Friday - August 07, 2009

Two thousand year-old remains of Emperor Vespasian’s house discovered .  WOW!!!

I wish there were photos but maybe that’s coming later. Wow, what a find.

After all this time I am still constantly amazed at what archaeologists can find. 

A team of British and Italian archaeologists have discovered the remains of a lavish villa belonging to the emperor Vespasian, exactly 2,000 years after his birth.

By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Aug 2009

The archaeologists have unearthed reception rooms, colonnades, mosaic floors and traces of a hot bath complex at a site in mountainous countryside near the town of Rieti, north of Rome.

The villa is close to the ancient Roman village of Falacrinae, where Vespasian was born in AD 9.

Its discovery coincides with events in Rome and elsewhere in Italy marking the 2000th anniversary of his birth.

“We’ve found a monumental villa with elaborate floors made of marble brought from quarries in Greece and North Africa,” said Dr Helen Patterson, of the British School at Rome, the archaeological institute involved in the excavation.

“There’s also a very extensive bath complex which is just beginning to emerge. It’s the only large villa in the area, and the size and dating fits in perfectly with Vespasian.

“Until we find a stone or marble inscription saying ‘Vespasian lived here’, we can’t be 100 per cent certain, but it seems very likely. It’s in a perfect position, overlooking a river and the old Via Salaria trade route.”

The head of the team of 25 British and Italian archeologists, Professor Filippo Coarelli of the University of Perugia, said: “It’s a very important find. It’s a rich villa which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”

Before becoming emperor, Titus Flavius Vespasianus had a successful military career, commanding the second legion in the invasion of Britain in AD 43 and penetrating as far as Devon and Cornwall in an attempt to subdue the south-west.

He later became governor of the province of Africa and a trusted aide to the emperor Nero.

He is best known for ordering the construction of the Colosseum in Rome but is also remembered for his decision to tax the collection of urine, which was valued for its ammoniac properties. Even now, public urinals in Italy are known as “vespasiani”.

“The villa is in what would have been a very small, very remote village,” said Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, director of the British School at Rome.

“He was a local boy made good. He was the first of a series of emperors who did not come from Rome itself. Given where he was from, to have risen to the position of emperor was amazing.”

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 08/07/2009 at 10:40 AM   
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