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early Domitianic work. Archaeological investigation has indicated
that most of the temple should be credited to Domitian as should the
work on the adjacent buildings.110
Structures attributed to Domitian
Thermae Titianae et Traianae. The literary sources indicate the
location of Titus s baths quite close to the western side of the
Esquiline wing of Nero s Golden House (Titus 7.3; Martial, De
Spect. 2.5 8). They were still popular under Domitian (Martial
3.36.6). Unfortunately, no physical traces remain, and so it is
impossible to substantiate archaeologically the statements of both
the Chronographer of 354 and Eusebius ascribing them to Domitian.
We do know that Titus s builders worked hastily (Titus 7.3);
presumably, Domitian s finished what they had begun. More
controversial is the claim in both chronicles that Domitian also built
the nearby baths of Trajan. In the early church writings, they were
known as the thermae Domitiani, whereas Pausanias (5.12.6) and
Dio (69.4.1) attribute them to Trajan. Until recently, all
topographers except Platner and Ashby have rejected outright the
claims of Domitian,111 but the evidence of his brickstamps can be
adduced in support.112 Moreover, work on the so-called Esquiline
wing of the Golden House has suggested that the eastern half of the
wing (where the rooms had been converted to form passageways
under Trajan s baths) is quite unlike the western, that it contained
the domus Titi mentioned by the elder Pliny (NH 36.37) and that
the work was never finished.113 Presumably, Domitian s other
projects diverted his attention and caused him to abandon his
brother s palace.
Forum Traianum. Dedicated by Trajan on 1 January 112, it was
the last and finest of the imperial fora.114 Deliberately integrated
with its four predecessors, its complex of buildings served as a city
centre. Some sources attribute it to Trajan alone (e.g. Dio 68.16.2),
but Aurelius Victor (13.5) and Eusebius assign it to Domitian.
Archaeological investigation has shown that Domitian removed the
saddle of land that had connected the Capitoline Hill to the Quirinal,
that the enclosure wall behind the Temple of Venus Genetrix
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contains Domitianic brickstamps and that the odd bastion-like
building, three stories high, abutting the north-western corner of the
Forum Augusti was also built by him. So it seems most likely that
this was to be the culmination of Domitian s plan for the
reorganization of the imperial fora. Trajan and Apollodorus
improved and completed it.
Domitian s palace on the Palatine115
When in Rome, Domitian lived on the Palatine, and, by the end of
92,116 his entirely new palace complex there, just south of the domus
Tiberiana, was all but completed; it became, and remained for
centuries, the centre of the Roman empire.117 But more than that, its
style was unique, with the great visual and spatial effects Rabirius
produced therein. Much of the Palatine Hill was levelled. No effort
was spared. A spectator in the Circus Maximus would have looked
up at a huge curved terrace in front of the palace and at buildings
that towered over the terrace: as Martial correctly put it,  You would
think that the seven hills were rising up together (8.36.5).118
In the complex of some 40,000 square metres119 were four major
structures, viz. (a) the domus Flavia or official palace; (b) the domus
Augustana120 or private palace, on the same level as the domus
Flavia; (c) the lower level of the domus Augustana, and (d) the
Hippodromos or Stadium, on the same level as (c). A few of its major
elements deserve mention, e.g. the immensity of the domus Flavia s
four halls (vestibule, basilica, aula regia and cenatio Iovis, the first
measuring, in metres, 23.5 by 32.5 with a height of over 27.5!121)
and the peristyle, the so-called Sicilia, separating the aula regia from
the cenatio Iovis, with the walls of highly coloured polished stone
mentioned by Suetonius as enabling the emperor to see a reflection
of what was happening behind him: Dom. 14.4. One of the most
remarkable features of the four halls was apparently the vaulted
ceilings, which, by Hadrian s time or even earlier, had already needed
additional support.122
About twice as large as the domus Flavia, the domus Augustana
is both impressive and architecturally significant.
[Its] importance& lies both in the design of the rooms
themselves and the unique ways in which they were grouped,
for here Rabirius repeatedly departed from anything seen in
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the Esquiline wing of the domus aurea or known from previous
Roman buildings& . [In the upper level, he] utterly abandoned
the vocabulary of the past, [leading] the visitor through
bewildering chains of spaces that now expanded, then
contracted& as if he wished to show what new kinds of spatial
and visual sensations were possible& . [He had light] coming
from varying heights and directions [so as to emphasize] the
various shapes of the rooms.123
Somewhere in the domus Augustana there must have been a hall, the
aula Adonidis, where Domitian received Apollonius (Vita Apoll. 7.32);
its walls were decorated with garden scenes. On the lower level,
innovation again: there was neither precedent nor parallel for the fact
that  identical octagonal rooms [were arranged] symmetrically on
either side of a square chamber .124 The rooms designed for Domitian s
use were virtually a palace within a palace: hence Pliny s reference to
 the secret chambers [arcana cubilia] into which he was driven by his
fear, pride and hatred of mankind (Pan. 49.1). Yet the general effect
does not seem to have been oppressive, as Pliny virtually admits (Pan.
49.2) in his description of the  same palace (eadem domus) as  safer
and happier (tutior& securior) once Trajan was emperor.
Finally, the hippodromos: completed between 93 and 95, it was
comparatively small (50 by 184 metres), too small to have been used
or intended for racing (80 by 400 metres would be the norm) and so
was presumably meant to be a private garden for the imperial
family.125 Later, the combination of villa and circus-shaped structure
was to be fairly common:126 perhaps the domus Augustana had set
the fashion.
MacDonald sees the palace as typical of Domitian s
 semiorientalized, quixotic despotism .127 An ancient commentator,
Plutarch, was hardly more kind:  it was a disease of building, and a
desire, like Midas s, of turning everything to gold or stone (Publicola
15.5). In both cases, the judgement on the building programme is
tightly linked to the author s assessment of the emperor s character,
and Pliny s view of Trajan s buildings, some at least of which were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]