The Villa of Domitian, known as Albanum Domitiani or Albanum Caesari in Latin, was a vast and sumptuous Roman villa or palace built by emperor Domitian (r. 81–96 AD). It was situated from Rome, high in the Alban Hills where summer temperatures are more comfortable. It faced west overlooking the sea and Ostia. To travellers on the via Appia it would have made an impressive sight.Robin DARWALL-SMITH; ALBANUM AND THE VILLAS OF DOMITIAN; Pallas No. 40, Les annêes Domitien: 1992 à l'initiative du Groupe de recherche sur l'Antiquité Classique et Orientale (GRACO) (1994), Presses Universitaires du Midi, p 150 https://www.jstor.org/stable/43660537
It gained a notorious reputation among ancient authorsJuvenal, SATIRE 4Tacitus, Agricola 45 from Domitian's rule but this may have been unjust.Jones, Brian W. (1992). The Emperor Domitian. London: Routledge. p. 198Gowing, Alain M. (1992). "Review: The Emperor Domitian". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
It was one of several palaces developed by Domitian outside Rome, such as that "at Circeii" (Sabaudia).
Today the remains of the villa are located mostly within the papal Villa Barberini property,Claudia Valeri, ‘Albanum Domitiani’, Domitian’s Villa in Castel Gandolfo in GOD ON EARTH: EMPEROR DOMITIAN edited by A. R. Cominesi et al. https://www.sidestone.com/books/god-on-earth-emperor-domitian the most prominent of the villas in the pontifical estate of Castel Gandolfo, and the rest in the towns of Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale. The Villa Barberini gardens are open to visitors.
The remains have not been excavated and a complete plan is not available, hence the papers of Lugli in 1913-20Lugli, Giuseppe. La Villa di Domiziano sui Colli Albani. Italy: P. Maglione & C. Strini, 1918 are still the basis of later work.
History
The legendary nearby capital of the Latin League, Alba Longa, was completely destroyed in the 6th c. BC becoming part of the Ager Albanus, and Latium vetus was annexed to Rome.
With progressive Roman expansion, the Alban Hills became home to numerous patrician suburban villas. In particular the remains of two large villas on the Via Appia Antica, one attributed to Publius Clodius PulcherGiuseppe Lugli, Le antiche ville dei Colli Albani prima dell'occupazione domizianea, Roma, Loescher, 1915 pp. 15-32 in Herculanum (today in the garden of the Villa Santa Caterina of the Pontifical North American College) and the other to Pompey (Pompeo Albano, now in the municipal public park of Villa Doria) have been found.Lugli 1915, pp. 33-47 In addition various Republican-era villas nestled on the banks of the lake and beyond. Many of these properties eventually became imperial property: by the time of Augustus, the extraordinary concentration of villas gave birth to the term Albanum Caesari.
The first imperial villa estate here was inhabited by Tiberius, then Caligula and Nero.Antonio Nibby, vol. I, in Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de' dintorni di Roma, IIª ed., Roma, Tipografia delle Belle Arti, 1848, pp. 546.
The work of Domitian
Domitian settled here on a permanent basis, and decided to build a new main complex to the villa in the most panoramic position towards both the sea and the lake, and featuring lavish new structures such as a garden-stadium and theatre. Probably the project was entrusted to Rabirius, architect of the Palace of Domitian on the Palatine.
Martial mentions the villa as one of Domitian's favoured resorts.Martial V 1.1. [cf. IV 1.5] Suetonius says Domitian had a passion for archery which he practised thereSuetonius, Domitianus, 19 and Pliny suggests he held boating parties on the lake.Pliny ib. 82. 1-4
On the death of Domitian the villa was rarely used by his imperial successors. Some modifications are dated to the second century and in particular to the eras of Trajan and Hadrian. Marcus Aurelius lived there a few days using the villa as a refuge during the riots that took place in 175 AD.
Abandonment
The African Emperor Septimius Severus built the grandiose legionary fortress of Castra Albana in 197 AD on the edge of the imperial properties for the Legio II Parthica. However, decline of the villa also began at this time.
The Parthian legionaries and their families established around the camp began to plunder the villa structures in order to use the material for new construction, thus giving rise to the village that would later become Albano Laziale. A second town developed on the northern edge of the imperial properties: in the Middle Ages it was called Cuccurutus and gave rise to the village Castel Gandolfo.
The Liber Pontificalis records the donation of virtually all imperial property and much of the surrounding area by Emperor Constantine I to the cathedral of St. John the Baptist (identified with the Cathedral of Albano, now named after the martyr Saint Pancras), under Pope Sylvester I (314 - 335 AD). The imperial villa of Albanum was abandoned.
The villa became the quarry of marble and building materials, similar to that of other ancient buildings: its marbles were used to build and coat the Cathedral of Orvieto in the fourteenth century.
The then feudal lords, the Savelli, gave permission to dismantle the facilities of the villa in 1321: the destruction lasted 36 days. The documents of the time outline a real business behind the dismantling of these monuments: Rodolfo Lanciani drew inspiration from these careful studies of smoke to obtain an exemplum on the reuse of the immense marble and stone material of ancient monuments of Rome and its surroundings.
Rediscovery
Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644) was the first pontiff to holiday in Castel Gandolfo, the Papal Palace; his nephew Taddeo Barberini bought the villa in 1631 which had belonged to Scipione Visconti, and which contained the most significant contents of Domitian's Villa. The most striking views of the ruins overgrown by vegetation, such as the cryptoporticus and nymphaeum, were described by scholars and diarists from the 15th c. onwards and reproduced in engravings and paintings.
Giuseppe Lugli (1890–1967) published four volumes until 1922 which, with his topographic surveys, are still the main source of information on the villa. In 1919 he made the first archaeological survey aboard the airship "Roma ", accompanied by the director of the British School of Rome, Thomas Ashby.
In 1929 the Lateran Treaty recognised the 55 hectares of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo between the extraterritorial zone of the Holy See in Italy: most of the ruins of the villa became part of the Vatican City State, thanks to the sale of Villa Barberini to the Holy See, historically linked to the papal complex, but until then alien to it.
The Pontifical Villas were subjected to a radical reorganisation at the behest of Pope Pius XI and even the archaeological inventories, such as the cryptoporticus and the road of the nymphaea, were cleaned and incorporated.
Description
The villa-estate was built on the outside slope of the rim of the ancient volcanic crater filled by Lake Albano (between 100,000 and 5,000 years ago). The imperial property included most of today's municipalities of Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale. Quite possibly it extended north to at least Bovillae (XIII milestone of Appia Antica), in the south up to Aricia (XVI mile), or over 6 km2 according to Giuseppe Lugli. In the opinion of Lugli under Domitian the various villas in the imperial property were brought together in one single property, such as the villa attributed to Pompey, the remains of which are now included within the residential area of Villa Doria at Albano.
The villa was built at least three terraces,Giuseppe Lugli, La villa di Domiziano sui Colli Albani: parte I, Roma, Maglione & Strini, 1918. pp. 13-15 a common practice for large patrician Roman villas in the hills: for example the nearby so-called villa of Lucullus in Frascati. The terraces of the villa are narrow and about long.
The third terrace from the bottom was reserved for cisterns with an especially large one of 58 x 11 m, and many water-pipes were found here stamped with Domitian's name.Paolo Liverani, La villa di Domiziano a Castel Gandolfo, in M. VALENTI (a cura di), Residenze imperiali nel Lazio (atti della giornata di studio - Monte Porzio Catone, 3 aprile 2004), Tuscolana – Quad. Mus. Monte Porzio Catone 2, Monte Porzio Catone 2008, pp. 53-60
The palace proper stood on the second terrace, on the site of the present church of St. Francis of Assisi and the adjoining building of Propaganda Fide. Northwest of it the terrace had a panoramic view of the sea (west).
Finally, on the lower terrace were the garden-hippodrome and the entrances to the villa.
There are also buildings over the estate: the nymphaea and the docks on the lake shore, the hillside terrace, cisterns and the three aqueducts from Palazzolo, the access road network, the nymphaeum of the Rotunda in the centre of Albano converted into a Catholic church.
Other remains of a villa of Tiberian age, but inhabited until the fifth century, have been found to the southwest in Cavallacci, at the ring road of Albano. To the east, however, probably the imperial possessions included the entire Lake Albano with the many villas built in the Republican era on the crater (the so-called Augusto Palazzolo, one attributed to Seneca not far away, and others between Marino and Castel Gandolfo).
The second terrace The palace
The palace building had three stories, as shown by the remains of a staircase seen by Lugli. All the walls are made of brickwork reinforced every 80 cm and do not appear to have used opus reticulatum, suggesting a 1st c. AD or later date.
The building was structured around three courtyards (probably triclinium, peristyle and tablinum) called "atria" by Rosa. This feature allowed Lugli to recognise the analogy with the complex of Domitian's palace on the Palatine in Rome. Around these spaces must have been all the rooms used by the imperial court during their long periods of stay.
The baths were recognised thanks to the abundance of clay pipes etc. and are located in the righthand central atrium, probably the peristyle.
Close to the villa was a passage through the hill to a 2-story belvedere over the Alban Lake.Lugli. G.: La Villa di Domiziano sui colli Albani - Part: II. Le Costruzioni centrale. BCAR 46 (1918), pp. 3-68.
The Avenue of the Nymphaea
This 1 km-long avenue along the terrace extending northwest from the palace and leading to the theatre is one of the most characteristic features of the imperial villa. It is flanked on the northeast side by the great wall supporting the upper terrace into which are inserted four exedras, identified as nymphaea. Near the midpoint of this wall is a 100 m-long tunnel, dug through the peperino rock of the ridge of the crater in a gigantic task to allow the emperor to more easily reach the lake-side of the estate where there was another terrace. It has only one vertical shaft towards the middle.
The first nymphaeum from the south is rectangular, 6.2 m deep and has thirteen niches in the walls; the second and the fourth, semicircular, are 2.6 m and 6.85 m wide and have seven niches; the third, rectangular, is 5.5 m with thirteen niches, like the first.Lugli. G.: La Villa di Domiziano sui colli Albani - Part: II. Le Costruzioni centrale. BCAR 46 (1918), pp. 30-32
In some places wall plaster remains (often 3 cm thick) and even, at least at the time of Lugli, traces of colour.
The theatre