Veduta degl Avanzi della Casa Aurea di Nerone, sul Monte Palatino, dalla parte riguardante il Circo Massimo

The Domus Aurea, the &#8216Golden House&#8217, was a large landscaped portico villa, built in the heart of ancient Rome by Emperor Nero, after the Great Fire of Rome, which had devastated the city in 64 AD and cleared away the aristocratic dwellings on the slopes of the Esquiline Hill. The villa was a party house, with more than 300 rooms and numerous frescoes and ceiling mosaics. The room beneath the dome included a mechanism, which when cranked by slaves, would allow the ceiling to revolve. The effect was embellished with the spraying of perfume and rose petals, which were dropped from above upon the assembled guests. According to some accounts, on one occasion such quantities of rose petals were dropped that one unlucky guest was asphyxiated.