Excavaciones arqueológicas en la via Ariosto. IIIª zona del Esquilino (1874-2006). Primera Parte: restos arquitectónicos
In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma: 113, 2014
Permalink: http://digital.casalini.it/3340785
During the urbanization in Rome of the via Ariosto and Piazza Dante at the end of the 19th
century, in the grounds of the expropriated villa Palombara, baths of 4th
century AD were discovered,
in which sculptural and epigraphic fragments had been used as building material. The construction
of the “Scuole Borruso” and the “Casse Postali di Risparmio” in the pieces of ground (isolati) XXX-VI
and
XXXII allowed the discovery of many others architectural remains (dated at the end of the 1st
c. AD and in the first half of the 2nd
c. AD), inscriptions and statues of great historical and artistic
value. One of them was the statue base signed by [Fl.Chryser]os from Afrodisias, confused in the
publications with another one signed by Flavios Zenon, discovered in 1879 within a medieval wall,
close to the baths of via Ariosto.
Despite the importance of the findings, brief and confused notices
of them and partial ground plans of the excavations were published in the BCom.
The recuperation
of the graphic and documentary material produced by the Commissione archeologica comunale and
by the Sopraintendenza agli scavi di antichità e custodia dei Monumenti, kept in different archives
and libraries in Rome, provides detail information about the development of the archaeological excavations carried out in the via Ariosto and in the isolati XXXII,
XXXVI
since 1874, that helped us to correct errors published, that change the dating of sculptural groups like “the Esquilino group” in the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek of Copenhagen. Because of the scope of the research, we present the results
in two parts, the first one dedicated to the architectonical remains; the second one, to the epigraphic
and sculptural pieces.