Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Domus Aurea

Episode Date: February 12, 2021

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to history as just Nero, was not the best of Roman Emperors. In fact, on most lists of Roman Emperors, he would rank somewhere near the bottom. In no small part, this is due to how he reacted after the greatest fire ever to engulf Rome and what he built in its aftermath. Learn more about the Domus Aurea, or Nero’s Golden House, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known to history as just Nero, was not the best Roman emperor. In fact, on most list of Roman emperors, he would probably rank somewhere near the bottom. In no small part, this is due to how he reacted after the greatest fire ever to engulf Rome and what he built in its aftermath. Learn more about the Domus Oria, or Nero's Golden House, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thurline podcast from NPR.

This episode is sponsored by audible.com. My audiobook recommendation today is The Great Fire of Rome, the fall of the Emperor Nero into city by Stephen Dando Collins. In the year 64 on the night of July 19th, a fire began beneath the seats of Rome's great stadium, the Circus Maximus. The fire would spread over the coming days to engulf much of the city of Rome. From this calamity, one of the ancient world's most devastating events, legends grew. That Nero had been responsible for the fire and fiddled while Rome burned. And that Nero blamed the Christians of Rome, burning them alive in punishment, making them the first recorded martyrs to the Christian faith at Rome. You can get a free one-month trial to Audible and two-fell.

free audiobooks by going to audible trial.com slash everything everywhere or by clicking on the link in the show notes. Nero came to power at the age of 16, which is almost always a bad sign. His stepfather, the Emperor Claudius, was believed to have been poisoned by Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger. Five years later, Nero had his own mother killed because he didn't want her to overshadow him. And again, killing your own mother is not a good thing.

For ten years, he was pretty much a disappointment and very unpopular. especially with the upper class and the Roman Senate. Nero thought himself a great singer and actor, and actors were looked down upon in Roman society. It was felt that Nero's acting ambitions were undignified for the emperor. Ten years into his reign at the ripe old age of 26 came the event which defined his reign as emperor, the Great Fire of Rome.

During Nero's reign, Rome was the largest city in the world. Less than a hundred years earlier, it had become the first city in human history to have a population of over one million people. It was dirty, crowded, and dangerous, and it was also the center of the Western world. On the evening of July 19th, in the year 64, a fire started underneath the stands of the Circus Maximus,

Rome's great chariot racing stadium. Fires were a common problem in Rome and in all ancient cities. Fires were used for cooking pretty much everywhere. Construction was shoddy, and firefighting techniques were poor at best. There had been big fires in Rome before, but this fire was far greater than any other which had affected the city. Over the course of six nights, the city burned.

It was estimated that as much as two-thirds of the city was destroyed. Of the 14 districts in the city of Rome, three were completely destroyed, and seven suffered heavy damage. According to popular legend, Nero himself set the fire, or at least he did nothing to prevent it. You've probably heard the old adage that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. This comes from some historical accounts that Nero played the lyre during the fire, or from others that he sang songs during the fire. Just to get technical, the fiddle, aka the violin, didn't exist back then, so he wasn't technically fiddling.

There isn't a lot of hard evidence to connect Nero to the fire. Even if he wanted to burn Rome to the ground, there's no guarantee that starting a fire in one spot would have spread as far as it did. Moreover, Nero probably wasn't even in Rome when the fire started. However, these stories about Nero starting the fire makes sense in the context of what happened after the fire. Even if he didn't start the fire, hat tip to Billy Joel, he certainly took advantage of it. For starters, he took the opportunity to deflect criticism from himself and put the blame for the fire onto a small, little-known religious sect called the Christians. This was the first great persecution of Christians in history, and the first time they as a group really made the pages of history.

He also saw that a great deal of Rome was now destroyed and ripe for redevelopment. Specifically, Nero wanted a palace, a really, really big palace. Nero demolished an enormous part of the city which burned to build his Estravagan palace. The palace became known as the Domus Aurea, or the Golden House. The palace complex was over 300 acres in area. The primary building had over 300 rooms, none of it. which were sleeping quarters. The palace covered parts of three of the seven hills of Rome. Most Roman villas had mosaics, but they would always be installed on the floor. Nero had them

installed on the ceiling, which might not sound like a big deal, but it really was at the time. The palace got its name from the extensive use of gold leaf, which was used. Where there wasn't gold, there were frescoes, precious gems, and other decorations. The portico was three stories high and a mile long. He had a rotating dome install. He had a rotating dome installed. inside his main dining room that displayed the heavens, and it would be turned by slaves pulling ropes. He had vineyards and gardens built, and remember, this was all in the middle of Rome,

the biggest city in the world. He had a massive lake constructed, which was big enough for battleships to float on it. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature was the 120-foot-tall, golden statue of himself, which Nero had erected inside the vestibule. It was taller than the Colossus of Rhodes,

which was one of the wonders of the ancient world. world. In terms of square footage, it was the largest building ever built in antiquity. When he finally moved in, he was quoted as having said that he could now finally live as a human being. The Domus Aurea was never technically completed, although it came very close. For the size of the project, an astonishing amount was done in a very short period of time. However, four years after the fire, the Senate and everyone turned on him and Nero ended up killing himself. Here, I'll reference my episode on the year of the four emperors who followed him. When the Emperor Vespasian came to power a year later, he decided to get rid of the extremely

unpopular building. Most of it was torn down. The giant 120-foot statue of Nero, known as the Colossus of Nero, was moved by a team of elephants, and the head was changed to represent the sun god instead of Nero. Vespasian built a huge amphitheater next to the statue, where the lake used to be, the Flavian amphitheater. It later became known. by the Colossus which stood next to it, and today is known as the Coliseum. A whole bunch of other public works projects, in addition to the Coliseum, were built on the site, including the Baths of Trajan and the Temple of Venus and Rome. Over time, the Domus Aurea was forgotten, and what was left fell to ruin.

That was until the 15th century. A young man walking around the Esqueline hill fell into a hole. In the hole wasn't dirt and rock. Rather, he found paintings and frescoes. He had found the buried ruins of the Domus Aurea. The condition of the artwork was unlike anything which had been seen at the time and would be seen until the ruins of Pompeii were excavated centuries later. Word spread of this discovery and eventually artists of the period were coming to visit.

Painters such as Raphael and Michelangelo paid visits to view the artwork and it was in small part responsible for the creation of the style of Italian Renaissance art. Today, it is still possible to explore the remaining parts of Nero's Palace. It isn't a popular tourist attraction because most of the tour is underground. Mold has been growing on some of the artwork, and there was a collapse of one of the ceilings in 2010. It's been closed for periods as archaeologists work on shoring up the walls and trying to lessen the load of the park which currently sits on top of it. However, it has recently reopened to the public. and it still has some of the very best examples of original Roman art that you can find anywhere in Rome.

Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackala. The associate producer is Thor Thompson. Remember to leave a five-star review to get your review read on the show. They can be left at Apple Podcasts, Podcast Republic, or wherever you listen to the show. Also, you can help support the show over at patreon.com. Patrons can get merchandise like t-shirts and hoodies, as well as having direct access to provide suggestions for future episodes.