The Naumachia Vaticana or Trajan's Naumachia (Latin : Naumachia Traiani), also referred to inaccurately as the Circus of Hadrian, was an ancient structure in Rome, Italy, dedicated by Roman emperor Trajan in AD 109. A naumachia, it functioned as a large stadium that could be filled with water to reenact naval battles for an audience. The building was located south of the Vatican Hill, northwest of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and near the Gaianum.
A 5th century text that recounts the crucifixion of St Peter saying: "Holy men... took down his body secretly and put it under the terebinth tree near the Naumachia, in the place which is called the Vatican" [1] The ruins of a structure were excavated in 1743, between the streets via Alberico and via Cola di Rienzo. [2] Christian Hülsen, a historian involved in the project, suggested that this structure, built close to the Circus of Nero and lying north-west of the later Mausoleum of Hadrian, was the naumachia the text was referring to [3] and gave it the current name "Naumachia Vaticana".
Subsequent excavations have helped to identify its shape, size and orientation. It was a rectangular structure with round internal and external corners, 120 metres (390 ft) wide and, estimating from the excavations, at least 300 metres (980 ft) long, oriented north-south. Esther Boise van Deman identified the style of the brickwork facing the naumachia as Trajanic. [4] The archaeological work reveals it had substantial bleachers (tiered stands for spectators) and the surface was about one sixth the size of the earlier Augustan naumachia. Two parts of the foundations of the stands, with vaulted corridors and remnants of four rows of seats, have also been found preserved. Other remains show that the walls were covered with a water-resistant mortar and the area was fitted with drainage pipes.
The current Church of San Pellegrino in Vaticano was once called San Pellegrino in Naumachia due to its vicinity to this stadium. A possible explanation for some sources erroneously calling it the Circus of Hadrian could be due to the similarities of its shape to that of other excavated ancient circuses, along with the site’s proximity to the Mausoleum dedicated to the same emperor. In the absence of any other texts or further mention of this naumachia, it is assumed that it was mainly used at the time of Trajan's rule. In 1932, Jérôme Carcopino reported the discovery among Fasti Ostienses of the dedication by Emperor Trajan on 11 November 109 of a naumachia. [5]
Hadrian was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, the Aeli Hadriani, came from the town of Hadria in eastern Italy. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty.
Pope Alexander I was the bishop of Rome from about 108/109 to 116/119. Some believe he suffered martyrdom under the Roman emperor Trajan or Hadrian.
The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum, is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.
Saint Eustace is revered as a Christian martyr. According to legend, he was martyred in AD 118, at the command of emperor Hadrian. Eustace was a pagan Roman general, who converted to Christianity after he had a vision of the cross while hunting. He lost all his wealth, was separated from his wife and sons, and went into exile in Egypt. Called back to lead the Roman army by emperor Trajan, Eustace was happily reunited with his family and restored to high social standing, but after the death of Trajan, he and his family were martyred under Hadrian for refusing to sacrifice to pagan Roman gods.
The naumachia in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the staging of naval battles as mass entertainment, and the basin or building in which this took place.
Saint Peter's tomb is a site under St. Peter's Basilica that includes several graves and a structure said by Vatican authorities to have been built to memorialize the location of Saint Peter's grave. St. Peter's tomb is alleged near the west end of a complex of mausoleums, the Vatican Necropolis, that date between about AD 130 and AD 300. The complex was partially torn down and filled with earth to provide a foundation for the building of the first St. Peter's Basilica during the reign of Constantine I in about AD 330. Though many bones have been found at the site of the 2nd-century shrine, as the result of two campaigns of archaeological excavation, Pope Pius XII stated in December 1950 that none could be confirmed to be Saint Peter's with absolute certainty. Following the discovery of bones that had been transferred from a second tomb under the monument, on June 26, 1968, Pope Paul VI said that the relics of Saint Peter had been identified in a manner considered convincing. Only circumstantial evidence was provided to support the claim.
Hadrian's Villa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built around AD 120 by Roman emperor Hadrian near Tivoli outside Rome.
Porolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military fort in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. It is one of the largest and best-preserved archaeological sites in modern-day Romania from the Roman Era. It is 8 km away from the modern city of Zalău, in Moigrad-Porolissum village, Mirsid Commune, Sălaj County.
The Temple of Hadrian is an ancient Roman structure on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the deified emperor Hadrian by his adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius in 145 CE This temple was previously known as the Basilica of Neptune but has since been properly attributed as the Temple of Hadrian completed under Antoninus Pius. With one cella wall and eleven columns from the external colonnade surviving, the remains of the temple have been incorporated into a later building in the Piazza di Pietra, whereby its facade, alongside the architrave which was reconstructed later on, was incorporated into a 17th-century papal palace by Carlo Fontana, now occupied by Rome's Chamber of commerce. While only part of the structure remains, excavations and scholarship have provided us with information regarding its construction techniques and stylistic influences, helping us recreate the building dynamics and significance of the Temple of Hadrian in Imperial Rome.
The Aqua Traiana was a 1st-century Roman aqueduct built by Emperor Trajan and inaugurated in 109 AD. It channelled water from sources around Lake Bracciano, 40 km (25 mi) north-west of Rome, to ancient Rome. It joined the earlier Aqua Alsietina to share a common lower route into Rome.
In ancient Roman funerals, an ustrinum was the site of a cremation funeral pyre whose ashes were removed for interment elsewhere. The ancient Greek equivalent was a καύστρα. Ustrina could be used many times. A single-use cremation site that also functioned as a tomb was a bustum.
Saint Stephen of the Abyssinians is an Ethiopian Catholic church located in the Vatican City. The church dedicated to Stephen the Protomartyr is the national church of Ethiopia. The liturgy is celebrated according to the Alexandrian rite of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. It is one of the only standing structures in the Vatican to survive the destruction of Old St. Peter's Basilica (c. 1505), and thus it is the oldest surviving church in Vatican City.
The Vatican Necropolis lies under the Vatican City, at depths varying between 5–12 metres below Saint Peter's Basilica. The Vatican sponsored archaeological excavations under Saint Peter's in the years 1940–1949 which revealed parts of a necropolis dating to Imperial times. The work was undertaken at the request of Pope Pius XI who wished to be buried as close as possible to Peter the Apostle. It is also home to the Tomb of the Julii, which has been dated to the third or fourth century. The necropolis was not originally one of the Catacombs of Rome, but an open-air cemetery with tombs and mausolea.
The Church of San Pellegrino in Vaticano is an ancient Roman Catholic oratory in the Vatican City, located on the Via dei Pellegrini. The church is dedicated to Saint Peregrine of Auxerre, a Roman priest appointed by Pope Sixtus II who had suffered martyrdom in Gaul in the third century. It is one of the oldest churches in the Vatican City.
The Gaianum was an area in the Transtiberim in ancient Rome. It is located in Regio XIV, about 300m northwest of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, south of the Naumachia Vaticana built by Trajan, and east of the Via Triumphalis. The historian Cassius Dio says that Caligula, also commonly known in ancient sources as Gaius, used the Gaianum for chariot exercises. A number of victory statues have been found in the area, but seem to have been installed originally at the Circus of Gaius and Nero. The Gaianum was probably only a track, not a circus building as such.
The preservation and extensive excavations at Ostia Antica have brought to light 26 different bath complexes in the town. These range from large public baths, such as the Forum Baths, to smaller most likely private ones such as the small baths. It is unclear from the evidence if there was a fee charged or if they were free. Baths in Ostia would have served both a hygienic and a social function like in many other parts of the Roman world. Bath construction increased after an aqueduct was built for Ostia in the early Julio-Claudian Period. Many of the baths follow simple row arrangements, with one room following the next, due to the density of buildings in Ostia. Only a few, like the Forum Baths or the Baths of the Swimmers, had the space to include palestra. Archaeologist name the bathhouses from features preserved for example the inscription of Buticoso in building I, XIV, 8 lead to the name Bath of Buticosus or the mosaic of Neptune in building II, IV, 2 lead to the Baths of Neptune. The baths in Ostia follow the standard numbering convention by archaeologists, who divided the town into five regions, numbered I to V, and then identified the individual blocks and buildings as follows: (region) I, (block) I, (building) 1.
In ancient Rome, the Ager Vaticanus was the alluvial plain on the right (west) bank of the Tiber. It was also called Ripa Veientana or Ripa Etrusca, indicating the Etruscan dominion during the archaic period. It was located between the Janiculum, the Vatican Hill, and Monte Mario, down to the Aventine Hill and up to the confluence of the Cremera creek.
The Regio XIV Transtiberim is the fourteenth regio of imperial Rome, under Augustus's administrative reform. Meaning "across the Tiber", the Regio took its name from its position on the west bank of the Tiber River.
The House of the Vestals Hoards, or the Casa delle Vestali Hoards are a set of two coin hoards discovered in and around the House of the Vestals, on the Roman Forum during the late 19th century.