Domitian's Palace
This is the facade, or front entrance, to the palace
Vespasian, the first emperor of the Flavian Dynasty in Rome, had been popular because he lived plainly and acted like he was equal to everyone else. His son Domitian was different. He wanted everyone to know that he was the Emperor and he was more important than everybody else. Besides, Roman government was getting pretty complicated, and they really needed a big building where all the different slaves and freedmen who worked for the government could have offices. So in the 90s AD, Domitian had his architects build him a great palace on the Palatine hill in Rome. (We get our word "palace" from the name of the hill).
Domitian was able to build a huge palace relatively quickly and cheaply because his architects used a new building method (which Nero had also used in his Golden House) of bricks and concrete. Over the bricks, Domitian had marble facings, to make it all look like marble, but over the years most of the marble has been stolen away, so now only the brick and concrete are left.
Here's a place where some of the marble is still in place on the wall.
Domitian's palace had three main areas. The first was a public courtyard, with big public rooms all around it. This was where Domitian met visiting ambassadors from other countries, or made important public announcements, or held big formal parties. There was a huge throne room on one side of the courtyard, and a huge dining room on the other side, and lots of smaller rooms as well for meetings and conferences.
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
Domitian's throne room was so big that we can't understand how he could have put a roof on it without the roof falling in, using Roman technology. Some people think the throne room must have had a wooden roof, while others think it could have been done in brick and concrete. Today, none of the roof is left to tell us.
Main Roman Architecture page
Main architecture page
