Nero’s theater was hidden under the garden of the Palazzo della Rovere, in Rome! Archaeological excavations carried out since January 2020 at the foot of this brick building in the Borgo district, which is soon to house a luxury hotel, have revealed the foundations of a building from the beginning of the 1st century AD. Its plans correspond with those of the building, described in several ancient texts, where the emperor gave sumptuous shows. The Governor General of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, made the information public during a press conference on July 26.
The ruins of the theater came to light as the team of archaeologists, led by Marzia di Mento, a former researcher at Sapienza University in Rome, explored the building’s inner courtyard. In this garden were first unearthed medieval objects: glass goblets from the 15th century, but also ceramic objects from the 10th century. As well as insignia of pilgrims who stayed there in the Middle Ages before visiting the Vatican necropolis where tradition reports that the tomb of Saint Peter is there.
Inscriptions have established that the site corresponded to the Gardens of Agrippa (Horti Aggripæ) which belonged to the domain of the Julio-Claudian, the first Roman imperial dynasty who ruled from 27 BC to 68 AD- C. A place frequented by Caligula (12-41) who built a famous hippodrome not far from there. A property where his successor Claude and his wife Messalina would also have lived. A place, finally, where Nero built a theater which until then was only known to us through the writings of Pliny, Suetonius and Tacitus.
