Burrage, Hadrian’s Villa

A VISIT TO HADRIAN’S VILLA AT TIVOLI

By Dwight G. Burrage

Doane College

The Classical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 5. (Feb., 1929), pp. 338-345

[338] Undoubtedly summer is not the best time in which to visit Italy, and yet there are some compensations for the tourist who travels in southern Europe out of season. To pass through the streets of Pompeii without being too much distracted by the remarks and impertinences of other travellers, to climb to the hilltop above Tusculum and feel oneself aloof from the world, and to turn one’s steps to the site of Hadrian’s Villa with the realisation that one can wander through those broad acres without let or hindrance from any one - these are privileges worth the annoyance of no small amount of heat and dust.

There are few things more incongruous than to visit ruins in company with a crowd, especially if the crowd is composed of noisy, enthusiastic tourists. Ruins have become such because of neglect, because they have been left to themselves ; hence the presence of a throng of people seems out of harmony with the very existence of the remains of departed glory. Again, how can a person use his imagination to reclothe these chaotic piles of debris with their former grandeur, if he has the present too much with him?

However that may be, I can hardly conceive how I could have found Hadrian’s Villa more impressive than it appeared on one warm July afternoon, when the lengthening shadows were already indicating the approach of evening. My two companions and I had been “doing” Tivoli, if that term is not too vulgar to apply to the brief but enthusiastic sojourn of three college professors in a place replete with historic memories. After hours of sight-seeing we took a carriage in the town and drove three mites to the entrance of the grounds of the Villa where we bought our biglietti. Then [339] we passed within the enclosure and had the place absolutely to ourselves. Not even a guard appeared on the scene to watch us lest we should carry off a stone wall or a mosaic pavement in our pockets.

My first feeling was one of surprise. I suppose I had known before that there were the remains of a Roman emperor’s palace in the vicinity of Tivoli, but I was not prepared to find such extensive ruins, scattered over many acres. I suspect I am not the only tourist who has felt this surprise. Neither in modern times nor in antiquity has the Villa received the attention it has deserved.

Practically the only description - we might almost say the only mention - of Hadrian’s Tiburtine palace among Roman writings is found in the life of Hadrian by Aelius Spartianus, one of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, living in the reign of Diocletian. He writes (Chapter xxvi):

Tiburtinam Villam mire exaedificavit, ita ut in ea et provinciarum et locorum celeberrima nomina inscriberet, velut Lyceum, Academiam, Prytaneum, Canopum, Poicilen, Tempe vocaret, et, ut nihil praetermitteret, etiam inferos finxit.

The fact that so little attention is given to the Villa by other ancient authors would seem to indicate that the later emperors made little use of the palace at Tivoli. We know that the favorite villa of Antoninus Pius, Hadrian’s immediate successor, was in Etruria. Probably the Tiburtine structure soon fell into decay through neglect. During the wars that Justinian waged in Italy Belisarius’ soldiers, we learn, were encamped here, and later those of the Goth, Totila. The latter probably reduced the Villa to a mass of ruins, if it were not already in that condition, for his soldiers captured and sacked the near-by Tibur. Long oblivion followed.

Educated people knew that here had been the country-place of a Roman emperor, but a popular tradition assumed that this was the original site of the neighboring city and gave the name, Tivoli Vecchio to the ruins.

In the fifteenth century Pius II visited the spot and has left us his impressions. In this same fifteenth century antiquarians began to seek works of art here, and the search has continued ever [340]

since with results that have astonished the world. Just a few of the statues that have been discovered may be mentioned: two copies of Myron’s Discobolus, Hermes with the Sandal, the Centaurs by Aristeas and Papias, the Youthful Dionysus of the Museo delle Terme, the Satyr of red marble in the Capitoline Museum, the Heracles in Lansdowne House, London, our most beautiful representations of Antinous, and for a mosaic the golden bowl with doves, a Roman copy of a Greek work described by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvi, 184). It need not be said that the early search for works of art was not carried on in accordance with the rules of modern archaeology, and the result was that the condition of the ruins became still more chaotic. However, a plan of the Villa was made as early as the sixteenth century. Systematic excavations began in 1735, and in 1871 the Italian government took charge of the work. Will the reader permit one more digression, before we begin to describe the ruins as they appear today? We cannot forbear to raise the question here, why Hadrian selected the site that he did for the Villa. With such an abundance of hilltops at hand, from which extensive views could be obtained, why seek land at the foot of a range of hills? We may suggest the answer. Hadrian probably wanted plenty of room for carrying out his plans and to have his grounds include hill and valley and plain and views of the mountains from below. Thus he could best reproduce the famous scenes in other lands that he had visited. The surrounding wall, if such there was, must have been some ten miles in length. This included uneven ground lying at the base of the hills on which Tivoli is built. Two small streams traversed the area and the Anio was near by. Aqueducts were constructed to keep the supply of water constant, as the two brooks dry up in summer. In places massive substructures were used to fill up a hollow and make the surface of the ground level.

Over all this tract grass and bushes and trees have now grown, and one may well question if nature has not made the place more beautiful than it was in the time of its glory. The ruins, however, give us a melancholy beauty, suggestive of the days that are [341] forever gone. Amid such surroundings, then, on that July afternoon we three Americans were left to wander at will, to use our powers of imagination, to people again the solitude with Hadrian’s courtiers.

After our first glance of wonder at the massive ruins rising above the trees in the distance, we turned our attention to details nearer at hand, and immediately at hand too, for no sooner had we passed through the entrance to the grounds than we had before us the Greek Theater. The grass-grown curve of the seats was plainly recognized and also we could make out a raised stage, showing that Hadrian, or his architect, was a follower of Vitruvius rather than of Dr. Dörpfeld. The contrast between this theater and another elsewhere in the grounds is probably responsible for this one’s being called the Greek and the other the Roman Theater. The ruins of a third structure are identified as an Odeum. In an age when the drama was not popular at Rome, the presence of these three buildings at Hadrian’s country-place shows his interest in the literature of an earlier period. We might note in passing that Winckelmann, the pioneer writer on ancient art, used this structure as an example of the Greek theater, for the Theater of Dionysus at Athens had not then been excavated.

A short walk brought us to the next point of interest, the so-called Poecile. Spartianus states that Hadrian represented the Lyceum, Academy, Prytaneum, Canopus, Poecile, and Tempe. Various attempts have been made to identify all of these places, but so far with no great unanimity except in the case of three - Canopus, Poecile, and Tempe. Here there is little doubt. Perhaps, then, we might have omitted the word, so-called. The Poecile at Athens was a stoa containing, Pausanias tells us, some famous paintings by Polygnotus. In Hadrian’s reproduction we have an open court with a depression in the center, the whole originally surrounded by walls, one of which is still standing, a most impressive sight - thirty feet high and about one eighth of a mile long. Here it has stood almost intact through the centuries in spite of the assaults of nature and the still more destructive assaults of man. There are indications that a row of columns on [342] either side, with the wall in the center, supported a roof. Under the protection of this roof there may have been paintings on the wall in imitation of the Greek original.

We next turned to the left and found ourselves in the Hall of Philosophers. Some think this term a misnomer, because Hadrian is not supposed to have had much fondness for that variety of the human species known as lovers of wisdom. The hall, however, is most imposing. One end of the room is formed by an enormous apse, which rises to its original height. There are niches in the walls intended for statues.

Adjoining is a large circular structure, whose use is uncertain. It is generally called a natatorium and is supposed to have been intended for bathing purposes. It is certain that the building could be flooded. Some have called it a maritime theater. Boissier thinks it was a place of retirement for the emperor. For in the center, above high water mark, was a little island with a number of rooms enclosed and connected with the rest of the Villa only by two small bridges.

A passageway led us from here toward the east with a court on one side and the foundations of two buildings on the other. Some scholar has noted that the axis of the ground plans of these buildings meets the line of the passageway at an angle and further that this angle would ensure all the rooms receiving the morning light of the sun. Now Vitruvius had advised that libraries be so placed. Therefore the two structures are called the Greek and Latin Libraries.

The passageway extended to the triclinium that looked out on Hadrian’s Vale of Tempe, a valley with its small stream flowing down from the Sabine hills. This is generally accepted as a correct identification.

Nearby we saw the quarters for guests; at least that is the explanation generally given for the group of cell-like rooms found there. Some have thought they were for pilgrims visiting some shrine in the Villa. The thought lying back of this identification is, I suppose, that Hadrian would never have furnished such poor accommodations for his personal guests. Their dining-room, how- [343] ever, was superior to their bedrooms, for a chamber adjoining, once adorned with beautiful mosaics, has been regarded as a triclinium.

In this vicinity some of the public rooms of the Villa are grouped. We passed from the Oecus Corinthius, a hall bounded at the ends by curved walls, into the Basilica or law court, where perhaps the emperor tried cases. A room near by has been called the throneroom, because it contains a tribune, or raised platform. Here we tried to exercise our imagination and behold in our mind’s eye the grave and bearded Hadrian seated amid all the pomp and glory of his position as ruler of the world.

The emperor had to take but a few steps to withdraw from the pageantry of office to the retirement of his private apartments, if such are the rooms grouped about the court called the Piazza d’Oro, a supposition that seems natural from the elaborate manner in which this court was decorated. It was paved with red marble, and columns of different colors supported the roof of the portico, while the presence of many bases indicated that the court had once been profusely adorned with statues. We noted, too, a hall adjoining with an apse at the end, where perhaps there was once a fountain.

We next retraced our steps a short distance to the Oecus Corinthius, where turning at right angles we went toward the west. Beyond the Basilica and throneroom our way led us past what are believed to be the quarters of the palace guard, a row of narrow chambers with high doorways.

Close to this structure we saw the entrance to a cryptoporticus, or subterranean passage. We did not take time to investigate this, as we had seen a similar passage on the Palatine Hill the day before. Perhaps, too, there was the subconscious thought that this might well be the lower regions imitated by Hadrian in his Villa according to Spartianus. In that case we might find that in resemblance to the original it was a place easier to enter than to leave.

We were now about opposite the eastern end of the Poecile, and between us and its court lay the ruins of a stadium. Near at hand [344] were the smaller baths and beyond to the south on a platform were the larger baths with vaulted chambers.

These baths faced the opening to the valley of Canopus. The valley is narrow and through its center there ran a canal 675 feet long. At the end was a structure with a great apse facing the canal, probably containing the shrine of Serapis. There is no question that the identification of this with Canopus is correct, for a brick was found in the ruins inscribed, Deliciae Canopi.

The real Canopus was a suburb of Alexandria at a distance of some fifteen miles and connected with the city by a canal. While the worship of Serapis was supposed to be the chief attraction and many who were ill went there to be cured by the god, it was a popular resort, crowded with throngs of pleasure-seekers, and had doubtless interested Hadrian in his visits to Egypt; Romans had long been attracted by everything Egyptian, as is shown by their worship of Isis and the imitation of Egyptian art found in Pompeii. In the case of Canopus, as well as of Tempe and of the Poecile, indications are not wanting that Hadrian made no attempt to form an exact replica. The construction is thoroughly Roman with frequent use of the arch. His idea was to suggest these famous places in a Roman setting, and this policy shows far better taste on his part than if he had attempted actual reconstructions.

We have spoken of Roman construction. Perhaps a word should be said here of the building methods employed in the Villa. Concrete was generally used. Numerous examples of reticulate work are found - concrete with small pyramidal shaped stones imbedded in it so that their square bases at the surface form a network pattern. Sometimes we find a wall with panels of reticulate work framed by a border of bricks also imbedded in the concrete. The soil is filled with minute pieces of marble, showing that this expensive material must have been used as a veneer to face the concrete walls in many places. Stucco was doubtless employed where no more costly adornment was required. Columns of granite and different varieties of marble were used throughout the palace.

[345] After examining Canopus and its surroundings we returned to the entrance of this valley and found ourselves only a short distance from the court of the Poecile on the side opposite the long wall. We traversed this court, passed by the eastern end of the wall, and so completed the circuit of the ruins that is ordinarily followed by the tourist of today. But this is by no means all that might be seen. Here and there over a tract acres in extent fragments of walls are found, even beyond the limits of the land owned by the Italian government. Sometimes the purpose of these structures is clear, as in the case of the Roman Theater, but generally there is not enough left to identify the ruin. The part we have described was without doubt the central group of buildings, the most important on the grounds.

We left the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, as the sun was approaching the western horizon, and returned to Rome, where we were to see other ruins and were to visit museums and galleries and were to experience varied emotions evoked by the wonders of the Eternal City. The multitude of the things that I saw has to some extent blurred the distinctness of their details in the lapse of time, but I still can conjure up the vision of the grass-grown remains of that magnificent palace of a Roman emperor, amid the forest trees, aloof from the world of man -fitting symbol of the passing of that grandeur that once was Rome.