What is known

While removing the rubble, archaeologists found a lead water pipe with the inscription “C(ai) Cæsaris Aug(usti) Germanici”. The engraving is about Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as Caligula (aka “little boot” – a nickname given to him in childhood by his father’s soldiers).

Based on the inscription, researchers think that: The garden probably belonged to the famous Roman emperorCaligula was known not only as a cruel and ruthless leader, but also as a sadist who humiliated his senate. Caligula ascended to the throne in 37 AD, and in 41 AD, the Praetorian Guard that was supposed to protect him assassinated the emperor.

This conclusion is confirmed by a passage from the ancient text “On the Embassy of Gaius” by the Egyptian philosopher Philo of Alexandria, which describes how Caligula met with a representative of the Jews living in Alexandria, Egypt. In a large garden along the TiberAt the time, the Jewish Alexandrians and the Greek-Alexandrian population were in “a crisis marked by periods of violence, strife, and religious intolerance.” However, Caligula rejected Jewish demands for religious autonomy and instead sided with the Greeks.

Alessio De Cristofaro, an archaeologist at the Special Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, a government agency in Rome, says the find is extremely important because Piazza Pia is in the same area as the Horti Agrippinae, the garden of Agrippina the Elder, Caligula’s mother.

The trumpet commemorating the emperor also resembles a similar one found in the early 1900s and named after Caligula’s grandmother, Iulia (Julia) Augusta.

Archaeologists found the pipe as well as Clay slabs and terracotta figurines from the Roman period with mythological plots that could adorn the roofs of houses.