Prof. Peter Wiseman (Exeter): Augustus on the Palatine: A Palace-Sanctuary

The ‘palace-sanctuary’ of Augustus on the Palatine was first identified and described by Daniela Bruno and Andrea Carandini in 2008 (see now The Atlas of Ancient Rome, tables 69-72 and 282), and its discovery is cited in Carandini’s recent book La forza del contesto (2017) as a exemplary paradigm of what modern archaeological methods can achieve. However, there is no mention of this monumental complex in the ancient sources; according to Suetonius, Augustus lived in a relatively modest house and ‘disliked grand palaces’. My presentation will address this paradox, and consider how the mismatch of archaeological and textual evidence may be resolved.