Emily Chan
Last summer, the ornate ruins of Nero’s Theater were discovered during excavations of a Renaissance building in Rome, Italy.
The imperial structure has been mentioned in several ancient Roman texts, but no one had ever been able to locate it.
Since 2020, a team of researchers from the Special Superintendence of Rome has been digging near the Vatican in a courtyard that was slated to be the site of a luxury hotel.
The team uncovered two large brick structures, stucco walls painted with gold leaf, rare African marble columns, and storage rooms where Nero rehearsed his performances and where stage equipment was kept.
The obvious wealth of the remains matched the descriptions made by ancient Roman authors, confirming that they were from Nero’s theater.
“The size of the building, the beauty of the decorations, and the materials used suggest an imperial commission, so we can presume that it is Nero’s theater, just as Pliny, Suetonius, and Tacitus had described it,” said one of the archaeologists, Alessio De Cristofaro.
Nero was a Roman emperor who took the throne in A.D. 54 at the age of 16 and died in A.D. 68. He was considered the worst ruler in the history of the empire.
During his reign, he was infamous for his persecution of Christians and other sadistic tendencies. He was also a lover of the arts and fancied himself a great performer.
He had the theater erected to emphasize his status as a powerful ruler, and so he could sing, act, and perform poetry readings on stage.
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