Nero's Domus Aurea

The Domus Aurea (Latin, 'Golden House') was a vast complex built by Nero in the heart of ancient Rome after the great fire in 64 AD.

Spanning the Palatine, Esquiline, and Caelian hills, it featured gold-leaf ceilings, artificial lakes, and an octagonal dining room with a rotating dome. Nero micro-managed details. Nero's Domus Aurea is estimated to cost 50 million sesterces to build in 68 AD. 50 million sesterces in 68 AD was a mind-boggling sum. It would be equivalent to billions in modern purchasing power.

Nero placed mosaics, previously restricted to floors, in the vaulted ceilings. The Golden House was a severe embarrassment to Nero’s successors. It was stripped of its marble, its jewels and its ivory within a decade. Soon after Nero’s death, the palace and grounds were filled with earth and built over: the Baths of Titus were already being built over part of the site in 79 AD.

At the entrance, Nero placed his Colossus. Roughly 35m tall and made of bronze, The Colossus of Nero depicted the emperor as the sun god Sol, crowned with rays of light. Moved and modified by subsequent emperors, only the brick and concrete foundations of the Colossus survive. The bronze was melted down.

The palace’s grounds included a large artificial lake (the stagnum). After Nero's death, Flavian emperors drained the lake and built the Colosseum over it.

The monument left an enduring legacy: the Flavian Amphitheatre situated next to it was nicknamed the Colosseum due to its proximity to the statue.

The Domus Aurea complex covered parts of the slopes of the Palatine, Esquiline, Oppian and Caelian hills. Its size can only be approximated, as much of it has never been excavated. Some scholars place it at over 300 acres. In 2019 they found a secret, underground room inside Nero’s palace.