The Palatine Hill (/ˈpælətaɪn/; Latin: Collis Palatium or Mons Palatinus; Italian: Palatino [palaˈtiːno]) is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands 40 metres above the Forum Romanum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other. It is the etymological origin of the word “palace” and its cognates in other languages (Italian “Palazzo”, French “Palais”, German “Palast”, Czech “Palác” etc.). According to Livy (59 BC – AD 17) the Palatine hill got its name from the Arcadian settlement of Pallantium. More likely, it is derived from the noun palātum “palate”; Ennius uses it once for the “heaven”, and it may be connected with the Etruscan word for sky, falad. The term palace itself stems from Palatium.

According to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the cave, known as the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf Lupa that kept them alive. According to this legend, the shepherd Faustulus thereafter found the infants, and with his wife Acca Larentia raised the children. When they were older, the boys killed their great-uncle (who seized the throne from their grandfather), and they both decided to build a new city of their own on the banks of the River Tiber. Suddenly, they had a violent argument with each other and in the end Romulus killed his twin brother Remus. This is how “Rome” got its name – from Romulus. Another legend to occur on the Palatine is Hercules’ defeat of Cacus after the monster had stolen some cattle. Hercules struck Cacus with his characteristic club so hard that it formed a cleft on the southeast corner of the hill, where later a staircase bearing the name of Cacus was constructed. Rome has its origins on the Palatine. Indeed, recent excavations show that people have lived there since approximately 10,000 BC. According to Livy, after the immigration of the Sabines and the Albans to Rome, the original Romans lived on the Palatine.

Many affluent Romans of the Republican period (c.509 BC – 44 BC) had their residences there. During the Empire (27 BC – 476 AD) several emperors resided there; in fact, the ruins of the palaces of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), Tiberius (14 – 37 AD) and Domitian (81 – 96 AD) can still be seen. Augustus also built a temple to Apollo here, beside his own palace. The Palatine Hill was also the site of the festival of the Lupercalia. One building, believed to be the residence of Livia (58 BC – 29 AD), the wife of Augustus, is currently undergoing renovation. Situated near to the house of Livia is the temple of Cybele, currently not fully excavated and not open to the public. Behind this structure, cut into the side of the hill, is the so-called House of Tiberius.

Overlooking the Forum Romanum is the Flavian Palace which was built largely during the reign of the Flavian dynasty (69 – 96) – Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. This palace, which was extended and modified by several emperors, extends across the Palatine Hill and looks out over the Circus Maximus. The building of the greater part of the palace visible from the Circus was undertaken in the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus (146 – 211).

Immediately adjacent to the Flavian palace of Severus is the Hippodrome of Domitian or Stadium (160 x 48 m). This is a structure which has the appearance of a Roman Circus and whose name means Circus in Greek, but is too small to accommodate chariots. Hippodromes were originally areas for exercising horses, but later in Rome, Hippodrome was used to describe elongated rectangular gardens. It can also be described as a Greek Stadium that is a venue for foot races. However, its exact purpose is disputed. While it is certain that during the Severan period it was used for sporting events, it was most likely originally built as a stadium-shaped garden. According to a guide from the Sopraintendenza Archeologica di Roma, most of the statuary in the nearby Palatine museum comes from the Hippodrome.

On the eastern side of the Hippodrome is a large exedra decorated with sculptures and fountains commanding views of the garden below. Domitian also built a larger stadium that was actually used for foot-racing competitions; it exists today as Piazza Navona, lo stadio di Domiziano. During Augustus’ reign, an area of the Palatine Hill was roped off for a sort of archaeological expedition, which found fragments of Bronze Age pots and tools. He declared this site the “original town of Rome.” Modern archaeology has identified evidence of Bronze Age settlement in the area which predates Rome’s founding. There is a museum on the Palatine in which artifacts dating from before the official foundation of the City are displayed. The museum also contains Roman statuary.

An altar to an unknown deity, once thought to be Aius Locutius, was discovered here in 1820. In July 2006, archaeologists announced the discovery of the Palatine House, which they believe to be the birthplace of Rome’s first Emperor, Augustus. Head archaeologist Clementina Panella uncovered a section of corridor and other fragments under Rome’s Palatine Hill, which she described on July 20 as “a very ancient aristocratic house.” The two story house appears to have been built around an atrium, with frescoed walls and mosaic flooring, and is situated on the slope of the Palatine that overlooks the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. The Republican-era houses on the Palatine were overbuilt by later palaces after the Great Fire of Rome (64), but apparently this one was not; the tempting early inference is that it was preserved for a specific and important reason. On the ground floor, three shops opened onto the Via Sacra. The location of the domus is important because of its potential proximity to the Curiae Veteres, the earliest shrine of the curies of Rome.

The Pantheon Latin: Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθεον meaning “every god”) is a building in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. He retained Agrippa’s original inscription, which has confused its date of construction.

The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon’s dome is still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft). It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because it has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a church dedicated to “St. Mary and the Martyrs” (Latin: Santa Maria ad Martyres) but informally known as “Santa Maria Rotonda”. The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda.

Pantheon is derived from the Ancient Greek “Pantheon” (Πάνθεον) meaning “of, relating to, or common to all the gods”: (Pan /”Παν” meaning “all” + Theon / “θεον”= meaning “gods”). Cassius Dio, a Roman senator who wrote in Greek, speculated that the name comes either from the statues of so many gods placed around this building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. His uncertainty strongly suggests that “Pantheon” (or Pantheum) was merely a nickname, not the formal name of the building. In fact, the concept of a pantheon dedicated to all the gods is questionable. The only definite pantheon recorded earlier than Agrippa’s was at Antioch in Syria, though it is only mentioned by a sixth-century source. Ziegler tried to collect evidence of panthea, but his list consists of simple dedications “to all the gods” or “to the Twelve Gods,” which are not necessarily true panthea in the sense of a temple housing a cult that literally worships all the gods.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Marcus Agrippa started an impressive building program: the Pantheon was a part of the complex created by him on his own property in the Campus Martius in 29-19 BC, which included three buildings aligned from south to north: the Baths of Agrippa, the Basilica of Neptune, and the Pantheon. It seems likely that the Pantheon and the Basilica of Neptune were Agrippa’s sacra privata, not aedes publicae (public temples). This less solemn designation would help explain how the building could have so easily lost its original name and purpose (Ziolkowski contends that it was originally the Temple of Mars in Campo) in such a relatively short period of time.
The concrete for the coffered dome was poured in moulds, probably mounted on temporary scaffolding. The oculus is the main source of natural light.

M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT
or in full, “Marcus] Agrippa L[ucii] f[ilius] co[n]s[ul] tertium fecit,” meaning “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made [this building] when consul for the third time.” However, archaeological excavations have shown that the Pantheon of Agrippa had been completely destroyed except for the façade.

The Augustan Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in the year 80 AD. Domitian rebuilt the Pantheon, which was burnt again in 110 AD.

The degree to which the decorative scheme should be credited to Hadrian’s architects is uncertain. Finished by Hadrian but not claimed as one of his works, it used the text of the original inscription on the new façade (a common practice in Hadrian’s rebuilding projects all over Rome; the only building on which Hadrian put his own name was the Temple to the Deified Trajan). How the building was actually used is not known. The Historia Augusta says that Hadrian dedicated the Pantheon (among other buildings) in the name of the original builder (Hadr. 19.10), but the current inscription could not be a copy of the original; it provides no information as to who Agrippa’s foundation was dedicated to.

The Palazzo Altemps is located in the modern rione Ponte, part of the Campus Martius, and directly north of the Piazza Navona. In the ancient Rome, this site was only 160 meters from the Ponte Elio, and was one of the two main marble ports on the Tiber River in Rome. The other was located in what is now Testaccio. In 1891, during the construction works to build the embankments that now hold back the Tiber River, the remains of this dock were uncovered. The marble was worked—into statuary, sculptural decoration, or architectural decoration— in shops, the ruins of which have been found in the zone between the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Chiesa Nuova, and the Tiber River. A few of these ancient shops bear signs of hasty abandonment after the time of the emperor Trajan; tools and even unfinished statues were discovered in some cases. There was also likely a temple to Apollo located in this area, over which has been built the church of Sant’Apollinare.

In the Middle Ages and onwards, the Campus Martius was divided between by the Ghibelline eastern zone, led by the aristocratic Colonna family, and a western zone by the Guelfs, led by the Orsini family. The division was mostly abandoned after the Great Schism in the 15th century, and the Campus Martius underwent a period of urbanization, leading to the present Palazzo Altemps.
The building was designed in the 15th century by Melozzo da Forlì for Girolamo Riario, who was related to Pope Sixtus IV. There is still a fresco on one wall of the Room of the Sideboard in the Palazzo that celebrates the wedding of Girolamo to Caterina Sforza in 1477, showing the silver plates and other wedding gifts given to the couple. When the Riario family began to decline after the death of Pope Sixtus IV, the Palazzo was sold to Cardinal Francesco Soderini of Volterra, who commissioned further refinements from the architects Sangallo the Elder and Baldassarre Peruzzi.
When the Soderini family fell on hard times, he in turn sold it in 1568 to the Austrian-born cardinal Mark Sittich von Hohenems Altemps, the son of the sister of Pope Pius IV. Cardinal Altemps commissioned the architect Martino Longhi to expand and improve the palazzo; it was Longhi who built the belvedere. Cardinal Altemps accumulated an impressive collection of books and ancient sculpture. Though his position as the second son in his family meant Marco Sittico Altemps became a cleric, he was not inclined to priesthood. His mistress bore him a son, Roberto, made Duke of Gallese. Unfortunately, Roberto Altemps did not enjoy the Palace long; he was executed for adultery in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V. The Altemps family continued, though, to mix in the circles of Italian nobility throughout the 17th century. Roberto’s granddaughter Maria Cristina d’Altemps married Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, Duke of Bomarzo. The Palazzo Altemps became the property of the Holy See in the 19th century, and the building was used as a seminary for a short time. It was granted to the Italian State in 1982 and after 15 years of restoration, inaugurated as a museum in 1997.
It houses the museum’s displays on the history of collecting (sculptures from Renaissance collections such as the Boncompagni-Ludovisi and Mattei collections, including the Ludovisi Ares, Ludovisi Throne, and the Suicide of a Gaul (from the same Pergamon group as the Dying Gaul) and the Egyptian Collection (sculptures of eastern deities). The palace also includes the historic private theatre, at present used to house temporary exhibitions, and the church of Sant’ Aniceto.

The Roman bridge of Córdoba is a bridge in the Historic centre of Córdoba, Andalusia, southern Spain, built in the early 1st century BC across the Guadalquivir river. The bridge was built by the Romans in the early 1st century BC, perhaps replacing a previous wooden one. It currently, after the Islamic reconstruction, has 16 arcades, one less than original ones, and a total length of 247 meters. The width is around 9 meters.

The Via Augusta, which connected Rome to Cádiz, most likely passed through it. During the early Islamic domination the Muslim governor Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani ordered a bridge to be built on the ruins of what was left of the old Roman construction. In the Middle Ages, the Calahorra Tower and the Puerta del Puente were built at the bridge’s southern and northern ends, respectively (the latter is now a 16th-century reconstruction). The bridge was reconstructed and expanded to its current size. The arches depict the famous Moorish architecture that dominates the city’s scenery. In the 17th century, a sculpture depicting St. Raphael was put in the mid of the bridge, executed by Bernabé Gómez del Río.
During its history, the bridge was restored and renovated several times (in particular in the 10th century), and now only the 14th and 15th arches (counting from the Puerta del Puente) are original. It was extensively restored in 2006.

The Naples National Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, MANN) is a museum in Naples, southern Italy, at the northwest corner of the original Greek wall of the city of Neapolis. The museum contains a large collection of Roman artifacts from Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum. The collection includes works of the highest quality produced in Greek, Roman and Renaissance times. It is the most important Italian archaeological museum and is considered one of the most important in the world.

Charles III of Spain founded the museum in the 1750s. The building he used for it had been erected as a cavalry barracks and during its time as the seat of the University of Naples (from 1616 to 1777) was extended, in the late 18th century.

The museum hosts extensive collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. Their core is from the Farnese Collection, which includes a collection of engraved gems (including the Farnese Cup, a Ptolemaic bowl made of sardonyx agate and the most famous piece in the “Treasure of the Magnificent”, and is founded upon gems collected by Cosimo de’ Medici and Lorenzo il Magnifico in the 15th century) and the Farnese Marbles. Among the notable works found in the museum are the Herculaneum papyri, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, found after 1752 in Villa of the Papyri.

The greater part of the museum’s classical sculpture collection largely comes from the Farnese Marbles, important since they include Roman copies of classical Greek sculpture, which are in many cases the only surviving indications of what the lost works by ancient Greek sculptors such as Calamis, Kritios and Nesiotes looked like. Many of these works, especially the larger ones, have been moved to the Museo di Capodimonte for display in recent years.

• The Farnese Hercules, which fixed the image of Hercules in the European imagination.
• The Farnese Atlas is the oldest extant depiction of Atlas from Greek mythology, and the oldest view of the Western constellations, possibly based upon the star catalog of Hipparchus
• The Farnese Bull, widely considered the largest single sculpture ever recovered from antiquity.
• The group Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a Roman copy of a bronze work that once stood in the Agora of Athens.
• The Venus Kallipygos
• The Farnese Artemis, again a Roman copy of a Greek original
• A collection of busts of Roman emperors
• Another set of Roman sculptures (again mainly copies of Greek work) that (like the Hercules) once stood in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
• Bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri,  a major collection of ancient Roman bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri is housed at the museum. These include the Seated Hermes, a sprawling Drunken Satyr, a bust of Thespis, another variously identified as Seneca or Hesiod, and a pair of exceptionally lively runners.
• The museum’s Mosaic Collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities. This includes the Alexander Mosaic, dating from circa 100 BC, originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Another mosaic found is that of the gladiatorial fighter depicted in a mosaic found from the Villa of the Figured Capitals in Pompeii.
• The Secret Cabinet (Gabbinete) or Secret Room is the name of the Bourbon Monarchy gave the private rooms in which they held their fairly extensive collection of erotic or sexual items, mostly deriving from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Access was limited to only persons of mature age and known morals. The rooms were also called Cabinets of matters reserved or obscene or pornographic. After the revolution of 1848, the government of the monarchy even proposed the destruction of objects, fearful of the implications of their ownership, which would tarnish the monarchy with lasciviousness. The then director of the Royal Bourbon Museum instead had access to the collection terminated, and the entrance door was provided with three different locks, whose keys were held respectively by the Director of the Museum, the Museum Controller, and the Palace Butler. The highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the collection would vanish from memory.

The Capitoline Museums (Italian: Musei Capitolini) are a single museum containing a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing on the central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of more than 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on the Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums’ collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome.

The statue of a mounted rider in the centre of the piazza is of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is a copy, the original being housed on-site in the Capitoline museum. Many Roman statues were destroyed on the orders of Christian Church authorities in the Middle Ages; this statue was preserved in the erroneous belief that it depicted the Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman empire.

Open to the public in 1734 under Clement XII, the Capitoline Museums are considered the first museum in the world, understood as a place where art could be enjoyed by all and not only by the owners.

The Capitoline Museums are composed of three main buildings surrounding the Piazza del Campidoglio and interlinked by an underground gallery beneath the piazza.

The three main buildings of the Capitoline Museums are:

• Palazzo Senatorio, built in the 12th century and modified according to Michelangelo’s designs
• Palazzo dei Conservatori, built in the mid-16th century and redesigned by Michelangelo with the first use of the giant order column design.
• Palazzo Nuovo, built in the 17th century with an identical exterior design to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, which it faces across the palazzo.
• In addition, the 16th century Palazzo Caffarelli-Clementino, located off the piazza adjacent to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, was added to the museum complex in the early 20th century.

The second floor of the building is occupied by the Conservator’s Apartment, a space now open to the public and housing such famous works as the bronze she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, which has become the emblem of Rome. The Conservator’s Apartment is distinguished by elaborate interior decorations, including frescoes, stuccos, tapestries, and carved ceilings and doors.

The third floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori houses the Capitoline Art Gallery, housing the museums’ painting and applied art galleries. The Capitoline Coin Cabinet, containing collections of coins, medals, jewels, and jewelry, is located in the attached Palazzo Caffarelli-Clementino.

Statues, inscriptions, sarcophagi, busts, mosaics, and other ancient Roman artifacts occupy two floors of the Palazzo Nuovo.

In the Hall of the Galatian can also be appreciated the marble statue of the “Dying Gaul” also called “Capitoline Gaul” and the statue of Cupid and Psyche. Also housed in this building are:

• The colossal statue restored as Oceanus, located in the museum courtyard of this building.
• A fragment of the Tabula Iliaca located at the Hall of the Doves.
• The statue of Capitoline Venus, from an original by Praxiteles (4th century BC)
• The Galleria Congiunzione is located beneath the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the piazza itself, and links the three palazzos sitting on the piazza. The gallery was constructed in the 1930s. It contains in situ 2nd century ruins of ancient Roman dwellings, and also houses the Galleria Lapidaria, which displays the Museums’ collection of epigraphs.

The new great glass covered hall — the Sala Marco Aurelio — created by covering the Giardino Romano is similar to the one used for the Sala Ottagonale and British Museum Great Court. The design is by the architect Carlo Aymonino. Its volume recalls that of the oval space designed by Michelangelo for the piazza.

Its centerpiece is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which was once in the centre of Piazza del Campidoglio and has been kept indoors ever since its modern restoration. Moving these statues out of the palazzo allows those sculptures temporarily moved to the Centrale Montemartini to be brought back. It also houses the remaining fragments of the bronze Colossus of Constantine and the archaeological remains of the tuff foundations of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, with a model, drawn and computer reconstructions and finds dating from the earliest occupation on the site (in the mid Bronze Age: 17th-14th centuries B.C.) to the foundation of the temple (6th century BC).

In the three halls adjacent to the Appartamento dei Conservatori are to be found the showcases of the famous Castellani Collection with a part of the magnificent set of Greek and Etruscan vases that was donated to the Municipality of Rome by Augusto Castellani in the mid-19th century.

The Baths of Caracalla (Italian: Terme di Caracalla) in Rome, Italy, were the second largest Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 217, during the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla. They would have had to install over 2,000 tons of material every day for six years in order to complete it in this time. Records show that the idea for the baths were drawn up by Septimius Severus, and merely completed or opened in the lifetime of Caracalla. This would allow for a longer construction timeframe.

The baths remained in use until the 6th century when the complex was taken by the Ostrogoths during the Gothic War, at which time the hydraulic installations were destroyed. The bath was free and open to the public. The building was heated by a hypocaust, a system of burning coal and wood underneath the ground to heat water provided by a dedicated aqueduct. It was in use up to the 19th century. The Aqua Marcia aqueduct by Caracalla was specifically built to serve the baths. It was most likely reconstructed by Garbrecht and Manderscheid to its current place.

The baths were originally ornamented with high quality sculptures. Among the well-known pieces recovered from the Baths of Caracalla are the Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; others are in the Museo di Capodimonte there. One of the many statues is the colossal 4 m statue of Asclepius.
The Caracalla bath complex of buildings was more a leisure centre than just a series of baths. The “baths” were the second to have a public library within the complex. Like other public libraries in Rome, there were two separate and equal sized rooms or buildings; one for Greek language texts and one for Latin language texts.

The baths consisted of a central frigidarium (cold room) measuring 55.7 by 24 metres (183×79 ft) under three groin vaults 32.9 metres (108 ft) high, a double pool tepidarium (medium), and a caldarium (hot room) 35 metres (115 ft) in diameter, as well as two palaestras (gyms where wrestling and boxing were practiced). The north end of the bath building contained a natatio or swimming pool. The natatio was roofless with bronze mirrors mounted overhead to direct sunlight into the pool area. The entire bath building was on a raised platform 6 metres (20 ft) high to allow for storage and furnaces under the building.
The libraries were located in exedrae on the east and west sides of the bath complex. The entire north wall of the complex was devoted to shops. The reservoirs on the south wall of the complex were fed with water from the Marcian Aqueduct.

The Museu Municipal de Faro’s permanent exhibits include a range of artifacts from prehistoric Portugal to neoclassical times including pottery, paintings and a large 3rd century Roman mosaic showing Oceanus, the god of the sea, which was discovered near Faro Railway Station.