The Domus Aurea In The Colosseum Valley

“Most strikingly, the orientation of the ancient triumphal road and that of the comparatively newer structures in the Colosseum Valley did not match up, being off by about seven degrees. The road dated back at least to the time of Augustus (late first century BCE to early first century CE). Although Nero presented the ancient road line, the new structures of the Domus Aurea in the valley just to the North were not aligned with it” (223). With the Arch of Constantine built on this triumphal road created what is called the “Neronian axis”. The so called ‘Neronian axis’ sits where the Arch of Constantine and triumphal road, perpendicular to the Neronian grid sit. After this Misalignment for Constantinian, designers meant that any monument that
would be placed on the road would all be off axis with each other. This issue was once addressed to the Flavians, who attempted to fix it by installing a fountain known as the Meta Sudans, trying to make a divergent to the axis. By having the Flavians attempt to diverge the issue with the fountain would also eventually bring more problems to issue.