Uncover a portico overlooking the Tiber River that belonged to Emperor Caligula during the construction of the underpass at Porta Pia. Another setback for the construction site, following the discovery of the ancient fullonica a few weeks ago?
Foto Ministero della Cultura
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Another extraordinary archaeological discovery in the construction site for the underpass at Piazza Pia in Rome: a portico directly overlooking the right bank of the Tiber, likely belonging to Emperor Caligula. This structure consists of a travertine wall behind which a colonnaded portico was built, of which only the foundations remain, and a garden area.
The portico of Emperor Caligula
The excavations, as reported by the Ministry of Culture, have documented how the area underwent three construction phases, starting in the age of Emperor Augustus and ending in that of Nero.
In the photograph on the right, you can see a lead water pipe stamped with the garden owner: the inscription reads C(ai) Cæsaris Aug(usti) Germanico, i.e., Caligula, son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder and emperor from 37 to 41 AD.
In one of his writings, Philo of Alexandria, a historian from Alexandria, Egypt, recounts how Caligula received Alexandrian Jewish delegates in the Gardens of Agrippina, a vast garden overlooking the Tiber. “The resemblance between the remains found and the description of the Alexandrian historian suggests identifying the excavation at Piazza Pia as the location of this meeting,” the ministry reveals.
Furthermore, according to archaeologist Alessio De Cristofaro from the Special Superintendence, this inscription is of significant historical importance for several reasons: firstly, it confirms that the excavation at Piazza Pia is part of the Gardens of Agrippina the Elder, Caligula’s mother. Other lead pipes with inscriptions of Livia Drusilla, Augustus’s second wife and Germanicus’s grandmother, have been found in other excavations at Piazza Pia. The villa must have been inherited first by Germanicus and then, after his death, by Agrippina the Elder, his wife, and then by their son Caligula.
New setback for the Piazza Pia construction site?
What happens now with the construction site for the underpass at Piazza Pia? Another setback? After the discovery of an ancient fullonica (a Roman-era laundry), Mayor Gualtieri promised that the archaeological remains would be removed by June 28 and transferred to the gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo, so that construction could resume and the project could be completed by the start of the Jubilee.
