Severus

Severus (fl. middle of C1 ad). Supposedly the designer (with the engineer Celer) of Emperor Nero's (b. 37, reigned 54–68) Domus Aurea (Golden House), a complex the octagonal hall of which was only rediscovered early in C20 buried within the substructures of the Thermae of Trajan on the slopes of the Oppian Hill, Rome (64–8). This huge palace contained a series of interior volumes of contrasting geometrical shapes illuminated by indirect and top lighting. It is unclear, however, if columnar and trabeated forms were expunged from the interiors of the vaulted, domed, and arcuated compartments, as many C20 commentators have claimed they were. Doubtless beguiled by the surviving bare walls and powerful, clear geometries, they have seen the octagonal hall and its ancillary spaces as original and as heralding a new aesthetic. Concrete was used for the basic structure, Orders were employed for the exterior, and it seems highly probable that Orders were used inside as well, as was the case in the vestibule of the ‘Piazza d'Oro’ at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (118–34). The fact that the rich marble and stucco finishes have long since disappeared, and with them other internal embellishments (including Orders) does not mean they did not exist. There is no trace of stucco or marble finishes to the dome itself (though there is evidence that such finishes were employed on the walls and elsewhere), but it is likely that the space was covered by a ribbed structure, perhaps of bronze, from which fabric panels were suspended. As David Hemsoll has convincingly shown, the octagonal hall of the Golden House, ‘far from representing a “revolution” in architecture’, seems ‘to have been a design that actually was deeply rooted in tradition … Modernist aesthetic criteria’, such as efforts to define the design as ‘an heroic attempt to come to terms with advances in building technology and to free architecture from the constraints of the past’, are ‘inaccurate and misleading’. Nero and his architects bettered their predecessors by exploiting tradition and established forms, and taking advantage of technological developments. After all, halls and dining-rooms with sophisticated geometries and spatial elaboration were known before Nero's time, and there is evidence from tombs and other building-types of similar ingenious geometrical arrangements before the Domus Aurea was built. Severus and Celer may also have played roles in the rebuilding of Rome after the fire of AD 64 and the drawing up of the building regulations that set the agenda. They also proposed a vast canal (begun but unfinished c. AD 60) linking Lake Avernus near the Bay of Naples to the Tiber. Severus and Celer's works are described by Tacitus (c. AD 55–c.117) and Suetonius (c. AD 70–c.160), neither of whom was particulary sympathetic to the Imperial idea, yet both were impressed by the Domus Aurea, its grandeur, its rich interior décor, the bathing facilities, and the enchanting gardens.

Bibliography

Antiquity, xxx (1956), 209–19;
AH, xxxii (1989), 1–17;
Boëthius (1960);
W. MacDonald (1965–86);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Segala & and Sciortino (1999);
Ward-Perkins (1981, 1986)