The Adonea of the Flavian Palace, Palatine
Province
Location
Sublocation
Garden
The Adonea of the Flavian Palace, Palatine
Keywords
Garden Description
Philostratus (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 7.32) writes of the Adonea, a garden sacred to Adonis, in the Flavian Palace on the Palatine where Apollonius and Domitian met. It is also where the emperor had made a sacrifice to Minerva in the hall of Adonis that was overflowing with flowers in vases. It was proposed in the nineteenth century that this Adonea was in the area of the Vigna Barberini and that a fragment of the Severan Forma Urbis (FUR) partially depicts it. Recent excavations do not support such a location for the Adonea, and the marble fragment could represent the Severan Adonea that was in Trastevere. Flowers in vases, such as were part of the cult activities to Adonis, do not necessarily indicate a planted garden, although the marble fragment, with its symmetrical lines and rows of dots, likely render schematically formal garden plantings.
Dates
Unspecified
Excavation Date
unspecified