Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt:...over the ruins of Augustus' Palace; and the foundations of this modern building have probably destroyed much that was seen by Guattani. 1 See an excellent paper on this subject by the Comm. Lanciani, in Bull. Com. Arch. Rom. fasc. iv. 1883. 184 PALACE OF AUGUSTUS CHAP. The Palace of Augustus (fig. 22, No. 48), though a very handsome building, rich with Greek and Oriental marbles, was but small compared to the enormous palaces of the succeeding sue of emperors. It stood in a noble position, near the edge of the potecfc cliff towards the Vallis Murcia and the Circus Masdmus, with a fine view of the Aventine Hill opposite. The Villa Mills now covers most of its site, and no part of it is visible above ground. The palace consisted of a large Peristyle, surrounded with rooms on all sides, two stories high; the Peristyle itself was in two stories, having a second tier of columns over the first. Modest sue. None of the surrounding rooms are large, but they appear to have been very graceful in proportion, with rich marble panelling and pilasters on the walls. The ceilings were domed or formed with barrel vaults, and the walls contained many niches for statues. The floors had simple mosaics or coloured marbles in patterns, like that of the Flavian (so called) Library; and the whole house appears to have been designed with great taste and elegance, very unlike the gigantic and somewhat coarse splendours of the later palaces. A good set of drawings, plans, sections, and details are given by Guattani in the above-mentioned work, now doubly valuable, as no other record exists of what this most interesting of imperial residences once was like. Area of The Temple and Area of Apollo, which occupied a large part po' of the centre of the Palatine (No. 47,...