ABSTRACT
Domitian was born in Rome on 24 October 51, the eleventh year of Claudius’s reign. According to tradition (Dom. 1.1), the birth occurred at the family home in Pomegranate Street (possibly the Via delle Quatro Fontane) on the Quirinal Hill in the sixth Region. Later, he converted it into a temple of the Gens Flavia, covered with marble and gold,1 and, when it was struck by lightning in 96, many interpreted this as an indication of the emperor’s mortality (Dom. 15); on his death (18 September 96), his ashes and those of his niece Julia were mingled and deposited there by Phyllis who had nursed them both (Dom. 17).
