Construction Workers in Rome Discover Emperor Caligula’s Garden

This article was first published by Artnet.

Caligula’s garden was found during efforts to relocate a fullonica, a Roman workshop where clothes were cleaned. On the banks of the River Tiber, archaeologists have identified a travertine wall, the foundations of a colonnaded portico, and a large open area that would have comprised the garden.

The connection with Caligula, the first-century tyrant with a reputation for eccentricity and capriciousness, is offered through a lead water pipe stamped with the emperor’s full name: Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. 

The garden’s location is also supported by textual evidence from Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in the Roman province of Egypt. In 40 C.E., Philo traveled to Rome as part of a delegation of Alexandrian Jews seeking Caligula’s support amid ongoing conflict between the city’s Jewish and Greek communities. Philo wrote that he was received in the Gardens of Agrippina, a vast estate overlooking the Tiber that included a monumental portico.

@UK_ICOM