Window opens on Caligula’s private zoo and pleasure palace

FOR Rome’s emperors, it was an earthly paradise, a lavish complex of villas, gardens and fountains where they displayed a menagerie of exotic creatures including lions, bears and ostriches.

Known as “the garden of the gods”, the remains of an imperial pleasure palace where the likes of Caligula and Claudius were once entertained by dancing girls and musicians have now been turned into Italy’s newest museum.

The archaeological treasure trove was found, incongruously, beneath an office block in the heart of Rome during building work.

Scheduled to open to the public on Nov 6, the museum will be packed full of archaeological gems, from exquisite glassware to pen knives, bronze ink wells, fishing hooks, an ivory doll’s leg and brass pendants from a cavalry officer’s harness.

Archaeologists discovered 100,000 fragments and objects from the Roman world, including the tooth of a brown bear and the bones of African lions and ostriches, testimony to the private wildlife park the emperors kept for the delight of visitors.

The villa and garden complex was built on the Esquiline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome. It was constructed in the 1st century AD by a wealthy aristocrat, who bequeathed it to Emperor Tiberius. From there, it passed down to a succession of emperors, including Claudius and Caligula who had glass windows installed – a rarity at the time.

“Chemically, transparent glass was very hard to make,” said Claudio Borgognoni, an archaeologist.

“It would have been extraordinary,” said Daniela Porro, an archaeological official in Rome. “The gardens would have been full of statues, mosaics, frescoes and marble from all over the empire.”