National Museum of Rome
The Museo Nazionale Romano is housed in the Baths which Diocletian had built between the last years of the third century and the beginning of the fourth century A.C. (the dedicatory inscription dated 306 A.C. is conserved in a fragmentary state in the Museum). The building of the baths, the largest in the ancient world, included many rooms besides the traditional calidarium, tepidarium and frigidarium - which were designed to hold 3,000 people at the same time. There was a natatio or frigidarium for swimmers (Iarge open air swimming pool) and various other rooms, meeting rooms, librarie s, nymphaleums, dressing rooms, concert rooms and rooms for physical exercices etc. The calidarium, which was partially conserved up to the seventeenth century, took up part of what is now Piazza dell’Esedra. There remains today the apse wall, which is now the entrance to the church of S. Maria degli Angeli. The tepidarium can be identified in the large domed round octagonal hall which now corresponds to the transept of the Basilica. The covered frigidarium may be identified with the vast hall which Michelangelo, commissioned by Pius IV in 1561, converted into the nave of the church, creating its entrance at the eastern end towards what is today the Piazza dei Cinquecento. Michelangelo incorporated the framework of the classical ruins into his design but treated them with the greatest respect. The history of the Baths has never been a happy one, beginning with the siege of Vitige, who cut off the Roman acqueducts in 538, the building has been despoiled for centuries and looted for all the material considered useful up unti! the last ravages for the construction of Stazione Termini.
The idea, first discussed in 1889, for choosing the Baths as the home for the Archaelogical Museum was put into effect in 1907 with the passing of the necessary law. In 1911, the Monument was the site of the Archaelogical Exhibition held in Rome on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the kingdom of Italy.
At the present time, on account of staff shortages and reorganisation and building work in progress, certain rooms are closed to the public. Nevertheless the most important works in these parts of the museum, which are at present temporarily closed, are indicated hare.
In the group of rooms which makes up the first part of the itinerary, particular attention should be paid to the sarcophagi with representations of a Dyonisian Thiasos, dating trom the end of the third century A.C.; the legend of Phedra (Room I); standing Muses of the “colonnette” type which date trom the end of the forth century A.C. (ROOM II); a Christian Sarcophagus bearing the name of Marcus Claudianus; a fragment of a Hebrew sarcophagus, figuring the Candelabrum with seven arms, a polychrome mosaic trom Via Merulana dating from the third century A.C. (Room III); a mosaic from Collemancio near Assisi figuring hunting Pygmies and animals; the dedicatory inscription of the Baths of Diocletian; the colossal statue of Kore which came trom Ariccia, a Roman replica from the originai attributed either to Kresilas or to Alkamenes; the sarcophagus showing details of the cavalry battle batween the Romans and Barbarians, from the end of the second century A.D.; the other sarcophagus figuring the meeting of Dionysus with Arianne trom the end of the second century A.C.. (Room IV); the mosaic showing quadrigae taking part in a race in the circus, which came from Via Imperiae and which dates back to the fourth century A.C.
ROOM XI contains the marble fragments bearing the inscriptions known as the Acts of the Arval Brotherhood, followers of the cult of the Goddes Ceres. One should also note the splendid mosaic of Nereids riding on marine animals (from Casalotti) and those of Hector being dragged in the dust (from Ceccano) and of Hercules and Acheleus (from Anzio). From here we pass into ROOM IX (with its double apse) where there is a sarcophagus in the form of a basin, an arch·sarcophagus from the Via Tuscolana a bath and several architectonic elements.
ROOM X contains the reconstructed tomb of Gaius Sulpicius Platorinus and his family, discovered during the building of the Tiber embankment between Ponte Sisto and the Farnesina. Opposite there is a tomb with murai decorations on the walls and ceilings of the rooms; this was discovered at the foot of the hill of Monteverde in Rome.
The itinerary continues through the modern garden towards Piazza dei Cinquecento, which today constitutes the entrance which corresponds in part to the ancient garden of the Baths and which contains architectural marble remains, part of the collection of inscriptions belonging to the museum and miscellaneous archeo· logical materia!. A small glassed·in arcade (mosaics and fragments of reliefs) leads from the garden into an entrance hall from which one enters the new rooms.
Tags: calidarium, frigidarium, Michelangelo, National Museum of Rome, Pius IV, Roman acqueducts, tepidarium