Villa Quintiliorum

[Silentium]

From this article on Italian newspaper La Repubblica:

 

http://roma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/Quinti...aviglie/1419906

 

My (rough) translation:

 

Quintili, the latest wonders

 

Excavations brought to light 50 rooms, a portico and mosaics

 

Magnificent ruins and green fields all around, as far as the eye can see, this is Villa dei Quintili today. But at the time of the emperors it was a different Rome: an infinite multitude of columns and white marbles,red plaster,polychromous mosaics,frames made of precious stones and sky-coloured lapislazuli,but also architecture-like gardens all around the real architectures which contained staterooms and spaces for gladiatorial games. And the architectonic extension of this place of leisure, wanted from the Quintili family and so longed for by Commodus so as to lead him to exterminate its owners - so he could have their paradise facing the Via Appia- is definitely coming to light thanks to the new excavations started on 11 october 2007. But happiness for the good news is immediately ruined by a bad one - the 250.000 euros financing the project are over, so yesterday the workers have packed their bags and left.

 

They excavated with archaeologists Riccardo Frontoni and Giuliana Galli -who, directed by Rita Paris, have worked for Soprintendenza Archeologica- and in just 4 months the men at work have found the walls and perimetres of 52 rooms (facing a big 40-metre diameter esedra,probably used for training) that were used by the athletes to have massages or to make them stronger through the weights;also a portico half a kilometre long, that served as a place for the philosophers to think while walking, and for the runners to train; again, a mosaic carpet coloured by small geometrical flowers; and,inside a 5 metre radius rotonda,an old,stained piece of iron:but of fundamental importance,for it belonged to a roman sculptor."It is so rare to find a chisel outside Pompeii.We've found it in the deepest layer of this circular room and it probably dates back to the time of Commodus,when the bricklayers took off the marble panels to create new ones",Frontoni explains.

 

For the young archaeologists that for over ten years have worked at the villa,built on the lavic hill of Capo di Bove*,belvedere from where the owners could contemplate the landscape as far as Tivoli and compete in beauty with Hadrian's villa,these days' frustration is that of a gold miner that has found a mine but can't excavate it.Only the initial part of the floreal mosaic that covered the corridor connected to the frigidarium has been brought to light.The remaining 20 metres lie under the heap of earth accumulated for centuries over the buried vestiges. From the clean side came out the marble skirting written in greek, the red plaster, many glass tesseras from the azure-coloured vault, collapsed on the floor.However,in addition to this caleidoscope,it has also appeared "the wall of an oven used in the early middle ages to recycle glass, and dozens are the fragments of ancient melted glass we've found in the earth",Galli explains.

 

Archaeologists could have limited their work to excavating just this wonderful corridor.Or else bring to light exclusively the rotonda,which,during the first excavations,has brought back dozens of fragments of marbles coming from Asia and Africa: fiore di pesco,serpentine,ancient pink and yellow,precious alabaster.In this way they would have added other attractions to the site that has opened to the public in 2000.The Soprintendenza has,however,preferred the substance of the shapes over the pleasures of the eye, and has brought to light all the perimeters of the open buildings where it was thought there were gardens.In order to know whether the rotonda was covered with a vault like the Pantheon and whether there were columns of the front of the esedra,all there is to do is to look for other funds, and to remove that couple of metres high earth heap that suffocates marbles, mosaics and history.

 

*Note of the translator: you might remember this name from my thread on the Baths of Capo di Bove. Thread here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos here.

[Nephele]

Thanks for the translation, Silentium! "...an infinite multitude of columns and white marbles, red plaster, polychromous mosaics, frames made of precious stones and sky-coloured lapis lazuli..." sounds beautiful, and magnificent. What I'd give for a time machine to go back and see this villa in all its original glory.

 

-- Nephele

[Faustus]

*Note of the translator: you might remember this name from my thread on the Baths of Capo di Bove. Thread here.

 

Thanks much Silentium; and for providing the link to the Baths of Capo di Bove thread. I remember that from before, when you put it up the first time. I had wandered across your posting and that aerial view of the baths during one of my late night searches for postings that had gotten four or less replies. At the time I saw it in September, and I put it up as background on my monitor screen (I keep a pretty clear screen).

 

It was amazing to look at in that way. If any one does do that, (and I recommend it) notice the fracture line that enters from the middle left and traverses the floor passing through the path of least resistance until it exits the structure top right. The view was worth spending some time poring over.

 

At the time I spent some time searching for it

Edited February 6, 2008 by Faustus

[Klingan]

Thanks you for the translation Silentium!

 

Beautiful pictures too!

[Silentium]

*Note of the translator: you might remember this name from my thread on the Baths of Capo di Bove. Thread here.

 

Thanks much Silentium; and for providing the link to the Baths of Capo di Bove thread. I remember that from before, when you put it up the first time. I had wandered across your posting and that aerial view of the baths during one of my late night searches for postings that had gotten four or less replies. At the time I saw it in September, and I put it up as background on my monitor screen (I keep a pretty clear screen).

 

It was amazing to look at in that way. If any one does do that, (and I recommend it) notice the fracture line that enters from the middle left and traverses the floor passing through the path of least resistance until it exits the structure top right. The view was worth spending some time poring over.

 

At the time I spent some time searching for it