RomeDrill › Reference › Monuments of Ancient Rome

Monuments of Ancient Rome

The principal monuments of the ancient city, grouped by district. In the app you can find each of them on an unlabelled satellite map of Rome.

Find them on the map in RomeDrill →

Forum Romanum

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Temple of Vesta	c. 700 BC	Numa Pompilius	The circular shrine of the hearth goddess, traditionally founded by Numa, containing the eternal fire tended by the Vestal Virgins and the Palladium brought from Troy. Last rebuilt by Julia Domna after the fire of AD 191; the fire was extinguished under Theodosius I in 394.
Regia	c. 700 BC	Numa Pompilius	Traditionally the royal house of Numa, later the headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus. It contained the sacrarium of Mars with the ancilia (sacred shields) and spears, and a shrine of Ops Consiva. Rebuilt in marble by Domitius Calvinus in 36 BC.
Curia Hostilia	c. 650 BC	Tullus Hostilius	The first Senate house, traditionally built by King Tullus Hostilius. Enlarged by Sulla c. 80 BC, it was burned by the mob cremating Clodius in 52 BC; its site lies under the church of Santi Luca e Martina.
Carcer Tullianum	c. 640 BC	Ancus Marcius	Rome's state prison, attributed to Ancus Marcius, with a lower round cell (the Tullianum) originally a cistern. Captured enemy leaders were strangled here after triumphs; Christian tradition makes it the prison of Peter and Paul. It lies under San Giuseppe dei Falegnami.
Forum Romanum	c. 600 BC		The original civic square of Rome, paved c. 600 BC after the valley was drained by the Cloaca Maxima. It held the Senate house, the Comitium, the Rostra, the great basilicas and many of the oldest temples.
Comitium	c. 600 BC		The earliest place of political assembly in Rome, a consecrated templum in front of the Curia, flanked by the old Rostra and the Graecostasis. Largely built over by Caesar and Augustus.
Cloaca Maxima	c. 600 BC	Tarquinius Priscus	Rome's main sewer, begun as an open channel under the Tarquins c. 600 BC to drain the Forum valley and later vaulted. It runs from the Subura across the Forum (by the Basilica Aemilia) and the Velabrum to an outlet by the Ponte Palatino; parts are still in use.
Lapis Niger	c. 550 BC		A black-marble pavement (1st century BC) marking an archaic sanctuary that Romans believed to be the tomb of Romulus. Beneath it stands a 6th-century BC cippus inscribed boustrophedon in archaic Latin, mentioning a 'recei' (king).
Temple of Saturn	c. 497 BC		Dedicated c. 497 BC, one of the oldest temples of the Republic, and seat of the aerarium (state treasury). Rebuilt by Munatius Plancus in 42 BC; the eight standing columns belong to a restoration after a fire in the late 4th century AD.
Temple of Castor and Pollux	484 BC	Aulus Postumius Albus	Vowed by the dictator Aulus Postumius at Lake Regillus (c. 496 BC) and dedicated by his son in 484 BC. The three surviving columns date from Tiberius' rebuilding of AD 6. It served as a Senate meeting place and housed the office of weights and measures.
Temple of Concord	c. 367 BC	Camillus	Traditionally vowed by Camillus in 367 BC to celebrate harmony between the orders; rebuilt by Opimius in 121 BC after the killing of Gaius Gracchus and by Tiberius in AD 10. The Senate often met here; Cicero delivered the Fourth Catilinarian in it.
Basilica Aemilia	179 BC	Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior	Founded by the censors of 179 BC and repeatedly restored by the Aemilii; the only Republican basilica of which substantial remains survive. Fronted by the Tabernae Novae; it burned in the Gothic sack of 410.
Basilica Julia	46 BC	Julius Caesar	Dedicated unfinished by Caesar in 46 BC on the site of the Basilica Sempronia and completed by Augustus, who rebuilt it after a fire (AD 12). It housed the court of the centumviri; gaming boards are scratched into its steps.
Rostra	44 BC	Julius Caesar	The orators' platform, named for the prows (rostra) of the ships captured at Antium in 338 BC. Caesar moved it from the Comitium to the west end of the Forum in 44 BC and Augustus completed it. Cicero's head and hands were displayed on it in 43 BC.
Curia Julia	29 BC	Julius Caesar	Senate house begun by Julius Caesar in 44 BC to replace the Curia Cornelia and dedicated by Augustus in 29 BC. The standing building is Diocletian's rebuild after the fire of AD 283; it survived as the church of Sant'Adriano (from AD 630). It housed the altar and statue of Victory.
Temple of Divus Julius	29 BC	Augustus	Dedicated by Octavian on 18 August 29 BC on the site of Caesar's cremation; the first temple in Rome to a deified mortal. Its front platform (Rostra ad Divi Iulii) carried the rams of ships taken at Actium; the core of the altar in its niche survives.
Milliarium Aureum	20 BC	Augustus	A gilded bronze column erected by Augustus in 20 BC as curator viarum, at the south end of the Rostra. All roads were considered to begin at it. Otho's coup of AD 69 began with a rendezvous here.
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina	AD 141	Antoninus Pius	Built by Antoninus Pius in AD 141 for his deified wife Faustina the Elder and rededicated to both after his death in 161. Its cipollino-marble porch and cella walls survive because it became the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda.
Arch of Septimius Severus	AD 203	Senate	Dedicated in AD 203 to Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta for the Parthian campaigns of 194-199. After Caracalla murdered Geta in 211 his brother's name was erased from the inscription.
Temple of Romulus	c. AD 309	Maxentius	A circular domed hall with a concave facade, usually identified as the temple Maxentius dedicated to his deified son Valerius Romulus (d. 309), not the city's founder. Its late-antique bronze doors are original; in 527 it became the vestibule of Santi Cosma e Damiano.
Basilica of Maxentius	AD 312	Maxentius	Begun by Maxentius in 308 and completed by Constantine after 312, with a groin-vaulted nave modelled on the halls of the imperial baths. The colossal seated statue of Constantine (fragments in the Capitoline Museums) stood in its west apse.
Column of Phocas		Smaragdus	A 13.6 m Corinthian column rededicated on 1 August AD 608 by the exarch Smaragdus to the Eastern emperor Phocas. It was the last honorific monument erected in the Forum Romanum.
House of the Vestals			The residence of the six Vestal Virgins behind the Temple of Vesta, rebuilt on a larger scale after the fire of AD 64 and again under Trajan and the Severans. Statues of senior Vestals (Virgines Vestales Maximae) line its courtyard.
Via Sacra			The main street of the Forum Romanum, leading from the saddle of the Velia (Arch of Titus) down through the Forum to the Clivus Capitolinus. Triumphs followed it on the way up to the Temple of Jupiter.

Capitoline

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus	c. 509 BC	Tarquinius Superbus	Built by the Tarquins and dedicated on 13 September 509 BC by the consul M. Horatius Pulvillus to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. It burned in 83 BC, AD 69 and AD 80 and was rebuilt each time, last by Domitian. Part of its tufa podium is visible in the Capitoline Museums.
Tabularium	78 BC	Quintus Lutatius Catulus	The state archive built by the consul Q. Lutatius Catulus in 78 BC as part of the Sullan programme, on the Forum-facing slope of the Capitoline. Its arcades framed by engaged Doric half-columns are an early example of that motif; the Palazzo Senatorio stands on top of it.
Gemonian Stairs			Steps leading from the Forum past the Carcer up to the Arx, used in the early Empire to expose the bodies of executed prisoners. Sejanus (AD 31) and the emperor Vitellius (AD 69) ended here.
Tarpeian Rock			A precipice on the south side of the Capitoline used for the execution of traitors and other criminals during the Republic. Named after Tarpeia, who opened the citadel to Titus Tatius' Sabines and was crushed under their shields.
Asylum			The depression between the Arx and the Capitolium ('inter duos lucos'), where Romulus was said to have opened a sanctuary for refugees and outlaws. It is now occupied by the Piazza del Campidoglio.

Imperial Fora

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Forum of Caesar	46 BC	Julius Caesar	The first imperial forum, dedicated by Caesar in 46 BC (completed by Augustus) as an extension of the Forum Romanum, with the Temple of Venus Genetrix at its north-west end. The land alone reportedly cost 100 million sesterces.
Temple of Venus Genetrix	46 BC	Julius Caesar	Vowed by Caesar at Pharsalus (48 BC) and dedicated on 26 September 46 BC to Venus as mother of the gens Julia. It held a cult statue by Arcesilaus and a gilded statue of Cleopatra; the three standing columns are from Trajan's rebuilding (AD 113).
Forum of Augustus	2 BC	Augustus	Dedicated in 2 BC with the Temple of Mars Ultor as its focus. Its porticoes and exedrae displayed the summi viri and the ancestors of the Julii from Aeneas and Romulus; caryatids copied from the Erechtheion decorated the attic. The great rear wall protected it from fires in the Subura.
Temple of Peace	AD 75	Vespasian	Built by Vespasian in AD 71-75 from the spoils of the Jewish War. It contained the treasures of the Jerusalem Temple, a library and famous works of art taken from Nero's Domus Aurea. Burned in 192 and restored by Septimius Severus, who mounted the Forma Urbis on one of its walls.
Forum of Nerva	AD 97	Domitian	Built by Domitian over the Argiletum and dedicated by Nerva in AD 97; called Transitorium because it served as a passage between the Subura and the Forum Romanum. The Temple of Minerva stood at its north-east end.
Trajan's Markets	c. AD 110	Trajan	A terraced complex of some 150 rooms on six levels shoring up the Quirinal slope behind the north-east exedra of Trajan's Forum, attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus. Probably administrative as much as commercial; it now houses the Museum of the Imperial Fora. The Torre delle Milizie above it is medieval.
Forum of Trajan	AD 112	Trajan	Inaugurated in AD 112, built by Apollodorus of Damascus from the spoils of the Dacian Wars. The complex comprised a vast porticoed square with the emperor's equestrian statue, the Basilica Ulpia, two libraries flanking Trajan's Column, and later the Temple of Divus Trajan.
Basilica Ulpia	AD 112	Trajan	Dedicated in AD 112 and named after Trajan's family (Ulpius), c. 170 m long with two apses. It separated the forum square from the column and libraries, took over the manumission functions of the Atrium Libertatis, and served as the model for later Christian basilicas.
Trajan's Column	AD 113	Trajan	Dedicated in AD 113 between the Greek and Latin libraries behind the Basilica Ulpia. Its helical frieze (c. 2,500 figures) narrates the Dacian Wars of 101-102 and 105-106; Trajan's ashes were placed in the base. The statue of St Peter on top dates from 1587.

Palatine

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
House of Augustus	c. 36 BC	Augustus	Octavian bought the house of Hortensius and neighbouring properties after 42 BC and lived there for over forty years. After lightning struck in 36 BC he vowed the adjacent Temple of Apollo. The Senate decorated its door with laurels and the oak crown (corona civica) in 27 BC.
House of Livia	c. 30 BC		A 1st-century BC house with Second Style wall paintings, excavated in 1869 and attributed to Livia on the basis of an inscribed water pipe. It formed part of the Augustan complex on the Palatine. (The garden frescoes of 'Livia' come from her villa at Prima Porta, not here.)
Temple of Apollo Palatinus	28 BC	Augustus	Vowed by Octavian in 36 BC (Naulochus) and dedicated on 9 October 28 BC, with the Portico of the Danaids and Greek and Latin libraries. Augustus transferred the Sibylline Books here; the Carmen Saeculare of Horace was sung before it in 17 BC.
Neronian Cryptoporticus	c. AD 60	Nero	A 130 m covered passage of the mid-1st century AD connecting the Domus Tiberiana with the other palace buildings. It is often, though anachronistically, pointed out as the place where Caligula was murdered in AD 41.
Domus Flavia	AD 92	Domitian	The state wing of Domitian's Palatine palace (the whole often called Domus Augustana), designed by Rabirius and inaugurated in AD 92. It remained the official seat of the emperors for three centuries and gave us the word 'palace' (Palatium).
Domus Augustana	AD 92	Domitian	The emperors' living quarters south-east of the Domus Flavia, by Rabirius (AD 92). The name means 'house of the Augusti', not of Augustus. Its lower court with a fountain of pelta-shaped islands opens onto an exedra facing the Circus Maximus.
Palatine Stadium	c. AD 92	Domitian	A 160 x 48 m garden in the form of a circus, part of Domitian's palace; probably a private garden and riding ground rather than a venue for races. The small oval enclosure at its south end was added in the time of Theodoric.
Lupercal			The sacred grotto at the foot of the Palatine towards the Circus Maximus, restored by Augustus, where Romulus and Remus were nursed by the wolf and from which the Luperci ran on 15 February. Its exact site is not securely identified (a vaulted nymphaeum found in 2007 is disputed).

Velia

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Arch of Titus	c. AD 81	Domitian	Erected by Domitian soon after AD 81 to his deified brother, commemorating the capture of Jerusalem in AD 70. Its reliefs show the spoils of the Temple and Titus in his chariot; the vault shows his apotheosis. Restored by Valadier in 1821, it was the model for many later arches including the Arc de Triomphe.
Temple of Venus and Roma	c. AD 135	Hadrian	Begun by Hadrian in AD 121 and dedicated c. 135 to Venus Felix and Roma Aeterna, on a vast platform on the Velia. Apollodorus of Damascus reputedly criticised the design and paid with his life. The surviving coffered apses date from Maxentius' rebuilding after the fire of 307.

Colosseum Valley

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Colossus of Nero	c. AD 68	Nero	A colossal bronze of the emperor made by Zenodorus for the Domus Aurea. Vespasian turned it into Sol; Hadrian moved it next to the amphitheatre to clear the site for the Temple of Venus and Roma. It probably gave the Colosseum its medieval name. Its base survived until 1936.
Colosseum	AD 80	Vespasian	Begun by Vespasian c. AD 72, inaugurated by Titus in AD 80 and completed by Domitian, who added the hypogeum and top storey. An ellipse of 188 x 156 m and c. 48 m high, it held roughly 50,000 spectators, shaded by the velarium worked by sailors of the Misenum fleet.
Ludus Magnus	c. AD 90	Domitian	The chief of the four gladiatorial schools built by Domitian near the amphitheatre (with the Ludus Matutinus, Dacicus and Gallicus). It had a practice arena with seating for about 3,000 and an underground passage to the Colosseum's hypogeum.
Arch of Constantine	AD 315	Senate	Dedicated by the Senate on 25 July 315 for Constantine's decennalia and his victory over Maxentius (312). The largest surviving Roman triumphal arch, famous for its spolia and for the inscription's phrase 'instinctu divinitatis' (by inspiration of the divinity).

Campus Martius

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Theatre of Pompey	55 BC	Pompey	Dedicated by Pompey in his second consulship (55 BC), it evaded the ban on permanent theatres by presenting the seating as steps to the Temple of Venus Victrix at the top. A vast portico with gardens stretched east to the curia where Caesar was killed. Substructures survive in the cellars around Via di Grotta Pinta and Palazzo Pio.
Curia of Pompey	55 BC	Pompey	Exedra-hall opening off the Portico of Pompey, used for Senate meetings while the Curia in the Forum was being rebuilt. Caesar was murdered here on 15 March 44 BC at the foot of Pompey's statue; Augustus had it walled up as a locus sceleratus and it later became a latrine. Its rear wall is visible behind Temples B and C in Largo Argentina.
Mausoleum of Augustus	c. 28 BC	Augustus	Begun by Augustus in 28 BC, it received Marcellus (23 BC), Agrippa, Drusus, Octavia, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Augustus himself (AD 14), Livia, Tiberius, Claudius and finally Nerva (AD 98). Its concrete core stands in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, next to the relocated Ara Pacis.
Portico of Octavia	c. 23 BC	Augustus	Built by Augustus after 27 BC in the name of his sister, replacing the Porticus Metelli (after 146 BC), it enclosed the temples of Jupiter Stator and Juno Regina, a library and a famous art collection. The surviving propylaeum dates from the restoration by Septimius Severus and Caracalla in AD 203 and houses the church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria.
Baths of Agrippa	c. 19 BC	Agrippa	Begun c. 25 BC as a laconicum and supplied from 19 BC by the Aqua Virgo, these were the first large public thermae in Rome. Agrippa left them to the Roman people for free use at his death in 12 BC. Part of the domed central hall survives as the Arco della Ciambella.
Crypta Balbi	13 BC	Lucius Cornelius Balbus	The covered portico (crypta) annexed to the Theatre of Balbus, dedicated with it in 13 BC. Excavated from 1981, it is now a branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano illustrating the transformation of an urban block from the Augustan age through late antiquity and the medieval period.
Theatre of Marcellus	c. 13 BC	Augustus	Planned by Caesar and completed by Augustus, who dedicated it (13 or 11 BC) to the memory of Marcellus, his nephew and intended heir who died in 23 BC. It held some 15,000 spectators; its superimposed Doric and Ionic arcades were a model for the Colosseum. Peruzzi built the Savelli (later Orsini) palace on top in the 16th century.
Ara Pacis	9 BC	Senate	Vowed on 4 July 13 BC and dedicated on 30 January 9 BC, it stood on the west side of the Via Flaminia (under today's Palazzo Fiano on Via in Lucina), where this pin is placed. Its fragments, recovered from 1568 to 1938, were reassembled beside the Mausoleum of Augustus, since 2006 in Richard Meier's museum.
Baths of Nero	c. AD 62	Nero	Built with an adjoining gymnasium c. AD 62, they prompted Martial's quip 'What is worse than Nero? What is better than Nero's baths?'. Severus Alexander rebuilt them in 227 as the Thermae Alexandrinae. Two granite columns re-erected in Via di Sant'Eustachio come from them, and others were used to repair the Pantheon's porch.
Stadium of Domitian	AD 86	Domitian	Built by Domitian for the athletic contests of his Certamen Capitolinum (AD 86), it was c. 275 m long and held about 30,000. Piazza Navona's buildings stand on its seating; remains of the curved north end are visible at Piazza di Tor Sanguigna.
Pantheon	c. AD 126	Hadrian	Temple to all the gods, first built by Agrippa (27–25 BC) and rebuilt by Hadrian c. AD 113–126. Its 43.3 m unreinforced concrete dome remained the world's largest for over a millennium; it survived as the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres (AD 609).
Temple of Hadrian	AD 145	Antoninus Pius	Dedicated by Antoninus Pius in 145. Eleven of the original thirteen columns of the north side and part of the cella wall survive, built into the 17th-century Dogana di Terra (later the Borsa). Reliefs personifying the provinces from its precinct are in the Capitoline Museums and Naples.
Column of Marcus Aurelius	c. AD 193		Erected between c. 176 and 193 (an inscription of 193 names its caretaker Adrastus) to celebrate the Marcomannic Wars. The shaft is 100 Roman feet (29.6 m) high with deeper, more expressive carving than Trajan's Column. Sixtus V restored it in 1589 and crowned it with a bronze St Paul.
Largo Argentina Sacred Area			Four temples of the 4th–2nd centuries BC (A–D from north to south), discovered during demolitions in 1926–29 and saved from redevelopment. They are tentatively identified as Juturna (A), Fortuna Huiusce Diei (B), Feronia (C) and the Lares Permarini (D). The Curia of Pompey lies directly behind Temples B and C.

Forum Boarium & Velabrum

Name	Built	What and where
Temple of Hercules Victor	c. 120 BC	A Greek-style tholos of c. 120 BC, probably financed by the oil merchant Marcus Octavius Herrenus and possibly designed by Hermodorus of Salamis. Nineteen of its twenty columns survive; the original entablature and roof are lost. It became the church of Santo Stefano delle Carrozze.
Temple of Portunus	c. 80 BC	Dedicated to the harbour god overlooking the Portus Tiberinus; the present building dates to c. 100–80 BC on a 4th–3rd century predecessor. Tetrastyle Ionic with engaged columns round the cella, it survived as the church of Santa Maria Egiziaca (from 872) and was long miscalled the Temple of Fortuna Virilis.
Arch of Janus	c. AD 350	A 16 m high four-faced arch of the mid-4th century, probably the Arcus Divi Constantini of the Regionary Catalogues, built by Constantine I or Constantius II. Its modern name derives from ianua (passage), not from a dedication to the god. The brick attic was removed in 1830.
Forum Boarium		The Forum Boarium grew up at the Tiber ford and river port where the salt route crossed, and was closely tied to the cult of Hercules. The first gladiatorial combat in Rome was held here in 264 BC at the funeral of Junius Brutus Pera, and pairs of Gauls and Greeks were buried alive here in 228 and 216 BC.

Circus Maximus Valley

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Circus Maximus	c. 600 BC	Tarquinius Priscus	Traditionally laid out by Tarquinius Priscus in the Vallis Murcia, monumentalised by Caesar and Augustus and rebuilt in stone by Trajan. About 621 × 118 m, it held at least 150,000; Augustus and Constantius II set obelisks on its spina (now in Piazza del Popolo and at the Lateran). The last recorded races were held by Totila in 549.

Aventine

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Santa Sabina	AD 432	Peter of Illyria	Built 422–432 by the priest Peter of Illyria, as its mosaic dedication records. Twenty-four matched Corinthian columns carry arcades in an airy nave that best conveys the look of an early Christian basilica. The carved wooden doors are original; since the 13th century it has been the mother church of the Dominicans.

Testaccio & Emporium

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Pyramid of Cestius	c. 12 BC		Tomb of Gaius Cestius Epulo, praetor, tribune of the plebs and septemvir epulonum. Its inscription records that it was completed in 330 days under the terms of his will. Reflecting the fashion for Egypt after 30 BC, it was built into the Aurelian Walls in the 270s and stands next to the Protestant Cemetery.
Monte Testaccio			A state-organised dump used from the Augustan period to the mid-3rd century for an estimated 53 million oil amphorae (chiefly Spanish Dressel 20, plus African types), which could not be reused. The painted control marks (tituli picti) on the sherds are a prime source for the Roman economy.

Trastevere

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Santa Maria in Trastevere	c. AD 340	Pope Julius I	One of the oldest tituli of Rome, founded according to tradition by Callixtus I (217–222) at the taberna meritoria where a spring of oil was said to have flowed in 38 BC, and built as a basilica by Julius I (337–352). The present church is Innocent II's rebuilding of 1140–43.

Vatican

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Circus of Gaius and Nero	c. AD 40	Caligula	Begun by Caligula and completed by Nero, it lay along the south flank of the later St Peter's. Caligula brought its 25 m obelisk from Egypt in AD 37; it stood on the spina until Domenico Fontana moved it for Sixtus V in 1586, the only obelisk in Rome never to have fallen.
Mausoleum of Hadrian	AD 139	Hadrian	Begun by Hadrian c. 130 in the Horti Domitiae and finished by Antoninus Pius in 139, it held the ashes of the emperors from Hadrian to Caracalla. Made a bastion of the city's defences under Honorius (c. 403), it took its present name from Gregory the Great's vision of the Archangel Michael during the plague of 590.
Old St Peter's Basilica	c. AD 326	Constantine I	Begun by Constantine c. 320 over the Vatican necropolis, traditionally consecrated in 326 and finished c. 360. About 120 m long, with a transept focusing on the apostle's shrine, it became the model for western church architecture; Charlemagne was crowned in it in 800. Julius II began its demolition in 1506.
Vatican Necropolis			Pagan and Christian mausolea along a road north of the Circus of Gaius and Nero, among them the Tomb of the Julii with a mosaic of Christ as the Sun. Beneath the high altar of St Peter's lies the 'Trophy of Gaius', an aedicula of c. AD 160 marking the traditional burial place of Peter.

Oppian

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Domus Aurea	c. AD 68	Nero	Nero's palace built after the Great Fire of 64 by the architects Severus and Celer and painted by Famulus, stretching from the Palatine over the Velia to the Oppian. The surviving Oppian wing, with its octagonal domed hall, was buried under the Baths of Trajan; the lake became the site of the Colosseum.
Baths of Trajan	AD 109	Trajan	Dedicated on 22 June 109 and attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus, these were the first baths with the canonical 'imperial' plan: a central bathing block inside a vast enclosure with exedrae, libraries and gardens. Exedrae survive in the Parco del Colle Oppio.
San Pietro in Vincoli	c. AD 439	Licinia Eudoxia	Rebuilt under Pope Sixtus III (432-440) with funds from the empress Licinia Eudoxia to hold the chains of St Peter. Its nave reuses twenty ancient Doric columns; today it is best known for Michelangelo's Moses.

Esquiline

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme	c. AD 325	Helena	A large hall of the Sessorian palace converted c. 325 into a chapel for the relics of the Passion brought from Jerusalem by Helena; its floor was said to be strewn with earth from Calvary. The present appearance is 18th-century.
Santa Pudenziana	c. AD 390		A titulus installed in a 2nd-century bath hall on the Vicus Patricius (Via Urbana) in the late 4th century. Its apse mosaic (c. 390-410) is the oldest surviving figural apse mosaic in a Roman church.
Santa Maria Maggiore	c. AD 434	Pope Sixtus III	The great Marian basilica built by Pope Sixtus III (432-440) after the Council of Ephesus (431). It preserves its late-antique basilican interior with 5th-century mosaics. Legend credits the foundation to Pope Liberius after a miraculous August snowfall.

Caelian

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Mithraeum of San Clemente	c. AD 200		The lowest level beneath the 12th-century basilica of San Clemente: a late-2nd-century Mithraeum inserted into a 1st-century insula beside a large public building (perhaps the mint), both later buried by a 4th-century church. The best-known example of Rome's layered stratigraphy.
Lateran Basilica	c. AD 324	Constantine I	Founded by Constantine c. 313 and dedicated to the Saviour (traditionally 324), the five-aisled basilica is the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. It was built over the Castra Nova of the equites singulares, disbanded for backing Maxentius, on land once owned by the Laterani family.
Santo Stefano Rotondo	c. AD 470	Pope Simplicius	Rome's first circular church, consecrated by Pope Simplicius (468-483): a central drum on 22 Ionic columns with ambulatories and an inscribed Greek cross, inspired by the Anastasis in Jerusalem. It stands over part of the Castra Peregrina.

Viminal

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Castra Praetoria	AD 23	Tiberius	The permanent camp (c. 440 x 380 m) in which Sejanus concentrated the Praetorian cohorts under Tiberius. Here Claudius was acclaimed in 41 and the empire auctioned to Didius Julianus in 193. Aurelian built its north, east and south walls into his circuit; Constantine disbanded the Guard in 312 and tore down the city-side wall.
Baths of Diocletian	AD 306	Diocletian	Built 298-306, commissioned by Maximian in the name of his senior colleague, covering about 13 hectares and said to hold 3,000 bathers. The frigidarium is now Santa Maria degli Angeli, other halls house the Museo Nazionale Romano, and Piazza della Repubblica preserves the curve of the great exedra.

Quirinal

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Gardens of Sallust	c. 40 BC	Sallust	Laid out by the historian Sallust c. 40 BC on land that had belonged to Caesar, and imperial property from Tiberius' reign. Vespasian, Nerva (who died here in 98) and Aurelian favoured them; Alaric's Goths sacked them in 410. A domed pavilion survives 14 m below Piazza Sallustio; their obelisk now stands at Trinita dei Monti.

Via Appia

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Tomb of the Scipios	c. 280 BC	Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus	The family tomb of the Cornelii Scipiones, founded in the early 3rd century BC by L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, whose inscribed sarcophagus is now in the Vatican. It was used until the mid-2nd century BC and was said to hold a statue of the poet Ennius. Scipio Africanus himself was buried at Liternum, not here.
Catacombs of Domitilla	c. AD 150		About 17 km of galleries on the Via Ardeatina, grown from 2nd-century burial plots on the estate of Flavia Domitilla, a relative of Domitian banished for 'atheism'. The semi-underground basilica of Saints Nereus and Achilleus was built into it in the late 4th century.
Catacombs of Callixtus	c. AD 200		A Christian catacomb with some 20 km of galleries on four levels, named after the deacon (later Pope) Callixtus I, its administrator under Zephyrinus. Nine 3rd-century popes were buried in the Crypt of the Popes; the adjacent crypt held St Cecilia.
Baths of Caracalla	AD 216	Caracalla	Built 212-216 (the outer precinct was finished by Elagabalus and Severus Alexander), fed by a dedicated branch of the Aqua Marcia, the Aqua Antoniniana, and able to hold some 1,600 bathers. They worked until the Goths cut the aqueducts in 537. Beneath them is one of the largest Mithraea in Rome.

Outside the Walls

Name	Built	Builder	What and where
Catacombs of Priscilla	c. AD 150		A catacomb on the Via Salaria Nova developed from the 2nd century on property linked to the senatorial Acilii Glabriones. It holds the 'Cappella Greca', the Cubiculum of the Velata and a 3rd-century Madonna and Child; several popes, including Marcellinus and Sylvester, were buried here.
St Paul's Outside the Walls	c. AD 324	Constantine I	Founded by Constantine over the tomb of the apostle on the Via Ostiensis and rebuilt on a grand scale from 386 by Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius. The late-antique basilica survived almost intact until the fire of 1823; the present church reproduces its plan. Galla Placidia's triumphal-arch mosaic partly survives.
San Lorenzo fuori le Mura	c. AD 330	Constantine I	Constantine built a large cemetery basilica and a shrine at the tomb of the deacon-martyr in the Ager Veranus; the present church combines Pelagius II's 6th-century basilica with a 13th-century nave. One of the seven pilgrim churches of Rome.
Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura	c. AD 340	Constantina	A circus-shaped funerary basilica built c. 340 by Constantine's daughter over the catacombs holding the tomb of the virgin martyr. Its outer walls still stand beside Santa Costanza. The present church over the tomb itself is Pope Honorius I's 7th-century building.
Mausoleum of Constantina	c. AD 350		Built c. 340-350 next to the cemetery basilica of St Agnes for Constantine's daughter, who died in 354; her sister Helena, wife of Julian, was also buried here. Its ambulatory mosaics are among the earliest surviving in a Christian building. Her porphyry sarcophagus is in the Vatican Museums.

Learn them, don't just read them

RomeDrill turns all of this into spaced-repetition flashcards, quizzes, a timeline game and map drills. Free, no account, works offline.

Open RomeDrill →

More reference lists: List of Roman Emperors · The Seven Kings of Rome · Timeline of Roman History · Major Battles of Ancient Rome · The Hills, Gates and Bridges of Ancient Rome · The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome · Roman Roads · Provinces of the Roman Empire · Roman Gods and Goddesses · Roman Festivals and Holidays · Roman Magistrates and the Cursus Honorum · The Roman Army: a Glossary · Latin and Greek Literature of the Roman World

Dates follow common scholarly convention; dates before about 300 BC are traditional. Spotted a mistake? Use the Feedback button in the app.