And lastly, but not least, by any stretch of the imagination,
were the two architects of Nero, Severus and Celer, Roman architects.
We believe, Severus and
Celer, who were responsible for the Domus Aurea itself, for all the
architectural innovations and experimentations at the Domus Aurea.
And it was they, who we believe, were the creators of the remarkable octagonal room.
As i mentioned last time probably the most extraordinary room we've seen thus
far this semester and one that's going to have lasting impact on later Roman
buildings and complexes.
So the, the octagonal room, and also I mentioned to you, other
things in the villa Including a banqueting hall with a revolving ceiling.
So these men also, great architectural innovators.
So when Nero is forced to commit suicide in 68,
we have to ask ourselves, what happened to those artists?
What happened to those innovations
after the, after Nero was discredited?
And I mentioned also last time that when Nero was, was committed suicide when
he was discredited he received an official damnatio memoriae from the Senate.
A damnation of his memory which meant that his portraits could not could
be and were encouraged to be destroyed and the same with his buildings.
So,
what is going to happen to the evolution of Roman
Architecture when one of its greatest patrons, someone who encouraged
the greatest architects and artist of the day when he
and his memory are annihilated and his buildings are destroyed?
What is going to happen to architectural innovation?
That's the main question we need to ask ourselves today as we look
at the buildings that were commissioned by his successors, by members of the
Flavian Dynasty, Vespasian, Titus and ultimately Domician.
We'll talk about Vespasian today, a bit on Titus,
and then more on Titus and Domician on Tuesday.
What happens to these innovations when they begin to
take over and when they begin to commission buildings.
And we're going to see, it's mixed.
We're going to see a certain move back toward a conservative vision.
But we're also going to see that Nero's innovations
live on and that's the most exciting piece of,
of this particular Flavian puzzle, as we shall see.
So we see again Nero here and when Nero, when Nero
died in 68 AD what happened was not only that he
received a damnatio memoriae, but there were no other Julio Claudians
to succeed him and Rome and the empire were plunged once
again into a very serious civil war. A civil war that was as
as profound profoundly, profoundly troubling
as the civil war that had followed Caesar's death.
And Caesar's death as you know in 44 BC. And what emerged after this Civil War
or during this Civil War was one of the most complicated and
difficult years in Rome's history.
The year 68 to 69, during which Rome had four emperors.
Not co-emperors as Rome was to have
much later in its history But competing emperors
in very quick succession, some of them holding onto power for only a few months.
These men were Galba, G A L B A, whose
portrait you see on a coin in the upper left.
Galba who becomes
Emperor right after Nero's death and you can see him in
the no nonsense realistic portrait on that coin in the upper left.
He is succeeded very soon after by a man by the name of Otho O T H O.
You see him on the gold coin on the right, Otho who saw Nero as a soulmate, and
had himself rendered very much with a Neronian hairstyle, as you can see.
And then third, a man by the name of Vitellius V I T E L L I U S.
Vitellius who seems to have had more chins than any other Emperor in the
history of Rome, as you can see in this wonderful portrait now in Copenhagen.
And then ultimately, Vespasian V E S P A S I A N who was
the only one of this four who was able to hold on to power long
enough to create a new dynasty.
A new dynasty that he called after his family name.
Flavius was his family name, the so called Flavian Dynasty.
And fortune was on his side, because he
had two sons to succeed him, Titus and Domician.
And because he had two sons to succeed him he
was able to create a, a quite successful dynasty as we
shall see that had lasting power.
So this is our second, main Imperial Dynasty.
The Flavian Dynasty as opposed to the Augustin and Julio-Claudian Dynasty.
Now Vespasian came to power in a civil war.
And like Augustus before him, he recognized that
although coming to power in a civil war
could give you the authority that you needed
to govern, it didn't give you the legitimacy.
It was very important in the eyes of the Romans to
have had an important foreign victory to give your dynasty legitimacy.
Augustus came to power after his Civil War with Mark Antony but he looked to his
victory over the Partheons in the eastern part
of the empire to give his reign legitimacy.
Vespacian does the same thing.
He comes to power in the civil war.
He beats back other Romans, so he has to look
elsewhere for legitimacy and he also looks east.
He looks specifically to Judea and he sends his son
in, his son Titus in to do war against Jerusalem.
And Titus was victorious in the early 70s AD in this very important Jewish war
that I'll have more to say about later today and also especially on Tuesday.