Regia
About
Traditionally the residence of the kings of Rome, later the official headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus and seat of the pontifical archives; rebuilt in stone/marble after a fire in 36 BCE by Cn. Domitius Calvinus. Standing and functioning as the pontifical office in 117 CE (in this period the emperor himself held the office of Pontifex Maximus).
What happened here
It was put up to be argued with. Public monuments carry an inscription at eye height naming who paid, what for, and by whose authority, because being read is the whole return on the investment. People meet at them, give directions by them, and shelter under them. Children climb them. The bronze fittings are stolen often enough that they are re-attached with lead. On anniversaries the base is garlanded and the local council makes a short speech nobody listens to. Monuments also date the town for you: a run of them along one street shows which families were rising in which decade, and which ones stopped. When a family falls out of favour, the name is chiselled out and the stone is quietly reused.
In ancient writing
- Ovid, Fasti 6.263-264
Ovid names the Regia directly, describing the small space now holding Vesta's atrium as once having been the great palace (regia) of long-haired King Numa.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →