{"id":58602,"date":"2020-01-24T22:10:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T21:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/ciekawostka\/wonderfu-gardens-of-maecenas\/"},"modified":"2022-07-18T14:03:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T12:03:28","slug":"wonderful-gardens-of-maecenas","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/wonderful-gardens-of-maecenas\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonderful Gardens of Maecenas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The famous “Gardens of Maecenas” ( Horti1<\/sup><\/em> Maecenatis<\/em>), as the name suggests, arose on the initiative of Gaius Cilnius Maecenas<\/a>, patron of art and culture in ancient Rome<\/a> at the end of the 1st century BCE. They were one of the first such beautiful gardens in Rome; their creation was modelled on their Hellenistic and Persian counterparts.<\/p>\n

Maecenas<\/a> built his garden on Esquiline Hill, near to his luxury villa, placing them at the fortifications of the Servian walls (between Porta Esquilina<\/em> and Porta Querquetulana<\/em>) and the cemetery. This is one of the seven hills of Rome, which originally served as a cemetery for the poor. However, in 38 BCE the Roman senate<\/a> banned the cremation of corpses 3 km from the centre of Rome. This meant that the Maecenas decided to buy the land and – in the opinion of researchers – start construction in the 30s.<\/p>\n

One of the most important Roman aqueducts<\/a> – Aqua Marcia<\/em> – passed through the garden, which provided effective irrigation of the area and vegetation. According to Cassius Dion, Maecenas also built the first pool with hot water.<\/p>\n

Due to the numerous sculptures found in and around the garden, it is suspected that Maecenas also had a real art gallery outside. Discovered among others the Demeter statue, the marble hermitage, the famous Laocoon Group, images of poets, the head of the Amazon and the centaur or a sculpture of a woman from the time of the Antonine. The gardens also had several marble fountains (including in the shape of the so-called Ryton – a horn for drinking wine).<\/p>\n

In the gardens, there is the so-called Maecenas’ auditorium. The auditorium is a long, rectangular hall, ending with seven monumental, marble-covered stairs, in a semicircular apse. It is also suspected that there was a ramp inside that led guests to the underground level of the structure. The auditorium could have been a banquet hall (triclinium<\/em>) which was adjacent to other residences. However, there are also voices suggesting that the building had a kind of nymphaeum, as evidenced by holes in the walls through which the pipes led water (even seals on them have survived); or a recitation room where many poets and writers (including Virgil<\/a> or Horace<\/a>) presented their works to Maecenas. This second concept was particularly popular at the end of the 19th century; it was suggested that the steps served as seats for listeners.<\/p>\n

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\n <\/i>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n The interior of Auditorium of Maecenas. <\/div>\n \n
\n Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n

We know from historical records that emperor Augustus<\/a> loved to be in Maecenas’ gardens when he was sick. Similarly rested here Tiberius<\/a> in 2 CE, after his return to Rome. In 8 BCE, when the Maecenas died, the gardens fell into the hands of his friend Augustus<\/a>, thus making them imperial estates. During the reign of Nero<\/a>, these gardens were connected to the Palatine through the famous Domus<\/a> Transitoria<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":58599,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[77],"class_list":["post-58602","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-unknown-facts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/58602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/58602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=58602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}