Emperor Caligula’s “pleasure gardens” were found under a parking lot in downtown Rome.
Rome has opened a new archaeological museum, the Nympheum, located in the basement of a modern office building. Its exposition was the result of a sensational discovery: during the construction of an underground parking lot, workers came across the remains of a luxurious garden complex, supposedly belonging to the Emperor Caligula.
When the Italian doctors’ pension fund began construction of its new building in the Esquilino neighborhood 18 years ago, no one expected that artifacts from the early Roman Empire were hidden underground. Archaeologists believe that it was here, on the outskirts of the ancient city, that Caligula’s so-called “pleasure gardens” were located – a place of sumptuous feasts, gladiatorial fights and imperial entertainment.
CBC News Corp. has released a documentary on the discovery of Caligula’s Pleasure Gardens. The excavation lasted nearly a decade. During this time, more than a million objects were discovered: from mosaics, glass vessels and water pipes to the bones of wild animals – lions, ostriches, bears. All of this is now on display in a museum located directly beneath the modern office.
“It was a real archaeological fluke. We literally built a building around antiquity,” says archaeologist Mirella Serlorenzi, who led the excavation.
Now, a narrow staircase leads down to the ground level as it was 2,000 years ago. There are traces of ancient plant roots and steps on which Caligula himself may have walked.
Caligula: tyrant, madman or victim of black PR?
Gaius Caesar Caligula became emperor in 37 AD, at the age of 24. During his four-year reign, he became famous as one of Rome’s most brutal and eccentric rulers.
Stories of how he allegedly turned his palace into a brothel, appointed his horse a senator and demanded to be honored as a living god have become part of popular culture – including thanks to the BBC series I, Claudius.
But was this really the case?
“No, Caligula did not make his horse a senator. Nor did he turn his palace into a brothel. These myths are the result of later interpretations and fictions,” says Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill of Cambridge University.
He says the main source for most of the scandalous stories was the biographer Suetonius, writing 80 years after Caligula’s death. Suetonius often relied on rumors and court gossip, and the popularizer of the myths was the writer Robert Graves, author of the novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
Suetonius’ accounts often relied on court gossip and secondary sources. “It’s like hearing rumors from the White House staff or Buckingham Palace,” says the professor.
Asked if it’s true that Caligula’s sister got pregnant by him and he ate the baby, Wallace-Hadrill only chuckles: “No, of course not.” A horse-senator? Also a myth. The palace-bordello? Again, a fiction.”
Archaeology versus rumor.
Until recently, archaeology couldn’t say much about Caligula – there were almost no finds directly related to him. That all changed with excavations at the site of the new Enpam Foundation building. According to archaeologists, the luxurious gardens were used by emperors and nobles for four centuries – from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. Among the finds are rare types of marble, glass that could have been used as window glass, coins and remnants of royal propaganda. Even fragments of water pipes with the name of Claudius, Caligula’s successor, were found. This confirms that the garden complex continued to be used after his death.
An emperor on the brink
Professor Wallace-Hadrill points out that while many of the legends about Caligula are fiction, his cruelty was real. He may have been mentally ill and his sadism may have been conscious.
The historian Seneca, who lived at the time, tells how Caligula invited the father of a young man he had executed to a feast and demanded that he make merry – because he still had another son.
In 41 Caligula was assassinated by his own bodyguards. The conspirators had no pre-planned successor – power had suddenly passed to his uncle Claudius. According to some historians, Caligula’s assassination was accompanied by “memory murder” – a deliberate denigration of his image in history.
“History is not granite. It is a shaky, fluid space, full of distortions. And that’s its value: it teaches us skepticism,” the professor notes.
Now, thanks to the Nympheum Museum, Romans and tourists can literally walk down the marble steps that Caligula may have walked on. Where once there were hymns to the gods and the roar of wild beasts, now there are whispers of guides and clicks of cameras.
As history shows, even the most powerful tyrants don’t last forever – eventually their palaces become parking lots and their legends become the subject of scholarly debate.
