Who gets credit for monuments?

[caesar novus]

I hope everyone is following this "saverome" instagram account with almost daily coverage of Roman monuments:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAFeYrRxQ8H/

 

This one points out that Trajan just put up a bare pole for his famous column! It's famous carving of Dacian conquest or whatever may have been designed at the time, but was actually implemented or paid for or at least installed later, such as by Hadrian. So it's not an expression of one leaders ego, but maybe more of Rome itself.

 

Was Hadrian unusually humble... remember he left a predecessor's name on his pantheon? Or maybe that had a slightly different story which I think was also covered in instagram. Anyway the facade of architecture may have a different author than the person famed for the initial build. I recall many renaissance buildings in Florence started without a facade, then it was added (or not) much later possibly in different tastes. I think British tourists actually funded the facade of the famous cathedral there for example,  

Edited January 4, 2016 by caesar novus

[caldrail]

Hadrian was hardly humble. He had one architect punished for criticising a building plan drawn up by Hadrian himself, who considered himself talented in that direction.One does not grab power in the manner Hadrian did if humility was a primary characteristic.

[caesar novus]

"Baths of Caracalla"... waitaminute, how can such a warped emperor create something of refinement? Ahh, apparently he got credit for finishing touches of "Baths of Septimius Severus" according to a lecture I heard and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baths_of_Caracalla

 

Records show that the idea for the baths were drawn up by Septimius Severus, and merely completed or opened in the lifetime of Caracalla.

 

[caldrail]

Basically because he wasn't seen as warped at the time, spomnsored civic improvement, and made sure he got the credit. basically it was politics, just like today.

[caesar novus]

"Villa Poppaea" is a sidetrip free with your Pompeii entrance ticket... a restful change of pace from the crowds. However a book by an Italian archeo expert said the Poppaea connection is virtually nil, stemming from a distant vase fragment and the lack of any other evidence IIRC. Archeos call it villa A or Oplontis villa.
 

Evidence suggests that it was owned by the Emperor Nero, and believed to have been used by his second and rather notorious wife, Poppaea Sabina, as her main residence when she was not in Rome.

[caldrail]

There is a big difference between structures named after construction by the Romans themselves and those named afterward for commercial or or landmark purposes.

[caesar novus]

Forum of Nerva.  According to https://www.instagram.com/p/BBF2PwWxQ6H/ :
 

Essentially constructed by Domitian, this narrow forum space became THE monumental street (Argiletum) leading into the Forum Magnum. Beautifully illuminated these days (funded by @unilever).

 
After assassination, Domitian was erased into oblivion by the Senate with a "damnatio memoriae".

Edited January 28, 2016 by caesar novus