ABSTRACT
Roman politicians down the ages and especially since the second century BC had appreciated the contribution that public building projects could make to their own image-creation. In the last two centuries of the Old Republic, imperial growth often placed large sums of money and gangs of prisoners-of-war/slaves at the disposal of those seeking immortality through bricks and mortar. Nero's architectural interests seem to have started early in his life, as he is credited with the reworking of the villa at Antium into a substantial sea-side residence of the type that he was to grow to admire on the Bay of Naples. Nero may have been much criticised in antiquity for the extravagance and inappropriate nature of his buildings. The author says that we can see a concern for the dignity and hygiene of the imperial city in his moving of the main market from the area of the Roman Forum to the edge of the city, on the Caelian Hill.
