The Horti Maecenatis: from commune sepulchrum to horti salubres
During the Republic, the eastern end of the Esquiline was used for dumping refuse and the burial pits (puticuli) of the poor. Criminals were executed at the Esquiline gate, and their carcasses left to the birds. Burial was forbidden within the city proper and the burial area of the Esquiline was outside the city walls. These open pits gave off an unbearable stench and caused disease-breeding pollution. The suppression of this hotbed of pestilence, with the sanitary reform of public cemeteries, took place under Augustus at the suggestion of his friend, C. Cilnius Maecenas. The whole district, alongside the Agger of Servius Tullius was buried under a mass of earth, six to eight meters high, and luxurious gardens were laid out on the newly made ground. The event was sung about by Horace:
"NuncLicet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo modo tristes
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum.
It was around 40 B.C. that Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, famous patron of artists and poets, promoted a project for radically rearranging the Esquiline hill. The Horti Maecenas together with the adjacent necropolis, transformed an unsavory region into a beautiful promenade (Hor. Sat. i. 8.14; Acro, Porphyrio, and Comm. Cruq. ad loc.).
The Horti Maecenatis contained a palace and a tower, which Horace described as reaching the clouds: "molem propinquam nubibus arduis" (Carm. III.29.10). Pavilions, shrines, nymphaea and groves, lanes and garden plots filled the horti with all sorts of exotic and indigenous flora and fauna, marble fountains and statuary, terraces and a library.
Other elegant parks on the Esquiline included the Horti Pallantiani and Horti Lamiani, as well as many lavish buildings. After the death of Maecenas, the park became imperial property, and was a favorite dwelling place of many emperors. Tiberius lived here after his return to Rome in 2 A.D. (Suet. Tib. 15).
Nero connected the gardens with the Palatine by his Domus Transitoria (q.v.) (Tac. Ann. XV.39). Here stood the turris Maecenatiana from which Nero watched the great fire sweeping through Rome (Suet. Nero 38). It was very likely only one of numerous structures scattered over the huge estate. Excavations conducted in the 19th century brought to light another of the pavilions in this park, the so-called Auditorium Maecenatis, a hall for summer banquets. Maecenas is said to have been the first to construct a swimming bath of hot water in Rome (Cass. Dio LV.7), which may have been in the gardens.
Statuary and decorations from Gardens on the Esquiline
Take a tour of the Halls of the Horti of Maecenas
Click here to view photos of Auditorium Maecenatis
To learn more about Roman gardens and parks, click here.
Regarding horti in general: The gardens of the Republican period, known to us mostly from literary sources, existed both within and beyond Rome. The gardens belonged, generally speaking, to a number of high-ranking Romans and were extremely elaborate. The villa of Varro at Casinum (modern Cassino) and the villa of Lucullus at Tusculum (modern Frascati) the garden of T. Quinctius Scapula, of Drusus, and of Sulla , as well as the horti Lamiani provide the best examples of ancient gardens with large aviaria, pools, baths, and long walkways lined with trees. The villa of Varro at Cassino used the garden as the focal point of the dining room. The gardens of Maecenas, possibly to be identified with the horti Lamiani, were inherited by Augustus and it is in the Augustan period that gardens generally, and at Rome in particular, acquired a greater importance.
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