The city of Tivoli
The city of Tivoli is located on the slopes of the Tiburtini Mountains along the Aniene near the great waterfall that the river forms at the foot of the ancient acropolis. The richness of its waters, the happy strategic position on the trade route to Abruzzo, the fertility of its territory and the favorable climatic conditions contributed in the protohistoric age to create the conditions for stable spontaneous settlements that determined the prerequisites for the foundation of the city.
According to Virgil, the city was founded by Tiburto or Tibumo, a mythical character originally from Argos whose brothers participated in the war against Troy on the side of the Greeks.
According to Cato, on the other hand, the city originated from Catillus, commander of Evander's fleet.
Finally, Dionysius of Alicamassus tells us of Tibur as a colony of the Siculians, from whom it took the name Siculeto and later by the aborigines who called it Polistephanon, that is, Crown of the City.
The earliest archaeological records of ancient Tibur consist of its fourth-century B.C. city walls, sections of which still remain visible.
The main road axis, which determined the orientation of the city, consisted of the Via Tiburtina, which connected it directly to Rorna, under whose aegis it came to be as early as 380 B.C., which entered the settlement through the Porta Maggiore and then exited through the Porta Variana gate.
In the second century B.C. a strong building development affected the most important urban sectors with the construction of civil and religious buildings that constituted the fulcrums on which then, in the following centuries, the urban layout that still exists today would be articulated.
The Temple of Hercules Victor (Italian: Tempio di Ercole Vincitore)
It is a monumental complex that presents strong analogies with other temples present in Latium (Jupiter Anxur in Terracina, Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina ) all distinguished by the use of sloping terraces to create a scenography around the actual temple building enhancing its perspective effects.
The sanctuary originally occupied a very large area reaching as far as the route of the Via Tiburtina, which was isolated from the entire complex by means of mighty constructions.
The temple proper, of which the long sides of the perimeter remain, was developed on a high podium accessed by a flight of steps. It was surrounded on three sides by a colonnade with eight columns on the main elevation.
On an axis with the temple was the theater equipped with a stage and back porch.
The cult of Hercules, with which the city was often identified in antiquity (Herculaneum Tibur), leads back to the original routes of the tramsumance of the flocks of which the god was the protector, which, in all likelihood, constituted one of the building blocks of the original city economy.
In the city it is possible to see:
ACROPOLI
It stood on a rocky outcrop from which there is a view of the waterfalls of the stunning landscape of Villa Gregoriana. Its cultural function is documented by the presence of two temples, the oldest of which can be dated, based on building structures, to the middle of the second century B.C.
Its shape is rectangular with four columns on the facade ( two of which are preserved ) with Attic bases, walls in travertine opus quadratum and side semicolumns leaning against the cella.
The style of the entire building must have been Ionic judging from the capital found at the back. The circular temple next to it preserves 10 of the original 18 Corinthian columns that bordered the peristyle of which part of the coffered ceiling decoration is still visible.
A dedicatory inscription is preserved on the archway. Some scholars speculate that, in the niche on the back wall of the cella, the Sibylline Books linked by literary sources to Tivoli and the Aniene River were preserved.
TEMPLE OF THE COUGH
This is a large circular hall with two superimposed orders and a domed roof marked externally at the point of impost by travertine corbels. Seven niches open in the upper part; in the lower part are the two entrances. The building was originally intended to be the monumental vestibule of a 1st-century B.C. villa reused in the late 3rd early 4th century A.D., as attested by the rebuilding of the walls in opus vittata (overlapping rows of tufa and brick).
The imperial period was particularly fertile with extraordinary works, of which Hadrian's Villa constitutes a magnificent architectural example because of the sophisticated technical solutions adopted in it, and cultural, as the summa of the historical and aesthetic thought of its era. The construction of the Amphitheater known as the Bleso Amphitheater located north of the Rocca Pia, a renowned fortress with four cylindrical towers, built around 1461 for the military needs of Pius II, Piccolomini, can also be traced back to the Hadrianic period.
The Acque Albule spa complex preserves remains that can be traced back to the middle republican age, a period when the practice of hydrotherapy was already appreciated, and a series of tombs, located in the immediate vicinity of the city still in a good state of preservation complete the picture of the preexisting remains from the classical age. While the area bordering the city saw the early medieval period coincide with the decline of the great suburban villas of the Roman era, the urban center, in the varied view of values, was shaped to the new needs and sentiment of that period. The forum, the center of ciale life, was replaced by the cathedral of St. Lawrence built, as it seems, in the 4th century. In 1155, with Frederick Barbarossa, the city returned to its ancient splendor: the city walls were rebuilt, which, with their extension, provide an indication of a considerable increase in the urban area; a number of tower-houses were built for defensive purposes at strategic points, some significant examples of which are preserved (Vicolo dei Ferri, Via Postera, Via del Serminario, etc. ); the Arengo Palace, the Town Hall Tower, and the church of St. Michael were built, which defined the new hub of the city's civil and religious life. In 1550 Cardinal Ippolito d'Este built the famous villa, based on a design by Pirro Ligorio, which was followed by the construction of numerous aristocratic residences: the Cenci-Alberici, Bellini, Pacifici, Pusterla, etc. palace.
