Esquiline Hill

The Esquiline is one of Rome’s seven hills, rising above the valley where the Colosseum was later built. Its three main spurs—Cispius, Oppius and Fagutal—form a ridge that was once covered with Italian oaks. The hill’s name may come from these trees or from the Latin word for suburban residents. In the 6th century BC the king Servius Tullius moved his home here to raise the district’s standing. By the Roman period the Esquiline counted senators and emperors among its residents. The hill became a stage for Roman power and culture. The art patron Maecenas laid out Rome’s first Hellenistic-Persian style gardens here, complete with terraces and libraries. Nero seized land on the Oppius to build his mile-long Golden House, parts of which still survive. Trajan later built his vast bath complex on the same spur. The 3rd-century Horti Liciniani gardens include a nymphaeum once thought to be the Temple of Minerva Medica. Nearby, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore crowns the Cispius summit. Visitors walk among these remains and later finds. The Oppius shows traces of Nero’s Golden House and Trajan’s baths. The nymphaeum of the Horti Liciniani stands beside the modern street. At the summit of the Cispius, the white façade of Santa Maria Maggiore dominates the skyline. The hill’s slopes still carry the memory of aristocratic villas and imperial palaces. From the ridge the view stretches over the Colosseum valley and across the city.