New Excavations on the Palatine Hill- Possibly Nero's Revolving Dining Room in the Domus Aurea in Rome, July 2012

Emperor Nero's rotating dining room 'discovered'
By Nick Squires in Rome
5:17PM BST 29 Sep 2009

Remains of the fabled dining hall have been discovered on the city's Palatine Hill, where emperors traditionally built their most lavish palaces.

The hall is said to have had a revolving wooden floor which allowed guests to survey a ceiling painted with stars and equipped with panels from which flower petals and perfume would shower onto the tables below.

The remains of the room were found by archeologists excavating the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, which was built for Nero during his reign from 54 to 68AD.

The leader of the four month dig, Françoise Villedieu, said her team discovered part of a circular room which was supported by a pillar with a diameter of more than 13 feet.

The Roman historian Suetonius described the unique revolving room in his Lives of the Caesars, written about 60 years after Nero's death.

"The chief banqueting room was circular and revolved perpetually, night and day, in imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies," he wrote.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, the recently departed head of the British School at Rome, an archeological institute, said: "People have been trying to find the rotating dining room for a long time. We don't have much idea about it except for what Suetonius tells us. It could have had a revolving floor, or possibly a revolving ceiling. "If they really have discovered it, that would be exciting."

Rome's commissioner for archaeology, Roberto Cecchi, said funds would be made available to help archeologists carry out further investigation and try to verify whether they have indeed found Nero's dining room.

Nero established during his lifetime a reputation for cruelty and megalomania before committing suicide in AD 68.

Among the monuments he erected was a giant gilded statue of himself, known as the Colossus, which gave its name to the Colosseum amphitheatre.

Text from: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/6243961/E...