Here you have photos about the Auditorium of Mecenate, a wonderful and decorated hall used from the I century b.C. I think that it is one of the best places in Rome where you can breath the sweet atmosphere of the changes which took place between the Republic and the Empire, a place where you can admire wonderful elements related to that important period for the history of Rome. But first of all the question is: who was Mecenate?

I love roman history (and I think that for a local tour guide in Rome is something normal) so I find Mecenate a fundamental historical figure for many reasons. He was an Augustus' friend, protector and financier who loved to be surrounded by scholars, poets, writers (such as Virgil) and various artists. Why? He like very much to spend unforgettable days between art and fun, also giving a hand to the careers of his favorite (from here and this behaviour we have the word "patron"). The master of the house loved to spend his days in his lavish villa, that at the time was built within the city walls but close to them. In the suburbs, really! The villa was surrounded by its Horti, a huge park with tidy hedges cut into human and animal forms, bright flowers, paths in the earth, and swimming pools with warmed water. The Horti became some of the symbols of the renovated opulence of the Rome of the I century b.C. and of the noble families of that time.

But in the Auditorium of Mecenate there was also this room, that at the time was underground because it was accessible thanks to two side ramps of stairs. Niches mark the rhythm flanking the room, with the decorated walls (still visible) that are embellished with the fake and painted the black and red cinnabar (it was a very expensive color at that time, just to underline the wealth of the owner). Inside and on the top of the seven steps that you see at the bottom there are fake windows, flashes of blue sky and plant motifs and bucolic, which enliven the scene, bringing the present into another dimension, another reality. These fake and natural perspectives make a bridge between Nature and man, and this is the objective of the master of the house: to enjoy his guests with the pleasures of the natural, revitalizing the spirit (a bit like the famous paintings of the House of Livia). Finally, what was the point of this environment?

Perhaps in the niches were resting on scrolls, and as the name says (Auditorium), it probably served as a meeting place suitable to converse on philosophy, life and politics, listening to the verses of poets and the songs of the bards. But, very probably, the part where we find those seven steps was not an auditorium, used by people as places to sit, but a large water fountain. On the top,  at the sides, two holes indicate that there was water that fell down from those stairs, coming to a drainage channel at the base. So it was probably a monumental fountain that was useful to reiterate the concept: in the Mecenate's house the nature ruled. A way to unwind from the daily grind, raising the spirit. But not only that. Mecenate, in fact, was part of the tight circle that helped Augustus to preserve the power in Rome, a power deriving from written, panegyrics or poems dedicated to the life or the family of the first emperor of Rome, as well as to the mythological origins of Rome itself (which Augustus wanted to retrieve them to use them as the basis of his propaganda). I wonder, therefore, if in this environment the political propaganda of Augustus had its decisive impulse...