The so-called "Maritime Theater," named because of a misinterpretation of the space early on. Rather than being a theater, it was actually the Emperor's private home-within-a-home. An imperial villa was like a small city, with family, friends, politicians, and servants crawling all over the place (though the servants were relegated to neat subterranean tunnels and rooms so that they could get from place to place without being seen), and that would naturally try the patience of anyone, so Hadrian built himself a little island, surrounded by a moat and accessed by drawbridges, that he could use to escape from everything else and just think. I think I want one...
Among the ancient Romans, homosexuality was just a part of life. Hadrian was married, but apparently, he and his wife did not get along, even a little bit, and Hadrian fell in love with a boy named Antinous, who died mysteriously in the Nile (by that, I mean that why he was in the Nile in the first place is mysterious - fall, push, jump - not his actual cause of death - drowning). After the incident, Hadrian built the Canopus to symbolize the Nile, and he decorated it with statues of a deified Antinous so that when he dined in the special triclinium (dining room with three couches) at the end of the canal, he could be reminded of his love.
The Large Baths at the villa have one of the best-preserved roofs on the site, at least from what I could tell. I would have felt better about standing under said roof, had I not just come from several buildings that had massive chunks of their roofs lying on the floor.
By the way, Hadrian's Villa is the reason why my camera ran out of battery at Villa d'Este. I took 86 pictures. I didn't even clear 60 at Ostia, and that was an entire city. Anyway, I enjoyed Hadrian's Villa so much that I used up enough of my battery that I only got 20 pictures of Villa d'Este. Amazing day though, and a few of us are hoping to go back to Tivoli one evening to see both sites lit up. Can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment