BBC Focus Magazine

[Pandora]

What a feat of engineering this is......

Archaeologists have uncovered what is believed to be the famous rotating dining room of Roman Emperor Nero.

Archaeologists believe the structure supported a rotating dining room imitating the Earth's movement and used by Roman Emperor Nero

Experts believe the rotating room rested on stone spheres powered by water

The 2000-year-old 'coenatio rotunda', as it was known in Latin, was built inside the 1st century palace that Nero built as his home on the Palatine Hill.
Experts believe the room was part of his Domus Aurea (or 'Golden House'), and think it is the room described by the ancient historian Suetonius in 'Lives of the Caesars'.

He wrote: ''The chief banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually night and day in imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies.
''All the dining rooms had ceilings of fretted ivory, the panels of which could slide back and let a rain of flowers fall on his guests.''

Maria Antonietta Tomei, Rome's archaeological superintendent, said: ''This discovery has no equal among ancient Roman architectural finds.''
The room moved thanks to a complicated feat of Roman civil engineering that involved spheres underneath the room which were powered by canals of water.

It is thought the dining room could be up to 180ft in diameter, and researchers have so far uncovered several supporting pillars, one 16ft in diameter.

Ms Tomei said that digging work was still going on but what led them to believe it was the famed rotating dining room was the round shape of the building.
She added that stone spheres, filled with an unknown material which is yet to be analysed, had also been discovered.

Nero's palace was built after the great fire that destroyed Rome in AD 64.
Historians believe that Nero allowed the fire to rage unchecked.
Some even suggest he was responsible for the fire, so he could fulfil plans to build his lavish palace.

After Nero's suicide in AD 68, the palace was stripped of its marble, jewels and ivory, and it was later filled in and built over.
It was eventually rediscovered in the 15th century, after a local fell through the ground and into the remains of the structure.