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Construction workers in Italy have come upon a 2,000 - twelvemonth - old garden that once belonged to aRomanemperor .
The travertine walls of the garden pretermit the bank of the Tiber , a river that cut through Rome and posture east of Vatican City . The ruin were unearthed as worker constructed a young overpass at Piazza Pia , grant to a translatedstatementfrom the Italian Ministry of Culture .
Researchers determined that the engraving referred to Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as Caligula.
As archaeologists removed rubble , they establish a lead water system pipage with the following inscription : " C(ai ) Cæsaris Aug(usti ) Germanici . " researcher specify that the engraving refer to Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , considerably known asCaligula(aka " slight boot , " a childhood byname given to him by his father ’s soldiers ) .
base on the inscription , researchers think the garden likely belonged to the notorious Romanic emperor moth . Not only was Caligula known for being a tyrannical and pitiless leader , he was also a sadist who humiliated his senate . Caligula accept the throne in A.D. 37 , and in A.D. 41 the Praetorian Guard — the officials who were supposed to protect him — assassinate the Saturnia pavonia .
Related : Villa near Mount Vesuvius may be where Augustus , Rome ’s 1st emperor , die
This conclusion is supported by a enactment in the ancient text " On the Embassy to Gaius , " penned by Egyptian philosopher Philo of Alexandria . It describes how Caligula had met with a representative of Jews live in Alexandria , Egypt , at a large garden along the Tiber , according to the financial statement .
At that time , Judaic Alexandrians and the Greek - Alexandrian population were in a " crisis that had manifested itself with violence , do and episodes of religious intolerance . " However , Caligula eliminate the Jews ' requests for religious autonomy , instead side with the Greeks .
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Alessio De Cristofaro , an archeologist at the Special Superintendency for Archaeology , Fine Art and Landscape , a administration office in Rome , said the uncovering is significant because Piazza Pia is in the same area as the " Horti Agrippinae , " the garden of Agrippina the senior , who was Caligula ’s female parent .
The pipework is also similar to another one , found in the early 1900s , that ’s inscribed with the name Iulia ( Julia ) Augusta , the second married woman of Augustus and the grannie of Germanicus . investigator speculate that the property was inherit by Germanicus and after passed down to his married woman , Agrippina the Elder , before start to Caligula .
In addition to the pipe , archeologist found slabs of Roman - era clayware and terra - cotta name of mythic conniption that would have decorated rooftop .
