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40-507: The Caelian Hill is a sort of long promontory about 2 km (1.2 mi) long, 400 m (0.25 mi) to 500 m (0.31 mi) wide, and 50 m (160 ft) tall in the park near the Temple of Claudius . The hill overlooks a plateau from which the Esquiline , Viminal and Quirinal hills also arise. Caeliolus (also Caeliculus or Caelius Minor ) corresponds to a section of

80-654: A crown, possibly depicting her in the role of priestess to the cult of her deceased husband. There are also two marble thrones found close to the site of the Claudium , now in the Glyptothek in Munich , which are presumed to have decorated the temple, possibly as honorific seats for the established Roman gods to 'visit' the deified Claudius in his sacred space. Aqua Claudia Aqua Claudia ("the Claudian water")

120-470: A few small arches except for the main high and narrow one for the Acqua Nera. It had originally been built of tuff in opus quadratum. In the second half of the 1st century it was reinforced in opus mixtum, visible at the two east end buttresses. At the beginning of the 3rd century nine rectangular buttresses were added at regular intervals on the north side while on the south side only three were added near

160-736: A fire in AD 27. Jerome alleges that Marcus Aurelius was born on the Caelian Hill in AD 121. In the 4th century rich domus , surrounded by vast parks, stood on the hill, such as the ones belonging to the Symmachi (near which rose the Basilica hilariana ) and Tetrici families, as well as the domus Faustae , perhaps belonging to the wife of Constantine I . The property of the Annii , of Domitia Lucilla Minor (the mother of Marcus Aurelius) and of

200-647: Is about 1 m wide and is also built in opus quadratum, but with a very porous stone which is locally found as a layer immediately above the tuff on which the bridge rests. The Ponte Barucelli (also known as Ponte Diruto) is made up of two monumental bridges 8 m apart for the aqua Claudia (to the north) the Anio Novus (to the south) to cross the Acqua Nera stream. Both date to between 38 and 52 AD. They were later strengthened with buttresses and reinforcements, becoming two huge continuous and connected structures. The Anio Novus bridge, about 85 m long and about 10 m wide, has

240-461: Is approximately bounded by the present roads of Via Claudia, Viale del Parco del Celio and the Clivus Scauri . The temple stood on a great rectangular platform (180 x 200 meters), supported by powerful retaining walls of 15 metres or more, that are still partly visible. The actual temple was constructed on a podium 20 steps above the surrounding platform. The entrance to the courtyard was from

280-823: Is said to have been particularly devoted to his sanctuary. In the Republican age (as well in Imperial Rome ) the Caelian Hill was a fashionable residential district and the site of residences of the wealthy. A section of Pliny the Elder 's Natural History , "Who Was the First to Encrust the Walls of Houses at Rome with Marble", attests to this. Mamurra , a soldier who served under Julius Caesar in Gaul and profited tremendously from corruption, achieved this expensive feat on

320-509: The Basilica of St. Stephen in the Round , the church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina , the church of San Gregorio al Celio , the church of San Tommaso in Formis , the church of San Sisto Vecchio Monasteries, often surrounded by estates and gardens, were also founded on the hill, as well as some towers of noble families, mainly in the 10th and 11th centuries. A new destruction was suffered with

360-485: The Forma Urbis which depicts the southern end of the temple complex shows an apsidal building in front of the stairs and rampway which accessed the temple, which was likely the home of this association. The last mention of the temple is from the fourth century and nothing is known of what happened to it after Vespasian’s reconstruction. Rodolfo Lanciani believed that it could have been falling into ruins as early as

400-655: The Palatine , after which the Aqua Claudia could provide all 14 Roman districts with water. The section on the Caelian hill was called arcus Caelimontani . Visible remaining bridges include the Ponte sul Fosso della Noce, Ponte San Antonio, Ponte delle Forme Rotte, Ponte dell`Inferno, Ponte Barucelli. The bridge has a single arch in opus quadratum , reinforced in the late period in brickwork. The specus (channel)

440-663: The Quintilii became part of the Domus Vectiliana of Commodus . In the interurban area of the hill several barracks were built for the troops stationed in the capital: in the site of the Basilica of Saint Stephen in the Round there were the Castra Peregrina (built under Trajan and restored several times in the following centuries), close to a large house of the Valerii ( domus Valerii ). Opposite, stood

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480-727: The sack of 1084 . From the 12th century, it was part of the Regio Montium , which even extended to the Quirinal Hill . Today the Caelian Hill is included in the Rione of the same name and, continuing its vocation for assistance, hosts the Policlinico Militare del Celio , built on a project by Salvatore Bianchi and Filippo Laccetti. George Santayana lived in a room at the Convent of English Blue Sisters on

520-583: The sack of Alaric in 410; starting from this period, the hill was subject to increasing abandonment and ruralization. In the 6th century it was part of the II Roman ecclesiastical region due to its proximity to the Lateran basilica, so much so that the toponym of "Laterano" was often used for the entire hill. The erection of the Patriarchium , which probably dates back to the 6th Century, gave rise to

560-693: The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri when it was constructed in the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian in the 1560s. Statues made of rare Egyptian greywacke representing Agrippina and Claudius' son Britannicus (the former in the Capitoline Museums and the latter in the Uffizi ), are believed to have resided in the temple of Claudius as part of a family statuary group. The statue of Agrippina shows her with her head covered and wearing

600-413: The Caelian Hill from 1912 until his death. 41°53′06″N 12°29′48″E  /  41.88500°N 12.49667°E  / 41.88500; 12.49667 Temple of Claudius 41°53′15.34″N 12°29′36.12″E  /  41.8875944°N 12.4933667°E  / 41.8875944; 12.4933667 The Temple of Claudius ( Latin : Templum Divi Claudii ), also variously known as the Temple of

640-644: The Caelian Hill was one of the 14 divisions of the town , called Caelimontium . The area between the Lateran and Porta Maggiore was included in the v Regio ( Esquiliae ), though physically it is part of the hill. On the higher point of the side facing the Colosseum, the Temple of Claudius was erected on a huge supporting platform. It was dedicated to the Emperor Claudius and begun by his widow Agrippina after his death and deification in 54 AD; it

680-685: The Caelian Hill; Horace and Catullus mocked him accordingly. Most of the hill was outside the boundaries of the pomerium , therefore temples to foreign divinities were allowed to be built, such as the Temple of Minerva Capta or the old Sacellum of Diana, outside the Servian Wall . Some sepulchres, such as the burial chamber in Via Celimontana, just before Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano , date back to this period. Under Augustus

720-784: The Divus Claudius , the Temple of the Divine Claudius , the Temple of the Deified Claudius , or in an abbreviated form as the Claudium , was an ancient structure that covered a large area of the Caelian Hill in Rome, Italy . It housed the Imperial cult of the Emperor Claudius , who was deified after his death in 54 AD. Construction of the Temple of Claudius on the Caelian Hill was begun by Agrippina ,

760-742: The Domus Aurea. To supply his nymphaeum with water, Nero constructed reservoirs within the Caelian and built a new branch aqueduct to carry water to the hill from the Aqua Claudia . This branch, known as the Arcus Neroniani , accessed the Claudia at Porta Maggiore and ran 2 kilometers west to the southern side of the Caelian Hill, where it terminated at a structure called the Aqueductium . From there conduits branched off along

800-606: The Messiah, which later became the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, partially occupied the area of the Severian camp. The decisive battle in the 271 revolt of mint workers, led by Felicissimus , took place on the Caelian Hill. It is possible that this uprising was somehow connected with the senatorial and equestrian classes, as Aurelian executed several senators. The buildings of the Caelian hill were badly damaged during

840-415: The bed of the stream, later increased by five on the west bank in poor opus latericium and two on the east in opus mixtum. Later the two bridges were connected by three brick arches and with buttresses. The aqueduct went through at least two major repairs. Tacitus suggests that the aqueduct was in use by AD 47. An inscription from Vespasian suggests that Aqua Claudia was used for ten years, then failed and

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880-399: The building. It was surrounded by a large garden composed of parallel rows of shrubs. Although not depicted on the Forma Urbis , the temple and gardens were likely encircled on all four sides by a portico (a Porticus Claudia is mentioned by the poet Martial ). The known remains are of the four sides of the platform and nothing remains of the temple above. The western side of the platform

920-528: The city perimeter under the reign of Ancus Marcius . The list of Septimontium mentions it, and it was part of the 1st city quarter ( Suburana ) in the division made by Servius Tullius. In the later Augustan division , it became the Regio II Caelimontium . A trace of the archaic period remains in the memory of cults of woods and sources, such as that of the nymph Egeria in the wood of Camenae , just outside Porta Capena . Numa Pompilius

960-524: The consumption of water, returning it to civilian use. The east side is the best preserved, and changes carried out by Nero can be noted here. The area was rediscovered when a new road, the Via Claudia, was constructed in 1880. Underneath the temple area there are tunnels through tuff that have recently been mapped by the Italian authorities. A marble capital from the Temple of Claudius was reused in

1000-549: The creation of various tituli (the oldest places of Christian worship, often within private houses) and xenodochia (centers for the assistance and reception of pilgrims and sick). New churches continued to be built, initially to supersede the former tituli , later independently, such as the Basilica of Saints John and Paul , the Basilica of the Four Crowned Martyrs , the Basilica of St. Mary in Domnica ,

1040-599: The fourth wife of the Emperor Claudius , after his death in 54 AD. In 59 Agrippina was murdered by her son, the Emperor Nero , who converted the massive podium built to support the unfinished temple to his own uses. The eastern wall was transformed into a grand nymphaeum , or elaborate fountain, to embellish the view from Nero's new palace, the Domus Aurea , on the adjacent Oppian Hill . The nymphaeum

1080-669: The ground falls toward the city, reaching over 30 metres (100 ft). It is one of the two ancient aqueducts that flowed through the Porta Maggiore , the other being the Aqua Anio Novus . It is described in some detail by Frontinus in his work published in the later 1st century, De aquaeductu . Nero extended the aqueduct with the Arcus Neroniani to the Caelian hill and Domitian further extended it to

1120-538: The headquarters of the V Cohort of the Vigiles ( stazio cohortis V vigilum ). In a land possession of the Laterani family Septimius Severus built between 193 and 197 the castra nova equitum singularium , a new barrack for the knights corps of the imperial guard, opposite the former barrack built under Trajan ( castra priora equitum singularium ). When Constantine I dissolved the corps, the new basilica dedicated to

1160-459: The hill to the north, bringing water to the nymphaeum and the temple. Another conduit was carried to the western edge of the hill and ended right beside the Temple of Claudius. Vespasian reconstructed the Temple of Claudius and established an association dedicated to the worship of the numen of Claudius, known as the Augustales , adjacent to the temple on its southern side. A fragment of

1200-546: The hill, maybe the westernmost one, towards the valley that houses the Colosseum , or the one now occupied by the Basilica dei Santi Quattro Coronati . Under the reign of Tullus Hostilius , the entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill. According to a tradition recounted by Varro , the hill received its name from the Etruscan folk hero Caelius Vibenna , because he either settled there or

1240-554: The left of the 38th milestone of the Via Sublacensis . The total length was approximately 69 kilometres (43 mi), most of which was underground. The flow was about 190,000 cubic metres (6,700,000 cu ft) in 24 hours (about 2.3 cubic metres per second (80 cu ft/s)). Directly after its filtering tank, near the seventh mile of the Via Latina , it finally emerged onto arches, which increase in height as

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1280-538: The mid 4th century, when a capital from one of the podium columns on the west side was reused in the house of John and Paul (the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio was built over the house at the end of the 4th century). In the 15th century, Pope Paul II used stone from the ruins of the Claudium to build the Palazzo San Marco in the Campus Martius . The area occupied by the Temple

1320-531: The south, through a monumental central entrance with an imposing stairway, oriented towards the Palatine Hill . The design of the Temple is partially known from 7 fragments of the Forma Urbis and a Renaissance drawing of another, now lost fragment, in the Vatican Library . Together they depict a temple with a prostyle hexastyle porch (a projecting porch with six columns) on the west side of

1360-408: The southern side of the Caelian Hill in a structure called the Aqueductium . The Aqueductium distributed the water via conduits to reservoirs behind the nymphaeum and to the site of the temple. The remains found in the area of the hill allow one to reconstruct a conspicuous housing phase in the second half of the 2nd century AD, while former buildings of the 1st century BC were probably destroyed by

1400-484: Was an ancient Roman aqueduct that, like the Aqua Anio Novus , was begun by Emperor Caligula (37–41 AD) in 38 AD and finished by Emperor Claudius (41–54 AD) in 52 AD. It was the eighth aqueduct to supply Rome and together with Aqua Anio Novus , Aqua Anio Vetus and Aqua Marcia , it is regarded as one of the "four great aqueducts of Rome". Its mainsprings, the Caeruleus and Curtius, were situated 300 paces to

1440-399: Was constructed with travertine and some remains were incorporated into the bell tower of the basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo . The northern side was composed of a row of vaulted rooms. During the time of Nero there were fountains and the remains of one of these, consisting of a ship's bow with a boar's head, were found and are now in the Capitoline Museums . Vespasian subsequently reduced

1480-505: Was honored posthumously by his friend Servius Tullius . Other authors have linked the name to the Latin caelum , " heaven ". Nevertheless, the former name of the hill probably was Querquetulanus mons due to the abundance of oaks (Latin: Quercus ). Scholarship suggests that there existed the ethnic name Querquetulani as a designation of the previous inhabitants of Caelius, in pre-Etruscan times. Mons Caelius would have been included in

1520-410: Was made up of tiered columns and semicircular and rectangular niches; it likely would have contained a large sculptural group at the centre. Archaeological excavations confirm that the water cascaded from the top of the nymphaeum down into 4 basins, which in turn fed into the huge pool in the valley now occupied by the Colosseum , which was in the time of Nero the centrepiece of the gardens belonging to

1560-415: Was not ultimately finished until the reign of Vespasian . Nero added a grand nymphaeum (tiered water fountain) to the eastern retaining wall of this platform, with semi-circular and rectangular niches. The water to supply this fountain was supplied by a special branch of the Aqua Claudia , called the Arcus Neroniani , which extended 2 kilometres west from the Claudia at Porta Maggiore and terminated on

1600-466: Was out of use for nine years. The first repair was done by Emperor Vespasian in 71 AD; it was repaired again in 81 AD by Emperor Titus . Alexander Severus reinforced the arches of Nero (CIL VI.1259) where they are called arcus Caelimontani , including the line of arches across the valley between the Caelian and the Palatine. The church of San Tommaso in Formis was later built into the side of

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