Rome's Imperial Regelia
It is only a couple of years since the Italian authorities announced with great fanfare the discovery of Nero's Golden House on the Palatine Hill. Now they have had to close it all down again: in an era of global warming and failing rainfall the Italian authorities have proved incapable of keeping a decreasing precipitation out of the ruins and the ancient walls are threatening to collapse as erosion undermines their foundations. The desperate Italians are even talking of restoring the ancient Roman sewers in the hope that they will accomplish what the modern ones can't.
Although such incompetance and corruption are deplorable, they have given archaeologists the chance to conduct even more excavations on the Palatine, with interesting results. Clearance work round the Palace of Domitian turned up a number of wooden boxes - or rather, the remains of the wooden boxes - in which were a collection of bronze objects: three lances, four javelins, a sceptre which terminates in flowers holding a globe, and four glass balls.
It is believed that these are the imperial coronation regalia of the Roman emperors which disappeared from sight after the usurper Maxentius was crowned. The archaeologists speculate that they were buried by Maxentius' supporters when they heard of Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in an attempt to prevent Constantine becoming Emperor.
Even more exciting is the discovery using remote sensing equipment of a hollow beneath the House of Augustus. When the archaeologists broke into it they discovered a natural cave later given a vaulted roof and decorated with sea-shells and frescoes. On the basis of literary evidence, it is believed that this may well be the cave in which, according to legend, the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the founders of the city of Rome. If this identification is correct, then this cave is the oldest sacred site in Rome.
Unfortunately for the legend, the archaeologists have also found a cluster of mud huts that have been dated to before 753 BC, the traditional date when Romulus and Remus chose a virgin site for their new city.
Of course, this does not necessarily invalidate the legend. Omri, the father of the Biblical king Ahab, is said to have founded Samaria, thought the archaeological evidence is that there was a small settlement on the site long before Omri was a gleam in his father's eye. Even in our times, the "new town" of Milton Keynes in England was built over the top of half a dozen charming little villages. It is entirely possible that Romulus and Remus founded a city where before had been nothing more than a couple of peasant huts.
© Kendall K. Down 2007
