The House of Adrastus and Environs

3D ModelNoAI

In depth discussion and project background here: https://bit.ly/HouseOfAdrastus

In 1777 an important discovery was made in the southeast corner of the Piazza Montecitorio. In this location, to the west of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, a freedman named Adrastus was allotted special use of public land and materials from imperial construction. Adrastus displayed the correspondences pertaining to this remarkable dispensation in a marble inscription integrated into the doorposts of his residence; a decision that clearly indicates the pride he took in his status as a member of the imperial bureaucracy.

The very placement of his “house” suggests this same pride by configuring his social status directly in relation to the imperial court. The special dispensation he received allowed Adrastus to build his dwelling very conspicuously in the midst of a precinct otherwise set aside for the display of imperial monuments such as the columns of Marcus Aurelius and Antinonus Pius, as this model visually demonstrates.