Archaeologists working on a property close to the Vatican discovered the remains of a private theater where the notoriously harsh Roman emperor Nero once practiced for his public appearances before the construction of a luxury hotel.
An aerial view of the ruins of Nero’s private theater near the Vatican. Credit: Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma
The location of the theater from the first century C.E. that is mentioned in Roman texts was unclear until recently. The discovery's experts believe Nero, who was notorious for persecuting Christians and thought of himself as a great performer, sung, acted, and read poetry on the theater's stage frequently.
Marzia Di Mento, the site's principal archaeologist, notes that even though there is no proof that this could have happened, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus mention how Nero performed in a theater, which we propose to associate with one of these structures.
Elegant Theater
The Special Superintendency for Archaeology in Rome, a division of the Italian Ministry of Culture, was in charge of the project. Work on the theater site started around two years ago, and the excavations have grown to the area of a city block. There, two sizable brick buildings were discovered next to a courtyard that may have been enclosed by a portico.
One of the buildings was a semicircular cavea with tiers of seats for the audience facing the ornate stage backdrop (known as the scaenae frons) of a Roman theater to the west. What's left shows that marble and gold leaf were used to overlay the background. The second structure, which lay parallel to the first, contained chambers that appeared to have served as servicing quarters for theatrical props including sets and costumes.
The obvious wealth of the ruins, according to Renato Sebastiani, one of the project's leaders, shows that they are from Nero's theater. "We are dealing with works created for the imperial family," he claims. "The richness of the materials used, the marbles, the stuccos decorated with gold leaf... testifies that." The theater and other artifacts at the site are from the early Roman Empire, which lasted from the first century (Nero's reign began in the middle of the first century) through the medieval era in Rome, which lasted from the 15th century.
Part of a metal badge worn by a medieval Christian pilgrim to the site, which was thought to be near the location where Saint Peter was buried (top). Such badges or insignia showed pilgrims had visited the shrine of a particular saint. The ornate decorations of Nero’s theater included a sculptured marble head, which may have once been part of a larger statue (bottom). Credit: Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma
Gardens of Nero
The location, which sits on the west bank of the Tiber River in an area that used to be the Gardens of Nero, is just a few hundred feet from the Vatican. The region was formerly owned by Julia Agrippina's grandmother, Agrippina the Elder, a descendant of Augustus.
Julia Agrippina, often known as Agrippina the Younger, was Nero's mother according to an obscure Roman statesman. She was the niece of Caligula's successor Claudius and the sister of the emperor Caligula, who was assassinated by his own Praetorian Guard in C.E. 41.
Agrippina became Claudius' fourth wife in C.E. 49, despite the fact that the union of an uncle and a niece was frowned upon. Agrippina convinced Claudius to adopt her 12-year-old son, who would also be his heir, just a few months after they wed. When Claudius passed away in C.E. 54, presumably as a result of Agrippina's poisoning, the boy adopted the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus and succeeded to the throne.
Agrippina attempted to dominate Rome through Nero again, but the ungrateful kid had her killed in C.E. 59, according to Tacitus, who lived nearly 60 years later.
The worst emperor of Rome?
Nero is one of the worst rulers Rome has ever seen, according to conventional history. He allegedly had a cruel and debauched personality. A few years after Tacitus, his biographer Suetonius stated that Nero had "practiced every sort of obscenity," from incest to murder.
Nero enjoyed theater performances as a singer, pianist, and actor as well as chariot racing. Nero's reputation was not helped by horrifying accounts of the way he persecuted Christians, who, after the fourth century, authored the majority of the history of the time that are still in existence. However, Romans at the time considered such acts to be exceedingly lower-class.
It's possible that the emperor's most infamous claim to fame is that he "fiddled while Rome burned." In actuality, Nero frequently strummed a cithara, a kind of lyre. However, there is no proof that he did so during the great fire that destroyed Rome in 64 CE, nor that he was even present in the city.
The Praetorian Guard eventually lost patience with Nero's excesses and swore allegiance to Galba, a rival Roman senator who succeeded Nero as emperor for a short time in C.E. 68.
Part of a frescoed wall of the theater’s cavea—a tiered semicircle where the audience sat to watch the performances on the stage (top). The structure’s sumptuous architecture included finely worked columns of precious colored marble (bottom). Credit: Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma
Nero retreated into hiding at a villa outside of Rome after being abandoned and nearly left alone. There, he attempted suicide but apparently was unable to complete it. Finally, he gave the order for a servant to murder him. "Qualis artifex pereo!" he screamed out, according to Suetonius. "What an artist dies within me!"
Problem solved?
The newly discovered theater, according to archaeologists, served primarily as a private location where Nero prepared for performances he would later give elsewhere in the city.
According to Paolo Carafa of the Sapienza University of Rome, Pliny the Elder mentions a theater in the Gardens of Nero where he performed before singing at the big theaters. This theater might have been the culprit.
Nero "claimed to be a great singer, which led him to perform in front of large audiences," said Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, governor general of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which controls the site. But in order to practice, he gave himself a very opulent and refined private theater where he could perform in front of chosen audiences.
Even though Nero's theater was mentioned by its contemporaries, its location remained a mystery. Visconti di Modrone declares, "Today we can say that this riddle has been solved.
