Augustus founded the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

The name says it all: Julio-Claudian,

Julio for the Julian side of the family, Julius Caesar and

Augustus; the Claudian for the Claudian

side of the family.

That was Augustus' wife from--her side of the family,

excuse me, the Claudian side of the family.

And there were four emperors in the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

These were Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius,

and Nero.

Every one of them, all four, made an important

contribution to the evolution of Roman architecture,

and we'll talk about the contributions of those four

today.

But we'll also see that the single most important

contribution, from the standpoint of Roman

architecture, was by Nero,

the notorious emperor Nero, which is why I do call this

lecture "Notorious Nero and His Amazing Architectural

Legacy."

An architectural legacy that would have been impossible

without some of the earlier concrete constructions that

we've already discussed, specifically the

frigidaria of Pompeii and also the thermal bath at Baia,

which I remind you of here.

The so-called Temple of Mercury, we see it again with

its dome made out of concrete construction,

a view from the exterior.

And down here, at the left,

a view of the interior of the monument,

and I remind you of the way in which is that designed so that

light streams through the oculus in the dome,

down onto the sides of the wall, creating light effects:

a circle that corresponds to the shape of the opening above,

and then falling initially on the pool of water that would

have been located there, as well as across the walls,

which probably would have been--

that were certainly stuccoed over--and probably would have

been covered with mosaic.

So a very spectacular interior indeed,

and one again that had an important impact,

as we'll see, on the architectural designs of

the Roman emperor Nero.

I want to begin though with the first of the Julio-Claudian

emperors, and that is with Tiberius.

And you see a portrait of Tiberius now on the screen,

just to give you a sense of what he looked like.

Tiberius, again the son of Livia by a former marriage,

the elder son of Livia by a former marriage,

who becomes emperor of Rome right after Augustus.

And the portrait that you see here is a marble portrait of

Tiberius that is now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek in

Copenhagen.

Tiberius was emperor of Rome from 14 to 37 A.D.,

and with regard to architecture,

he completed projects begun by Augustus.

He also was responsible for restoring Republican buildings

that had fallen into severe disrepair by his reign,

and this included several temples, a basilica,

warehouses, and also a theater.

Tiberius also initiated some new building projects in Rome.

These included a Temple to the Divine Augustus,

Temple to Divus Augustus,

his divine adoptive father, because Augustus was made a

god, as Caesar had been before him,

at his death.

Tiberius also put up a series of arches to his relatives,

and also a camp for the Praetorian Guard.

But what we'll see about Tiberius is that his real

passion was not the public architecture that Augustus had

been so fond of-- think the Forum of Augustus and

the Temple of Mars Ultor, or the Ara Pacis Augustae,

which were among Augustus' most important building projects.

Tiberius was interested instead in private architecture--

architecture in a sense for himself and his nearest and

dearest-- and he began a palace on the

Palatine Hill.

He did not think the small, modest House of Augustus,

despite the fact that it had those nicely painted walls,

he did not think that that befit his own grandeur,

and he began a major palace on the Palatine Hill,

on the northwest side of the Palatine Hill.

And he renovated and built villas elsewhere,

outside of Rome, especially on the spectacular

Island of Capri.

And indeed, during the reign of Augustus,

and also the reign of Tiberius, that family,

the Augustan and Julio-Claudian family,

built twelve villas--count them, twelve villas--

on the Island of Capri, one more spectacular than the

next.

It's worth mentioning, by the way, that Augustus'

taste, even in villas, was somewhat more modest than

Tiberius.

Augustus used to decorate his villa,

we are told, with dinosaur bones and things

like that, of historical interest,

whereas Tiberius spared no expense in introducing every

luxury possible into his villas.

With regard to the palace on the Palatine Hill,

the so-called Domus Tiberiana, I just want to mention it in

passing.

There's very little that survives of the substructures

that Tiberius was responsible for beginning,

for that palace.

They were made out of concrete construction,

and you can see here what's called the Clivus Palatinus,

which is a ramp way leading from the Roman Forum,

up to the Palatine Hill.

And you can see some of the remains of those substructures

over here.

The ones that we see were probably restored later and may

or may not date to the Tiberian period,

but they give you some idea of the sort of construction that he

began on the Palatine Hill.

And I mention this just because we'll see that Caligula and some

of the other emperors continued to add to this palace,

and then the entire Palatine Hill is redesigned by the

emperor Domitian in the late first century A.D.

Much more interesting and much more--and there's much more

information for us to look at--are the villas on the island

of Capri.

And I'm going to show you one, the best preserved,

from that island, the so-called Villa Jovis:

the Villa Jovis, the Villa of Jupiter,

which is an interesting name, when you think about it,

for a villa for the emperor Tiberius.

The Villa Jovis, which was put up sometime in

the years in which Tiberius was emperor;

that is, from 14 to 37 A.D.

It's a spectacular place, beautifully situated.

And I'm going to take you there today.

Now the only way to get to the island of Capri,

which by the way is one of my very favorite places in the

world; I don't know how many of you've

been there, but it's quite extraordinary--the island of

Capri.

You can't jet to the Island of Capri,

you have to arrive there by boat, and most people take a

boat, unless they have a private

yacht, but those of us who don't,

have to take a boat either from Naples,

usually a hydrofoil--although they have larger boats as well--

a hydrofoil from Naples or from Positano.

And I actually show you--this is a view on the left-hand side

of the screen of Positano on the Amalfi Coast.

You go down to the beach; there's a place where you can

pick up a hydrofoil.

It takes a very short time, half an hour or so,

less, a little bit less, to get over to the Island of

Capri from Positano.

So we're sitting on one of those hydrofoils--

or at least eight of us are, because that's usually what

they fit-- and we're making our way from

Positano toward Capri.

As you go there, if the weather is good enough,

and if the sea is calm enough, they will take you to see the

famous grottos, the Green Grotto and also the

Blue Grotto.

And again I can just give you a little sense here of--in this

view--of how blue is blue.

I mean, it's really a neon blue, when you go to see the

Blue Grotto.

It's a spectacular sight and a very special color blue that you

really don't see anywhere else in the world.

So they'll drive you around in the hydrofoil to see the

grottos, and then you eventually get to

the dock at Capri, and this is what you see as you

get off the boat at the island of Capri: again a very beautiful

spot to visit.

As you go up, you make your way from the dock

up to the funicular.

You take the funicular up to the main part of town,

and one of the first things you see is the popular Bar Tiberio.

I show it to you, not to--it's a fun place to

go-- but I show it to you mainly

because it's one of these examples of the way in which the

Roman emperors have had a lasting impact,

even today, that so many of these bars and restaurants and

so on are named for Rome's emperors,

or for some of the monuments that we've been studying in the

course of this semester.

And this bar is no exception, and in fact if you go through

the doors that lead into the interior of the bar,

you will see a portrait of Tiberius etched on the doorway.

So Tiberius very much lives and thrives in the center of

downtown Capri still today.

What most tourists go to Capri to see,

besides just to walk around a magnificent island and to test

out some of the beaches, which tend to be on the rocky

side, is to see the most famous rocks

of Capri.

And these are the so-called Faraglioni.

You see them here.

You go up to the so-called Gardens of Augustus,

and then up to a spot where you can see these particularly well.

They're magnificent.

They are the landmark spot on the island of Capri,

and they have survived coastal landslides and sea erosion,

to look as wonderful as they still do today.

And this is, of course, the photo op on the

island.

I don't think there's anyone who visits Capri who doesn't

take a photo or have a photo taken of themselves at the

Faraglioni.

The villa that I want to show you is again the best preserved

villa of Tiberius on Capri.

And again I mentioned that it's called the Villa Jovis,

and it dates to 14 to 37 A.D.

It's a trek to get up there.

You have to walk essentially.

The streets are such that there are no cabs or cars that can get

you there.

You have to make it on your own.

And there are two paths.

I've made the mistake of taking the more arduous path,

which looks like this, to get up to the top,

but there's another path also that takes you by some very

attractive houses and villas, which are fun to see.

And you will see the largest lemons--

has anyone ever been on the island of Capri?--

you'll see the largest lemons on Capri,

as well as on the Amalfi Coast in general,

that you've ever seen anywhere: gigantic lemons on lemon trees,

as you make your way up to the Villa of the Villa Jovis.

Now here is a plan of the Villa Jovis, as well as a

cross-section, from the Ward-Perkins textbook.

And if we look first at the cross-section,

at the uppermost part of the screen, you will see the way

this building was made.

You will see that the architects have taken advantage

of developments in concrete construction to create a series

of barrel vaults in tiers, and those barrel vaults in

tiers are where-- are the cisterns of the villa,

where the water was kept to supply the baths and the kitchen

and so on, of the villa.

You see those there, and in this plan down here you