Venue: Theatre of Nero
Town: Rome, IT

The Theatre of Nero (Latin: Theatrum Neronis) was the private theatre erected in Rome by Nero, the Roman emperor between AD 53 and AD 68. It was known only from literary sources until its remains were discovered in 2020. The remains were excavated through 2023. The theatre was located on the right bank of the Tiber in the Ager Vaticanus in the horti of Agrippina the Elder (inherited by her grandson Nero), the same area where Caligula had built his circus. Its remains are located in the courtyard of the renaissance Palazzo dei Penitenzieri, also named Palazzo Della Rovere, in the Borgo rione between Via della Conciliazione and Borgo Santo Spirito. The theatre is mentioned explicitly by Pliny the Elder and implicitly by Suetonius and Tacitus. According to Pliny, the emperor displayed the seized possessions of a former consul in his private theatre (theatrum peculiare). The theatre was used by Nero for rehearsals of his subsequent public singing performances in the theatre of Pompey and was large enough to satisfy his vanity when filled with people. Suetonius writes that during the Neronia festival the emperor promised to exhibit himself in hortis ("in the gardens"), an indirect reference to his theatre. Finally, Tacitus states that during the Juvenalia Nero sang per domum aut hortos, another hint to the building. It is also possible that the domestica scaena mentioned by Tacitus as the place from which Nero admired the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD does not refer to the tower of Gaius Maecenas on the Esquiline Hill, but to the scene ("scaena") of his theatre. This, lying on the right bank of the Tiber, was well away from the affected areas and therefore a safe observation point, unlike the tower which was in the middle of the fire. At the beginning of the second century AD, the building was dismantled to recover its materials, as evidenced by five marble columns found in situ. In the Middle Ages the area of the theatre became the site of handicrafts and activities relat