gems, ancient gemology, ancient jewelry, Rome, Caligula, glyptic

In the 1990s, a construction project was submitted to the Municipality of Rome for the complete reconstruction of a building and the creation of six underground levels in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. Initially a private initiative included in an Urban Recovery Plan, the project was granted a building permit by Department IX in 2001 and later adopted by the Municipality as a public work subject to a Conference of Services, with the aim of redeveloping that part of the Esquiline district. However, the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome expressed serious concerns about the project’s feasibility, as archaeological evidence indicated that the area beneath the building contained remains of the Horti Lamiani. These gardens, destroyed in the late 19th century, were documented by Rodolfo Lanciani and archaeologically reconstructed in 1986 by Eugenio La Rocca and Maddalena Cima in their book Le tranquille dimore degli dei. The site was originally a luxurious residence established during the Augustan era by the consul Lucius Aelius Lamia, later acquired by the imperial domain under Tiberius and used by Caligula as an urban villa (see Suetonius, Caligula 59; Philo Judaeus, Legatio ad Gaium 351 ff.).