Horti Lamiani

In the 3rd century AD the total number of gardens (horti) occupied about a tenth of Rome and formed a green belt around the centre.

As pleasure gardens with small palaces, the horti allowed the rich owner and his court to live in isolated comfort, away from the hectic life of the city but close to it.

The land for the Horti Lamiani was originally a cemetery just outside the ancient Servian Wall but was purchased by Lucius Aelius Lamia (Roman consul in 3 AD) who developed the property at the end of the 1st c. BC.

In an evocative eyewitness account, the philosopher Philo visited the horti in 40 AD and accompanied Caligula inspecting the elaborate residence and ordering rooms to be made more sumptuous.

The Villa Palombara was built in 1620 in the ancient Horti Lamiani near the modern Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II of which the Porta Magica remains as the only vestiges.

The first discoveries took place in the 16th century, and finds of beautiful statues such as a Roman copy of the ancient Greek Discobolus, the thirteen Medici Niobids (a variant of the Laocoön and His Sons), and the fresco Nozze Aldobrandini were unearthed and which are now in museums.

In the 19th century Rodolfo Lanciani noticed ancient remains in building works in the area and found beautiful sculptures in subsequent excavations he organised.

Other important sculptural finds connected with the gardens are the so-called Ephedrismòs (in the Capitoline Museums) from the Piazza Dante and the statues at the Centrale Montemartini from the thermal complex of via Ariosto.

Evidence has been found for the existence of pear, apple and olive trees, ornamental shrubs such as Buxus and Taxus, and flowering plants such as buttercups and carnations.