Palatine Hill

Shelley and I bowing in front of where the emperor's throne used to sit in the throne room. 
This was an open courtyard in the middle of Domitian's palace. the ring at the end of the courtyard was his personal mini arena where he would watch gladiators fight. The semi circle structure in the left of the picture was his personal booth where only he and his wife would sit to watch the game. The rest of the spectators would sit around the back of the courtyard. 
This was Augustus' personal room. The mosaics on the walls are still preserved!  Only a few tourists could come in this room at a time, it was just recently opened up to the public last year.
Another view of palatine hill.  This entire picture is still not as big as the mansion was, it literally covered acres.
This tree on the hill was actually a man made island that was surrounded by water.  Domitian wanted to have a island in the middle of his house to bask on.
Here is a statue of Hermes which was found in Mussolini's house.  Mussolini had a summer house built on palatine hill in the 20th century, and now it is used as a museum. 

The palatine hill is where Rome has it's origins.  According to Roman mythology this is where Romulus and Remus the twin brothers were found by the she-wolf and taken care of by it. Romulus and Remus end of getting into a fight, and Romulus slays Remus and that's how Rome got it's name from Romulus.  

We had a guided tour on this hill, and learned a lot. We saw and walked through the ruins of Augustus( 63 BC-14) and Domitian's (51-96 AD) palaces.  These two emperors built gigantic mansions that covered this hill, and the guide took us through where the different rooms in the mansion used to be. 

It was really neat to think that we were walking through the personal rooms of the most powerful rulers on earth.