A palace built by the Roman Emperor Nero and then built over by his rivals and successors has given archaeologists a new thrill with the discovery of a buried chamber whose walls and roof are decorated with detailed frescoes of mythical creatures, as seen above.
The Domus Aurea, or Golden Palace, was built by Nero after the great fire of 64 AD (yes, the one that gave rise to the story that he fiddled while Rome burned), and included enormous buildings, gardens and an artificial lake. His successors, especially Trajan and Vespasian, tried to erase his rule and his palace, covering it in soil and building over it, and replacing the lake with the Colosseum.
The recent find was made by archaeologists working on a nearby project under supervision of the Colosseum archaeological park. Only the ceiling has so far been excavated, but work is continuing to reveal it all.
But it appears that this is not the first time it’s been seen since Nero’s time: the Renaissance artist Raphael and some of his contemporaries discovered a way in, lowering themselves on ropes and slides to squeeze through a hole in the ceiling; some of their work may have been inspired by what they saw.
