Location | Somma Vesuviana |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°52′33″N14°25′27″E / 40.87583°N 14.42417°E |
Type | Villa |
The Villa of Augustus (Latin : Villa Augustae) is a villa in Somma Vesuviana that was owned by Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Literary sources detailed the villa as the site where Augustus died.
In April 2024, archaeologists from the University of Tokyo claimed to have discovered the villa after excavations on its purported location that started in 2002.
Near the end of his life, Augustus traveled to his villa in modern-day Nola. According to Tacitus and Suetonius, Augustus died on August 19, 14 AD, in the villa, [1] with Suetonius claiming he died in the same room in which his father had died. [2] Following Augustus's death at the villa, his body was carried on a procession from Nola. [3]
There have been multiple villas at the site of the Villa of Augustus. The latter villa was first rediscovered in the 1890s during agricultural work. [4] After years of inactivity with the villa, excavation of it began in 1929. Work on uncovering the villa continued until 1935 when the project was stopped. [5] However, before work concluded in 1935, volcanic material covering the villa was analyzed and was initially believed to be from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. This theory was debunked with later testing, concluding that the volcanic residue was from another eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 472 AD, with other elements from later eruptions additionally on top of the latter villa. [6] [7] In 2002, archeological investigations sponsored by the University of Tokyo began in an attempt to analyze the latter villa. In April 2024, the University of Tokyo announced they believed they had uncovered the exact villa where Augustus died. [8] [9] The former villa was discovered beneath the remains of the latter villa previously excavated in the 1930s. [10] Using radiocarbon dating and chemical analysis of the volcanic layers, it was determined that the older villa predated the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and thus could identify as the location where Augustus died. [11]
The younger villa contained an upper and lower terrace with rooms on each floor. Inside one room of the younger villa, two marble statues, including one of Dionysus, were discovered. [12] In the older villa, sixteen amphorae were discovered, along with a warehouse and a furnace, which is believed to have heated a private bathroom. [13]
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his wife, Livia Drusilla. In 38 BC, Tiberius's mother divorced his father and married Augustus. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus's two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus's successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat, and one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.
AD 79 (LXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Titus and Vespasianus. The denomination AD 79 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions.
Mount Vesuvius is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better known in English as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him.
Titus Caesar Vespasianus was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor to succeed his biological father.
Poppaea Sabina, also known as Ollia, was a Roman empress as the second wife of the emperor Nero. She had also been wife to the future emperor Otho. The historians of antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrigues to become empress.
Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill, is a British ancient historian, classical archaeologist, and academic. He is Professor of Roman Studies and Director of Research in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. He was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009, and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from August 2009 to July 2013.
The Villa Poppaea is an ancient luxurious Roman seaside villa located in Torre Annunziata between Naples and Sorrento, in Southern Italy. It is also called the Villa Oplontis or Oplontis Villa A as it was situated in the ancient Roman town of Oplontis.
The Villa of the Mysteries is a well-preserved suburban ancient Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, southern Italy. It is famous for the series of exquisite frescos in Room 5, which are usually interpreted as showing the initiation of a bride into a Greco-Roman mystery cult. These are now among the best known of the relatively rare survivals of Ancient Roman painting from the 1st century BC.
Somma Vesuviana is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, southern Italy.
Realmonte is a comune (municipality) in the Region of Agrigento in the Italian Provence Sicily, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of Palermo and about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of Agrigento.
Miseno is one of the frazioni of the municipality of Bacoli in the Italian Province of Naples. Known in ancient Roman times as Misenum, it is the site of a great Roman port.
Pompeii was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and many surrounding villas, the city was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Herculaneum is an ancient Roman town, located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Nola is a town and a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, southern Italy. It lies on the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines. It is traditionally credited as the diocese that introduced bells to Christian worship.
Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in Southern Italy, the best-known is its eruption in 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest in history.
Annalisa Marzano, FRHistS FSA, MAE is an Italian-American archaeologist and academic. She is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Bologna and has been Professor of Ancient History at the University of Reading in England. She specializes in Roman social and economic history.
Of the many eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano in Southern Italy, its eruption in 1631 is the most destructive episode in the recent history and one of the deadliest of all time.
Cypros (1st-century) was a queen consort of Judea. She was married to king Herod Agrippa.