The great Roman emperor Augustus, grandnephew of Julius Caesar, was frightened of thunder and fond of virgins, but his most publicized characteristic was opposition to ostentation. He lived, according to the historian Suetonius, in a modest house on Rome's Palatine Hill. But his successor, Tiberius, crowned the hill with an elaborate palace, and when the Roman Empire fell, barbarian kings. Popes and nobles made their homes on the Palatine.
Under their masses of masonry the modest home of the great Augustus was buried and forgotten.
Only a few dim clues remain to suggest where...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
