Domus: Livia

A late-Republican house on the SW *Palatine is attributed to Livia based upon a lead pipe inscribed IVLIA AVG[VSTA] discovered on the site (CIL XV 7264, of dubious date; Richardson) and its proximity to the domus of Augustus; this identification is supported by a passage in Suetonius naming the Palatine as the birthplace of Tiberius (Tib. 5). The residence stood on the slope of the SW Palatine just below the terrace of the Temple of *Victoria, and was just N of the Palatine residence of Augustus (*Domus: Augustus); since only a narrow alley separated the two houses, these remains have been interpreted as apartments reserved for Livia after her marriage to Augustus (Coarelli 97; Iacopi 130 cautiously accepts Coarelli’s thesis). Excavations carried out in 1722-24 by the Farnese family, in 1869 by P. Rosa, and in the 1950s by G. Carettoni have clarified the building phases of the residence. Originally, the one-storey residence (Blake 258) was built in somewhat irregular reticulate masonry (Iacopi 131); this phase dates from the first half of the 1st c. B.C. (Lugli 168), perhaps from 75-50 B.C. (Coarelli 96). Many associate this phase of the house with Hortensius (Tamm 51, Degrassi 82, Blake 258, Claridge 128; s.v. Domus: Augustus), which Augustus is known to have incorporated into his own residence. Livia’s house was organized in two sections, each centered on a courtyard (fig. 11 nos. 1-8). The focal point of the residence in the pre-Augustan era was the subterranean W atrium (no. 2); opening onto this space were three large rooms: a central triclinium (dining room, no. 5) flanked by two alae (rooms no. 4 and 6); to the SW lay a fourth room, commonly called the tablinum (no. 3). The use of these terms is purely conventional, and the attributed functions are not supported by archaeological evidence (Richardson 73). A stairway and ramped corridor (no. 1) paved with a black-and-white mosaic provided access to this courtyard from the exterior; the original entrance to the house, however, must have been from the E (Coarelli 96; with caution, Iacopi 131). A long corridor (no. 7) connected the W wing to the E half of the residence, which was located on a higher level; a series of small service rooms lined the S side of this connecting passageway. The E courtyard (no. 8) had an impluvium and was surrounded by small service rooms (Iacopi 131, Coarelli 96). After Augustus acquired this section of the Palatine, substantial renovations were made to the house, including the restructuring of its W half, which was decorated with advanced Second-Style wall-paintings (Coarelli 96, who dates them to c. 30 B.C.); especial attention was paid to the rooms situated on the S and E sides, though the alterations to the E portion of the house remain obscure (Iacopi 131). The chambers around the E court were rebuilt and a second, perhaps also a third, storey was added above the rooms surrounding the E atrium (Blake 258-59). The second phase is characterized by typical Augustan dusky-red concrete faced with opus quasi reticulatum (Coarelli 96-97; Richardson 73; Iacopi 131; Blake 259). Coarelli (97) proposes that restorations were made to the house after the fire of A.D. 3, which damaged other buildings in the region (s.v. Magna Mater, Aedes; contra, Blake 259).