Archeonaut - APT Basilicata

umentoHOMES WITH RUNNING WATER,JUST LIKE COMFORTABLEMODERN HOUSESOverlooking the main road axis andthe forum was the “house of mosaics”,a large noble house divided into aservice wing, located at the back, withits own secondary access, and a partreserved for the life of entertainmentand hospitality of its owner, whosename appears stamped on the fistulae(the lead pipelines) that carried waterto the house from the aqueduct. Weknow from a fragment preserved inthe museum that the dominus of thevilla was a member of the Stasii family,while the maker of the fistula was acertain Eperastus.AmphitheatreLAGARIAN WINE, THE REMEDYFOR EVERY AILMENTThey believed it could cure warwounds; banquets were certainlygladdened and life made lighter by theprecious wine from Lagaria (a fortifiedcentre in present-day Calabria foundedby Epeus, who built the horse of Troy).And it was certainly also drunk inRoman Grumentum, which is quiteclose to the area where this type ofMagna Graecian wine was produced.Strabo praised its sweetness and saidit was recommended by doctors, and itwas certainly a main ingredient of manynightly symposia, to which the kratersfound in the necropolises, and now ondisplay in the Archaeological Museum,bear witness.Baths, wine, and love lead us to ruin, butthey make life beautiful!(Latin saying)LIVIA DRUSILLA,the imperial face of an “august” womanIn order to marry Augustus in 39 AD, shedivorced her husband Tiberius ClaudiusNero, with whom she had alreadyhad Tiberius and from whom she wasexpecting Drusus Major. She becamea faithful wife and valuable advisor,dedicated to the political career of hernew husband and afterwards to that of hereldest son. When Augustus died and wasdivinised, she even became a priestess.This was Livia Drusilla, the third wife ofthe emperor Octavian Augustus, aboutwhose life everything and its contrary hasbeen written: intelligent, merciless andMarble bust of LiviaDrusilla, thirdwife of Augustuseven a husband killer.What is certain is that the figure of thisbeautiful and haughty woman, by virtueof her role, cannot avoid well-foundedsuspicions of complicity in the eliminationof various male relatives of her augusthusband, who would have preventedher son Tiberius from ascending to theimperial throne. And in fact this is howit was; when Augustus died, in 14 AD,he was succeeded by Livia’s son, whodid not, however, wish to endorse anyparticular cult to her, even after herdeath. It was Claudius who divinised her.Grumentum owes a lot to Livia, or at least68 69