Auditorium of Maecenas

The so-called Auditorium of Maecenas (actually a nymphaeum, rather than an auditorium) is an ancient Roman architecture located in the Esquilino district, in Largo Leopardi, along Via Merulana.

Today the site, which can be visited by reservation, is managed by the Capitoline Superintendence.

The building, which was part of the Horti Maecenatis, was excavated in 1874.

It is a large rectangular basement hall (24.10 x 10.60 m), with an apse on one of the smaller sides and dates back to the creation of the villa, towards 30 BC Through a passage by Horace, the place was identified with the villa of Maecenas on the Esquiline, which was built on the top of the area of a necropolis and on the leveling of the ancient agger.

On the Via Leopardi side the building overlapped the Servian Walls, causing a section of it to be destroyed. We know from Suetonius that the Roman emperor, Augustus, often slept in the house of Maecenas when he fell ill.

After the death of Maecenas (8 BC) the villa was annexed to the imperial properties and then granted to Tiberius after his return from his exile in Rhodes.

He undertook some renovations; The garden paintings of the third style nymphaeum date back to this phase, to be related to the frescoes of the underground nymphaeum of the villa of Livia (end of the 1st century BC).

Map: Auditorium of Maecenas