MOSAIC PAVEMENT, C1 BCE. SUBWAY STATION COLOSSEO-FORI IMPERIALI A private house on the lower slopes of the now-vanished Velian hill (a saddle between the Esquiline and the Palatine) from the C1 BCE had a private bath or balneum adjoining it, of which two rooms, a pool and a laconicum or sauna, were removed, restored, and reconstructed in the Colosseo-Fori Imperiali subway station. These rooms were served by two apodyteria or changerooms which have not survived, though parts of their floors have. This simple black mosaic floor is edged with two white line frames, and is decorated with small hexagons in giallo antico, in carefully-spaced rows. The balneum was destroyed in Nero's great fire of 64 CE, and any intact stone was removed for probable reuse in the Domus Aurea.
#MosaicMonday takes us deep under the #Velia in #Rome, into the #ColosseoForiImperiali subway station, to find a #mosaic pavement from the late #Republic with black tesseræ, once on the floor of the changeroom of a balneum or private bathhouse destroyed in the fire of 64 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺
