00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:36Nero's palace was praised in descriptions handed down by ancient authors,
00:41who emphasized its size and splendor.
00:44However, this golden house, the Domus Aurea, is still currently poorly known
00:49because the buildings erected by Nero's successors have largely covered it over.
00:58The historian Suetonius recounted that the palace included several dining rooms
01:03and the main one, which was round, turned on itself day and night,
01:08imitating the movement of the world.
01:14Thanks to this text, we are able to understand the role and purpose
01:18of the amazing structures that archaeologists have started to uncover.
01:33At first, when we started to clear the pillar,
01:36we were all extremely impressed by its size.
01:43We can clearly say that we were emotionally moved
01:46by this exceptional and powerful architecture.
01:55As the days went by, we managed to uncover clues
01:58that led us first to confirm that the construction was undeniably Neronian.
02:11And then to confirm that it was indeed Nero's revolving dining room,
02:15a monument that the texts describe as exceptional.
02:19Yes, for us archaeologists, this is a wonderful discovery.
02:28The building, uncovered in 2009, stood on the slopes of the Palatine Hill.
02:34The circular design has a diameter of 16 meters
02:37and is surrounded by a wall of over 2 meters thick.
02:41In the center stands a 4 meters wide pillar in solid masonry.
02:46Halfway up, a first series of eight arcs
02:49connects the pillar to the periphery wall.
02:52These arcs were used to support the paving on the first floor.
02:57This floor is crowned by a second series of eight arcs,
03:00similar to the previous one.
03:06Together, these three elements,
03:08the periphery wall, the pillar, and the two sets of arcs,
03:11create a very powerful structure.
03:18On the first floor, there is a door
03:20that passes through the periphery wall and opens into a service space.
03:26The absence of decoration inside the building
03:28reveals that it served as a base
03:30while the most important element originally stood above.
03:36only the base has been preserved, however.
03:38The upper part has been completely dismantled,
03:41and in its place,
03:42only traces of extraordinary installations remain visible.
03:47In fact, at the top of this tower-like building,
03:50and precisely in its center,
03:52there is a cavity 30 centimeters deep and 16 centimeters wide.
04:00other cavities were hollowed out and arranged in a pattern.
04:04Apparently, they were used to encase special spheres,
04:07like the ones discovered in the Italian lake Nemi.
04:12These elements are the ancestors of our current ball bearings,
04:15and were made of bronze spheres prolonged by two pins.
04:21These enabled the device to be attached to a wooden floor
04:24in such a way that the spheres could turn
04:26without coming out of their slots.
04:30The presence of these spheres indicate
04:32that there must have been a moving surface
04:34above the fixed floor
04:36that would rotate around the central pivot.
04:43The second flooring had to be a complex work of carpentry,
04:46covered with a marble paving.
04:50In order to rotate,
04:52the surface was certainly driven by a mechanism of some sort.
04:55The spheres only facilitated the movement.
04:58Very fine clay found in these sockets acted as a lubricant.
05:08In a part of the building that has been revealed by the dig,
05:11there are traces of this mechanism,
05:13which probably relied on the power of water.
05:20Lime deposits found on some stones
05:22are evidence that water flowed abundantly.
05:25An aqueduct is also known to have reached the area.
05:29We must therefore imagine that there must have been a wheel
05:32that was driven by a source of water
05:34that must have been powerful,
05:35considering the difference of height
05:37between the building and the aqueduct.
05:43The force generated by the wheel
05:45was then transmitted to the mobile floor
05:47through transmission shafts and gears,
05:50as required to create the rotation
05:52at a regular and very slow rhythm.
06:00Imprints of metal objects
06:02and an iron fixture set into the masonry
06:04are all that remain of this mechanism.
06:08All metal elements were carefully salvaged
06:11when the building was abandoned.
06:19To get an idea of what the dining room could have looked like,
06:23we can refer to an ancient document,
06:25the image of a building that appears on the reverse side
06:28of a coin minted during Nero's reign.
06:34Here we distinguish a cylindrical central body with two wings.
06:39This central body is divided into two parts,
06:42one of which, the lower part,
06:43seems to correspond to the base partially excavated in 2009.
06:49The reconstruction proposed as a hypothesis
06:51has been designed by cross-checking data from the excavation
06:55with the details provided by the coins.
06:59Eight columns erected on the perimeter wall
07:01surrounded a marble parapet
07:03and supported the architrave and the roof.
07:13The inscription surrounding the image
07:15of the building on the coin
07:16could well be the abbreviation of Machina Augusti,
07:20the machine of the emperor.
07:23This term is consistent with the vocabulary used
07:26by another Roman historian, Tecidus,
07:29who assigns the title of Machinatores
07:31to Seller and Severus,
07:33the two engineers and architects
07:35who built Nero's palace.
07:39This monument is fairly representative
07:42of one of Nero's facets,
07:44his taste for highly technical constructions
07:47that were considered quite exceptional at that time.
08:01Shortly after Nero's death in 1616,
08:03the building was abandoned.
08:06The upper part,
08:07which combined perishable
08:08and precious materials,
08:09was dismantled
08:10and with great care,
08:12artifacts of the mechanism
08:13and spheres were removed.
08:17On the other hand,
08:19the base was left untouched
08:20and was buried under embankments
08:22used to create a large artificial terrace
08:24that became the base of a section
08:26of the later Flavian palace.
08:28of the palace.
08:32Trapped in the embankments
08:34of the Palatine Hill,
08:35used as foundations for other buildings,
08:38the unsuspected remains
08:40of the powerful cylindrical building
08:42patiently rested until their discovery in 2009.
08:47Because of its location on the slopes of the Palatine,
08:50we can only imagine the breathtaking panorama
08:53that Nero and his guests must have enjoyed
08:55from the top of the rotating platform.
08:59The Balatine Hill
09:01of the Palatine Hill
09:02of the Palatine Hill
09:06of the Palatine Hill
09:10angef一樣
09:39Namely Tore
09:40The Balatine Hill
09:40has provided the ambigu fonds to cook
10:08Sous-titrage MFP.
10:10...
