Tiberius’ Villa at Sperlonga

Sperlonga, a coastal town south of Rome, was an ancient Roman resort that housed the very elite, or as Professor McClure stated, “the one percent of the top one percent.” It was in Sperlonga that Tiberius, Emperor from 14 to 37 a.d., built his famous villa consisting of both a villa residence and an adjacent natural grotto with elaborate sculptures and fish ponds. In the residence area of the villa we were able to see some remains, including a few rooms around a courtyard, a kiln, and a bread oven. There are almost no sculpture remains in the grotto, although a few were reconstructed and are now located in the Sperlonga Archaeological Museum. Researchers were also able to plan out and display where the statues would be placed, although it is hypothetical.

A circular pool is in the center of the grotto and it is hypothesized that a Scylla sculpture would be mounted on a base in the middle. The pool then extends out in a rectangular shape. The pools were divided by two platforms that held two statues called the Theft of the Palladium and the Pasquino. Inside the grotto in the far back is where the Polyphemus statuary group would have stood. The statues in this group depict the scene of the blinding of Polyphemus by Odysseus, a common theme used in decorations of grottoes and nyphaeums among the elite residences. These major sculptures display the main themes of Tiberius’ villa – the myth of Odysseus and the Hellenistic art style.

Sperlonga and Tiberius’ villa was a really interesting site to visit and it definitely exceeded my expectations. I was already excited that the group and I would be able to see the villa and grotto, but I didn’t realize that we would actually be able to walk inside of it – so that was really cool. I’m glad we were able to get that sort of hands on experience with the ancient history we learned about. It was cool trying to imagine what the villa and grotto would have looked like with all of the decorations and statues and people around. I was trying to picture Tiberius, a very disliked Emperor, at his summer villa. I am also glad we visited this site since it provided a good example of what the summer villas of the elites, used to escape the busy life in Rome, would have looked like. Overall, this was a really interesting site to visit on our way to Castellammare di Stabia and I was very impressed.

~Nicole Hoffman