National Roman Museum
The National Roman Museum is organized as a network of several sites. For antiquity, Palazzo Massimo, the Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Altemps and Crypta Balbi are especially important: together they provide sculpture, frescoes, epigraphy, coins, urban archaeology and late antique material.
Statue of Emperor Augustus. Marble. Rome,Roman National Museum,Palazzo Massimo in Thermae. Around 20 BC.
Fresco from Kubikula,Villa Farnesina. Rome,National Roman Museum. 1st century BC - 1st century AD
A Celt who kills himself and his wife to avoid falling into the hands of his enemies alive. A statue from the group that originally decorated the Pergamon altar. Palazzo Altemps,Rome,2nd century BCCollection and Significance
This museum is useful as a "Roman database" in the city of Rome itself. It connects objects with urban contexts: villas, baths, necropoleis, private collections of ancient sculpture and late imperial material.
Main Materials
- portraits and statues from Palazzo Massimo;
- frescoes and interior complexes;
- epigraphy and funerary monuments in the Baths of Diocletian;
- sculpture in Palazzo Altemps;
- urban archaeology in Crypta Balbi.
Context and Limits
The National Roman Museum is especially useful for checking urban Rome: elite dress, portrait fashion, wall painting, interiors, inscriptions and late Roman changes.
Related Topics
Sources
Tombstone stele of Indus,Batavian bodyguard of Emperor Nero. Diocletian's Baths Museum,Rome,1st century AD
Portrait of Julius Caesar. Fine-grained marble. Rome,Roman National Museum,Palazzo Altemps
Bust of Aristotle. Palazzo Altemps,Italy. Inv. 8575. Roman copy of the Greek original (later 330 BC). The author of the original,made of bronze-Lysippus.Interested in Ancient Rome beyond reading? Join Legio X Fretensis or explore our reenactment directions. Reenactment
