The luxury and grandeur of architecture have always been a symbol of Power. When they were alive, sovereigns and aristocrats stood out for the splendor of their homes.
After their deaths they competed in building increasingly monumental tombs, which were the symbol of the power and prestige of their family or Gens.
Since the Republican era, the tombs of the most important figures were built along the consular roads to give them maximum visibility. For example, the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella was built in Rome on the Appia Antica; the Mausoleum of the Plauzi of Tivoli stands on the Via Tiburtina near the Ponte Lucano. In both cases they are majestic buildings with a circular building covered in travertine, placed on a square base.
The Mausoleum of Augustus was the first great imperial dynastic mausoleum, and was built in the Campus Martius, a place of great symbolic significance where the funerals of the most important figures had always been celebrated.
Strabo, a contemporary of Augustus, describes it as follows: «a large mound near the river on a high base of white stone, covered up to the top with evergreen trees; on the summit a bronze simulacrum of Augustus and under the mound are the tombs of him and his relatives; behind it there is a large forest with wonderful walks».
Even today it is the largest Mausoleum in the Roman world: it had a square base on which stood a circular building covered in travertine with a diameter of 87.45 meters (i.e. 300 Roman feet). According to the recent reconstruction by Alberto Mancini and Paola Virgili it did not have a tree-lined mound but an hanging garden, in the center of which rose a circular building surrounded by a colonnade which housed the burial cells.
The Mausoleum celebrated the founder of the dynasty with the gilded bronze statue of Augustus placed on the top, probably similar to the marble one found in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta; it was therefore the symbol of the power and prestige of the gens Julia.
The emperors of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties were buried there, together with their families; the last one was Nerva, while Trajan was buried in the base of Trajan's Column.
The building was plundered of its precious marbles, transformed into a defensive tower and then even into a theatre. It recently underwent a major restoration but in june 2022 it was closed to the public again for other works.
Two obelisks were placed in front of the Mausoleum of Augustus, the support bases of which were recently found. One is today in front of the Palace of the Quirinal, the other in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Dio Cassius – who wrote in the 2nd-3rd century A.D. – explains that at the time of Hadrian there was no longer room in the Mausoleum of Augustus: «Hadrian... was buried near the river bank, near the Helios bridge: because he had built his tomb there, given that the tomb of Augustus it was full, and after him no one was buried there».
Hadrian certainly took inspiration from the Mausoleum of Augustus to build his new dynastic tomb, which has slightly smaller dimensions: a square base measuring 85.4 m on each side, and the circular building with a diameter of 66.8 meters, i.e. 225 Roman feet.
Traditional reconstructions include a tree-lined mound, by analogy with the Mausoleum of Augustus, from which protruded a temple surmounted by the Quadriga of the Sun led by Hadrian himself in the guise of the Sol Invictus.
Thanks to our archaeoastronomy discoveries and an in-depth study of the remaining original structures, we propose a new and unprecedented reconstruction without a mound, which you can discover in our new book «Castel Sant'Angelo. Mausoleo di Adriano. Architettura e Luce» (forthcoming also in English Language).