Discover Villa of Tiberius and the Grotto

Sperlonga sits on the coast of the province of Latina, roughly halfway between Rome and Naples, and what it is best known for lies at the water's edge: a Roman sea grotto found in the grounds of the Villa of Tiberius, which held the Sperlonga sculptures. They are displayed in a museum on the site.

The argument Sperlonga makes is that a cave can be a room. The villa is Roman and conventional enough; what is not conventional is that its most important space was not built at all. A natural grotto at the water's edge was turned into a triclinium by putting a circular pool inside it, connecting that pool to a larger one outside, and setting the dining couches on a rectangular island in the fish pond -- so diners ate surrounded by water, inside the rock, looking out at the sea.

Everything else follows from that decision. The sculpture was positioned to be read from the couches, with the biggest group furthest back and the shipwreck in the middle of the water. The cave was given artificial stalactites and encrustations, which is to say it was made to look more like a cave than it already did, and a coloured opus sectile floor, which is to say it was made to look less like one. It would have needed artificial light even in the day, and at night the whole thing became a lit stage with masks glowing from behind on one wall.

The weakness of the design was structural and the emperor nearly paid for it: the grotto collapsed in 26 AD with Tiberius inside.

It began as a Republican villa and became imperial. Sperlonga was known for nothing but its cave -- the Roman name, Spelunca, is simply the Latin for one. A villa of the Republican period was built here and later passed to Tiberius, who turned the grotto into a dining room.

The sculpture was probably carved somewhere else. The execution varies considerably in quality and must have taken a large team beyond the three masters named in the inscription, but the variation runs within groups as well as between them and scholars accept the ensemble as a single project. What is distinctive is the exceptionally heavy use of plain marble struts left between sculpted elements to strengthen them -- Polyphemus's toes are joined by them -- which has been read as evidence of production off-site, perhaps on Rhodes, with the struts protecting the pieces in transit. Many elements are finished only on the sides meant to be seen, with the backs left rough.

It came down on 26 AD. Tacitus and Suetonius both record the collapse of the grotto, which nearly killed Tiberius. Either in that fall or a later one the sculptures were crushed into thousands of fragments, which is why every modern reconstruction has missing elements.

After the empire the ruins became housing. In the sixth century, after the fall of the Western Empire, local people sheltered in what was left of the imperial residence, and later began moving to the nearby promontory of St Magnus.

The find was an accident and the first weeks of it were a mess. Civil engineers building the coastal road just above the site turned up the sculptures in 1957. There was an interval of disturbance before proper archaeological direction began, and the exact original position of some large fragments was lost in it -- which is the root of the long arguments about which piece belongs to which group and where each group stood. Giulio Iacopi of the Museo Nazionale Romano finally got permission to lead the excavation in August 1957. The disputes have gradually been settled as smaller pieces, recorded properly, are matched up, and the reconstruction is still going on.

Can I go into the grotto?

The grotto is part of the archaeological area, which is open separately from the museum and closes in adverse weather. Its last entry also moves through the year, from 15.00 in November and December to 18.00 from April to September.

Are the sculptures original?

Partly. They were crushed into thousands of fragments when the grotto collapsed, and the museum shows many elements twice -- as pieced-together originals and as cast reconstructions filled out with educated guesswork, which Mary Beard describes as "creative reinventions".

What do the sculptures show?

Four episodes from the Odyssey, arranged around the pool: the blinding of Polyphemus at the back, Odysseus's ship attacked by Scylla on an island in the middle, the Pasquino group of Odysseus carrying Achilles to the left, and Odysseus about to betray Diomedes after stealing the Palladium to the right. Together they set his courage against his perfidy more sharply than Homer does.

Did Tiberius commission them?

Many scholars believe he had them installed, and they are generally thought to date to the early Imperial period, but the attribution is a belief rather than a documented fact.

When were they found?

In 1957, by civil engineers building the coastal road just above the site. Giulio Iacopi of the Museo Nazionale Romano took charge of the excavation that August.

Is there a combined ticket?

Yes. A Sperlonga-Formia circuit covers this site and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Formia for 10.00 euro, valid 30 days, and there is also a cumulative ticket for the archaeological parks and museums of the province of Latina.