearest those two efforts.
So essentially what we have here is two chief architects are brought in and they are suggesting we're basically, we're going to build across what is now wetland through a canal.
We're also Going to basically build through a hillside.
We're going to literally concordate in order to create this site.
And what we're told is Nero went with it. Okay, that'll be round, that'll be intense. And he decides to go with it. And you can see in this passage and in other ancient sources that Nero supervised every detail of the building and ended up being really satisfying results.
And according to Suetonius, the first time that Emperor Nero enters the completed house, he turns around to somebody and he says, good, now at last I can live like a human being.
He finally sees a house worthy of himself. Now, in terms of the building materials used during this project, the Golden House displays an interesting development in the use of Roman concrete.
Rome had recently developed a specific kind of concrete which mixed together line with a particular type of volcanic sand that was brought up from the Bay of Naples.
And this was a particularly effective mixture. And essentially what they did is they pioneered a new form of building technology.
So they would. They would build two rows of bricks that were parallel to each other and they would fill the concrete in the middle.
So it made it extremely strong structure. And it also meant that you could build the building exceptionally high.
And of course, you want to be able to build a really tall building because you want the size to be imposing when you have your visitors coming into you so that they'll feel intimidated by the size of it.
The room on the right, the remains of the octagonal room, is a seen as a masterpiece of Roman architecture.
You can see it has a vaulted dome at the top. And this is one of the first known concrete vaults in the history of architecture to survive.
You can see there's a hole at the top for the light to filter in.
Now, by the time Nero begins this project, there's already rumor circulating about him and about his cruelty in particular.
It's been said that he has killed his mother, he has killed his stepbrother who might have challenged him for the rule.
And we know that room was very brutal. A lot of the emperors end up being killed were ruthless themselves.
But Nero has to keep in mind, if these rumors are swirling about him, he needs to make sure that he has public popularity on his side.
And we can think about that. When he goes, for example, the theater for people, he's thinking about his public popularity.
He wanted people in Ireland. We just want people to fix the roads in Rome. They just want people to build theaters. But this building was important for this too. And you can think about the fact that so many people have been devastated by the fire In Rome, people have lost houses and livelihoods.
And so by building a massive complex of this scale, this means that Nero himself is able to employ a lot of people who are stuck for work at the time.
And they estimate that there were probably between 6 and 10 million bricks alone used in this project.
And so obviously now you need to pay people to make these bricks.
You also need to pay people to lay these bricks. And if estimated that around a thousand men would have been employed to lay these bricks each day.
And so even, for example, in just one of the buildings that survives, there's over 200 rooms that have been excavated so far.
So on the one hand, this is a great project for him to provide work for people, to provide money for them, but also he.
He hires in not just the common people who do laying bricks, but also the best hardenants as well.
So he hires the best craftsmen to decorate the buildings and to ensure that they're laid on the finest material.
And this included decorating using fine marble.
And what's interesting is that as you move through the house, which I'll show you in a moment with a little guide, as you go further and further into the building, there would have been more and more marble and wealthy objects on display.
And this is because these kind of objects, like, for example, marble was extremely impressive because it was so costly.
And so as you move through the building, it becomes more and more of a well display.
And this matters because the more important the guests are, further into the building, they would have got, if you're not very important, you don't get invited into Cabinet Room 3 point A, which is down the hall.
You only get to see maybe the foyer. And so different people have different levels of access.
And so the house responds to that. And part of the reason why, for example, some of the stone, the marble and the type of granite the porphyry would have been impressive is because it would have come from so far away.
There would have been yellow marble from Namibia, which is nowadays what we now consider part of Algeria.
Green porphyry is the type of granite which would have been taken in the south of Greece, in and around the area of Sparta and Parmes, and also red porphyry, which would be taken from Egypt.
So this is Mayroom and Mormon, who are showing you to what degree certain rooms were covered with marble.
You can see, you enter here, the first thing you're met with is grandeur in the two marble rooms.
But actually then after that, as you go further in, this area here would have been for more special meetings and There'd be more left display then.
And some of these darker pink, some of these ones here as well, would have been particularly wealthy as well.
So they're just a little bit back from. There's Collins here, so you can see those. So again, different wealth displays for different people.
And of course, you want to be conscious of not being over the top and in the face of people who are less wealthy themselves, and to kind of hide that internally for people who are mistaken for.
Now, what is the point of having all this marble? Yes, you can show your wealth, which is of course, important.
Yes, these things are beautiful. But the main thing is that what you can show is by bringing these exotic objects from far away, is that Nero can really demonstrate the extent and power of the Roman Empire through these objects.
If you can get in marble from Numidia, Greece and Egypt, you can show how far the empire that you control extends to.
And for these reasons, they're really incredibly important resources to be able to bring.
And you're not just showing that you. You own land in those regions, but you're also showing that you have the technology to quarry it, you have the money to pay for it being transported.
Essentially, some of these slabs of stone, they would have been moving.
Some of the columns would have been over 30ft high, and they're not broken, carrying them over vast distances.
And by doing this, you can say something about Roman organization, efficiency, and you can basically make the statement that not everybody can bring this stuff in.
Not everybody has the organization in place or the wealth to do this.
Now you'll see all these beautiful images that are painted.
I have to say that they were painted in the 18th century, because essentially what happened was after Nero's successor took over, the main part of the golden house, including its grand floors, ended up being filled in with lots of soil and rubble.
And as time passed, the newer buildings were destroyed.
And it wasn't actually until 1488 that a young lad fell into a hole on the Esquiline Hill, and he actually ended up looking around him and finding himself in a beautiful painted room full of paintings.
And so it wasn't until 1480 and thereafter that slow excavation began of the tunnels to start revealing some of the beautiful tescoes and marble sites.
And in fact, what we know is during the Renaissance, really famous painters such as Raphael actually came to this site and had himself lowered in with his little lantern to go around and to see all these sites before he himself was inspired for it.
And so if you were to go today, this is actually more what the frescoes, for example, look like today.
On the left, you can see a grotesque in the chamber of the Sphinx.
This was only discovered in 2019. And on the right you have this stuccoed and vaulted painted ceiling called the hall of Achilles that's there, which has our site of Achilles, our mythological hero.
So you can see this is what it looks like now, but there were paintings made back in the 1800s by a Swiss Italian artist who.
I'll link in the notes on this slide if you want to have a look at their materials.
This gives you much more detail how the porcelains are.
So we are told by ancient writers that this great massive building complex with loads of marble wasn't enough for Nero.
It's not enough just to be able to show that you have control of this empire that's expanded by getting stone from throughout the empire.
Nero decided he needed to take it a step further. And we're told that he stood, sent out his staff members and told them to acquire wherever they could, hundreds of artwork to fill the house with.
And it ended up becoming the largest private gallery in the world at the time.
We're told by the writer Pliny the Elder that Nero even stole 500 statues from the holy site of Delphi in Greece for his new house.
And so the sense you get is that he basically begs, borrows and steals to fill his house with the most stunning and beautiful object available at this time.
But again, this is all about saying something about his power and his position in the empire.
And as you can imagine, the end product of the house is really over the top.
You have different colored marbles on the floor.
You see it in that painting, actually. Different colored marbles on the floor, marbled on the wall, painting statues and ceiling, done in nearly every room.
I actually really love this style. This is maximalism pushed to its most extreme. I think it's gorgeous, but of course, a lot of people see it as completely overcome and ostentatious.
And to top it all off, Nero planned to ensure his immortality by creating a colossal statue that stood at the end true way.
And just to note, in terms of size, the statue was over 30 meters tall, so about roughly around 100ft.
You can see the comparison there on the right between it and the Statue of Liberty.
Nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty gives you a sense of the intense feel of the statue.
Now, even though the statue itself looks longer, survives, we get an overall sense of design by surviving engravings that were made on gemstones and also on coins.
You can see one there on the bottom on the right. And this was made a very short time after Nero died.
And there is some debate about who the image of the statue is.
Who is this about? Some people see this as the sun God. So. And you can see the rays of the sun coming out from behind the crown for the gemstone there.
But some people think that Nero was layering an image of himself on top of this image of the sun.
And this is called theomorphism, when you present a human, in this case, Nero, as a deity.
And to support this idea, we actually do find some coins minted by Nero himself, in which he is wearing a crown that looks like the rays of the sun.
So it could be very likely that he is trying to associate himself with the sun God during this time.
But even if he's not placing his own facial features on this statue simply by having a huge statue of soul at the entrance to the crown, he is directly associated with this particular God.
And why is he doing that? Well, most likely the reason he begins to associate himself with the sun God is because his forefather, Augustus, the first emperor, somebody will look at in the other module of the semester, he was a leader who was also associated with the sun God and the way Roman religion worked.
When you were associated with a God, your successes became their successes.
You got those successes because you had just God on your side.
And at this time, we believe Nero was trying to suggest to the Roman people that he was like a new version of Augustus.
Augustus had brought in a period of peace for Rome, just like Augustus, and Nero would do the same thing.
Augustus's period is known as the Golden Age, and Nero begins to use a lot of imagery associated with the sun and with golden things, even a golden house.
And that's because he is trying to suggest that there is a new golden age coming to Rome during his period of rule.
And scholars point out that if you were to visit this site, the way it's laid out, the way it's been structured, the whole site, if you were to walk in, you would be standing next to this big colossus that you can see here as you're entering in.
And then the next thing you'd be greeted with is this big pool.
And surrounding it is landscapes and buildings.
And it's often been suggested that Nero was trying to present to his guests a microcosm of the world at that time.
You enter in, you meet this big pool, which is similar to the Mediterranean at the center of the world, of the Roman world at the time, and around it, buildings that reflect the grandeur of the Roman Empire, which is spreading out around the Mediterranean.
And if that's the case, the colossus here standing, a statue looking out over the entire thing, reflecting it, but also looking over it is like a symbol for Nero in his rule over the empire, in his position there as kind of the person who is holding it all together.
So what's interesting about this project is we can see Nero trying to strong messages about his wealth, his power, his culture, his position in the empire.
And what you find is that how people respond to this project depends on who they were.
So we know that the public were not. Didn't seem to create too much of a problem about this.
Nero was actually fairly popular with regular people, probably because of things like giving them work, responding when a fire happens.
But it creates huge problems with other people. And the people it creates problems with are other elites.
You can see really the empire, all the wealth that go into one man and they don't get to partake in it like they used to.
And you can see their anger about this project. For example, Pliny the Elder writes, he talks about the houses of emperors and how it reflects something about who those emperors were and how they ruled.
And so he says that there are still two other mansions by which all of these mansions have been eclipsed twice.
Have we seen the entire city of Rome environed by the palaces of the emperors Caligula and to Nero and the palace of the lost, the palace of Nero, that nothing might be wanting to its magnificence was coated with gold.
Surely such policies as these must have been intended for the abode of those who created this mighty empire and who left the plough or their native hearts to go forth in confirmations or to return late in the triumphs.
Men, in fact, whose very fields even occupy less space in these audience chambers, these callists.
And so what we're saying is that these types of splendid buildings, like the one associated with Nero, one that's covered in gold, this is the type of palace you would expect for somebody who would actually create the empire of Rome.
We know that Nero has had actually nothing to do with fighting, nothing much to do with expanding the empire.
And Pliny is saying that those people who actually gave us our empire, people like Augustus, wouldn't dream of living a house like.
And we know that in the Roman tradition, most leaders and emperors in Rome would never build a house like this in the city of Rome.
They would actually hide it away in the countryside, keep it away from prying arms, and not demonstrate their love in Such a visible way.
So what we find with the Domus I Aria is that Nero isn't really tactical enough to survive the political system of Rome.
Yes, oftentimes it is a good thing to display your wealth and power.
Important to do it. But in the Roman system, it was also important to make sure you were modest when you were supposed to be modest, and you were modest in the right environments.
And this is because they have recently gone from an oligarchy to one person having rule.
So you've gone from sets of families sharing room to one person having rule.
And the one person in charge has to be very careful not to anger all of these people who can turn on you very quickly.
And so his role is more like the role of somebody in the traitors.
If you guys are watching that, you have to pretend to be one of the faithful.
You have to go along with it. You have to play cool. And Mira just doesn't do. If he had built a house like this 300 miles outside of Rome, he might have been okay.
But the elites end up furious by this. Even though the general population might have been oppressed, the elites cannot stand this.
The Senate end up turning on Nero. They condemn him as an enemy of the Roman people, and he loses their support.
And ultimately he flees the city of Rome once he hears the Senate have come out against it.
And we're told by Sutonius that outside the city, he ends up stabbing himself in the throat.
And he dies, murmuring through his tears. The world has now lost a great artist. And the fact that gold leaf, inlaid pearls, and insect jewels of the complex were removed pretty soon after he dies, like no elite goes in and lives there.
It becomes a toxic place, cannot be associated with.
Like, you don't want to be the person taking over tomorrow because the person who's just been living in there has just been killed or killed themselves.
So essentially, a lot of the wealth gets robbed out of it and it's left.
And it ultimately gets filled in and left and costumes built on top.
That's not unhappy. So you can see that it actually becomes a really problematic complex.
So what can you write about in your essay? If you're running like this, one thing you can think about is the fact that, yes, the Domus Aurea was the Emperor's personal residence, but he didn't just build it to live in this big fancy compound.
This was a way for him to build a monument that would hopefully extend his reign and promote his legacy.
For example, size and scale, the emphasis on the vastness of the ones having rules over.
However it's an interesting example because if you're talking about wealth displays and other objects they probably are more successful than this one.
This one doesn't actually succeed it goes too far he makes a mistake with it and it actually becomes self defeating so wealth displayed perhaps gone wrong this would be a good one.
Another thing you could think about is about how Nero links himself with divine figures for example the sun God Sol who would also support his forefather Augustus.
You'll find some really good articles on JSTOR about this kind of solar imagery being used.
And then another thing you could think about is more practical if you wanted to think about the technological innovation the type of concrete used to drill the handling this in sight and the fact that they were willing to employ new technology in it would be interesting that might lead to new objects and we will leave there okay thanks guys.
Stick around if you have any questions.
Detailed Notes on the Domus Aurea
Introduction
Overview of the Domus Aurea, also known as the Golden House, emphasizing its complexity as a series of buildings in Rome rather than a single structure.
Description of the Site
Construction Period: Built between 64 and 68 CE under Emperor Nero.
Scale: Estimated to cover 100 to 300 acres, including an artificial lake.
Legendary Status: Known for its grandeur even during its own time.
Importance of the Complex
The Golden House is a vast landscaped area featuring multiple components, including:
Nymph Fayons (monuments with fountains and statues).
A public bath.
Stagnum (pool) for leisure.
Entryway with columns and other structures.
The complexity indicates a strategic design and showcases Nero's ambitions.
Commissioning and Political Context
Commissioned By: Nero, known for his tyrant reputation, which is often derived from biased historical accounts.
Nero’s Background: Came to power at age 17 with no military experience or political background. Focused on public art and works as a means of solidifying his rule.
The Great Fire of Rome (64 CE)
A devastating fire that destroyed 71% of Rome, leading to significant urban restructuring.
Myths emerged about Nero having started the fire and playing music while it burned; however, most evidence suggests he acted promptly to assist victims.
The fire provided an opportunity for Nero to commence his ambitious building projects.
Architectural Innovations
Introduction of new Roman concrete mixing methods, enabling the construction of grand structures like the domed octagonal room, one of the first known concrete vaults.
Use of expensive materials such as various types of marble, reflecting the extent and power of the Roman Empire.
Social Implications
The Golden House served multiple functions:
Economic stimulus by employing thousands for its construction.
Showcasing Nero's power and the Roman Empire's reach through exotic materials from across the Empire.
Architectural and artistic displays sought to impress guests, with the arrangement of rooms indicating varying levels of wealth and privilege.
Cultural Context
Philosophers and writers of the time described Rome as bustling yet overcrowded, providing a backdrop to Nero's lavish building ambitions.
The perceptions of Nero changed based on social status. The general populace often viewed him favorably due to construction projects, while elites criticized the excesses.
Legacy of the Domus Aurea
Following Nero's death, the extravagant nature of the Golden House led to its condemnation and eventual filling in as a toxic site, no longer associated with the elite.
Reflections on the implications of such grandeur on political power dynamics within Rome, illuminating the issues of wealth distribution among emperors and the public.
Conclusion
The Domus Aurea illustrates the complexities of power, public perception, and artistry in the Roman Empire, with Nero's ambitions ultimately contributing to his downfall. It stands as a testament to the interplay between personal legacy and political strategy in ancient Rome.