We continue our walk around the Caelian Hill, which takes its name from Caelius Vibena, the hero of Roma's struggle with the Tarquins. Part of the Via Appia goes through it. Another major road is the Clivus Scauri.


It became a fashionable place to live in Imperial Rome.

Nero's Domus Aurea (Golden House) occupied much of the Caelian Hill, as well as the Palatine and Oppian Hills.
It was taken apart and mostly covered over by the Flavians when they remodeled the city and built the Flavian Amphitheatre.






The Tomb of the Scipios, is the family site built for Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, who was consul in 298 BC.



Family members continued to be buried here, but the most famous son, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus is not, so stop looking for him here. He is at Liternum, near Napoli, where he had his favorite villa.



Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas and his wife Pomponia Vitalinis is so named because it resembles a dovecote. It is a vaulted tomb of the kind we make to house the cremated remains of freedmen. This area used to be outside the citywall.


Arch of Dolabella was built in the 10 AD, by the Consuls Cornelius Dolabella and Caius Junius Silanus as an entrance to the city. It was made of Travertine blocks and was used to support Nero's extension of the Claudian aquaduct that supplied the Imperial palace on the Palatine.


The Arch of Drusus, although a monumental arch built in the third century AD is not a triumphal arch, but supports the branch of the aquaduct that supplies the Baths of Caracalla.

The Baths of Caracalla were completed in 216 AD. Over 1,600 bathers can enjoy the facilities at a time. Of course there are the calidarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium, a sudatorium (sweat room) and finally the natatio, an open air swimming pool. There are also exercise rooms, teo gymnasiums, libraries, art galleries and gardens.





Aren't the polychrome floor mosaics of discus -throwers, acrobats, and athletes well done, and the rich gold columns on the marble decorations beautiful.

There are over three miles of tunnels intersecting beneath these baths, for the drainage systems, internal hydraulic and ventilation systems.

These is also a sanctuary to Mithras under the Baths.

The Temple of Claudius, made of Travertine marble, is here on the Caelian also.


Let's proceed to the Esquiline Hill.