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Canopus' gardens

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

THE GARDENS OF HADRIANS VILLA

The magnificent villa (about 17 miles from Rome) built by the emperor Hadrian to be his official residence when he was not touring the provinces, is the largest and most luxurious of all the Roman imperial villas. The plan of the villa. made by the author of this book who has studied Villa Adriana’s architecture for the last 37 years, shows the area that has been excavated to date. This residence, which originally covered more than 126 (hectares), was more a town than a villa. Here Hadrien, an accomplished architect, provided for himself, his court and his many guests, all the amenities to be found in the capital city. There were palatial living quarters, recreational areas, baths, libraries as well as lodgings for slaves and the imperial guards. Plentiful water from a spring in the overhanging hills and the nearby Roman aqueducts lavishly fed the many pools, fountains and nymphea that adorned the villa and gave it life.
Although Villa Adriana has been studied by classical archaeologist and architects for centuries, the gardens which were such an important aspects of the residence had been given scant attention. Excavations sponsored in the sixteenth century by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este to collect works of art for his villa at Tivoli and his roman palace were undertaken by the architect-archaelogist Pirro Ligorio, who in his Descrittione made the important statement that Hadrian's villa had 90 piazzas. Many of these would have been gardens, but in the entire history of the villa only some of them had been identified and only two had been briefly published.
When we began our preliminary excavation in 1987, made possible by a grant from Dumbarton Oaks and the generous cooperation of the superintendent of Latium, they were successful beyond our greatest expectations and indicated that in spite of the vandalism and neglect that the villa had suffered though the centuries, it was adding important material to our knowledge of ancient Roman gardens. Preliminary probes suggested that the Cannopus area and the Piazza d'Oro would be fruitful places to begin our excavations.
We began in the Canopus which previously the author of “Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore” had judged to be the most majestic of the three large banqueting area known to date. It consisted of a huge stibadium located in an enormous domed exedra. Water cascaded down the steps in the rectangular niches set at the back of the stibadium, and fell down in a canal that after circling the back of the semicircular tricliniar bed, passed under it, and finally through another underground canal reached the large pool, (190 meters long, 18 meters wide) that resembled a majestic and peaceful river.
At the edge of this canal, marble columns and lifesize statues, copies of famous greek originals, were reflected in the blue waters. On the western bank in the middle of the euripus, four beautiful Cariatis, copies of those of the Erecteum were flanked by two Sileni, while replicas of other Greek sculptures found at the north end of the pool have been placed in their probable ancient locations. There was a statue of Ares and one of Ermes. Then two Amazons copies of the Fidia’s one (left) and one of Policletus (right) the original of which had been in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. There was also a statue of a huge crocodile that served as a fountain, plus one of the Tiber with the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, and one of the Nile with a Sphinx.
In 19.. Danish archaelogists led by Dr. Hannestad excavated into the W. bank of the euripus searching for the tomb of Antinous. They found instead a row of half amphoras used as planting pots and several others smaller ones. Such evidence clearly indicated that what they had found was a flower-bed.
Our preliminary excavations on the west bank discovered fragments of small pots probably broken while transplanting the bushes. Then we concentrated our work on the eastern. bank where we soon found a planting area still covered with undisturbed soil, and at a depth of about 30 cm emerged a row of discarded amphorae which had been cut in two, and both their upper and lower portion had been used as planting pots. Holes had been cut in the bottom half of the amphoras and several others had been opened on the sides to serve as breathing holes for the roots.
Then the question arose as to the date of the planting, for the villa did remain in use long after Hadrian's times and gardens can be subject to frequent changes. The upper part of one of the half amphoras we found had the letters I and N which had been cut into the amphora before firing. On the other side a stamp which has not been identified. We asked Prof. Clementina Panella of the Roman University “La Sapienza” to identify the amphora and she dated it from the first half of the second century A.D. (according to the Schöne- Mau), and probably coming from the factories of Gargaresc (Lybia). This confirmed that this planting was of the Hadrianic period.
Two long and narrow bed flowers on both sides of the valley, while on the flanks of the dell evidence of terraces and containing walls can still be seen. They were still clearly defined on the west slope of the euripus, while early prints show some of the then extants retaining walls of the terraced gardens on the Eastern. slope.

Bibliography
1. E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI -Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, L’Erma di Bretschneider, Rome, 2001.
2. W. F. JASHEMSKI ed E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare , in RPAA, Vol. LX., 1987-88, pp. 145-169
3. E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro in RPAA, LXII 1989-1990, pp 121-150
4. W. F. JASHEMSKI ed E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI,, Preliminary excavations in the gardens of Hadrian's Villa: The Canopus and the Piazza d'Oro in AJA 96 , 1992, pp. 121-157
5. E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Adriano: architettura del verde e dell’acqua in Horti Romani, Rome , 1995, pp. 363-399.