Like public buildings put up de manubiis, private houses were visible expressions of gloria in the Roman aristocracy, with triumphal spolia and ancestral statues displayed in the vestibulum. Against that background, the history of the imperial property on the Palatine may be read as a series of strategies by which the emperors projected their image of themselves. Octavian's house faced the river harbour and was approached from the Lupercal by the Clivus Victoriae. He may have planned to extend the property to the northern corner of the hill, to make his triumphal arch the entrance, but that was achieved only by Caligula. The mature Augustus was content with an entrance facing the Area Palatina, separated from the Forum by the vestibula of other aristocrats. When the fire of 64 destroyed the aristocratic houses, Nero created a new formal entrance with a grandiose approach from the Forum itself. Finally, Septimius Severus turned the facade of the palace towards the Porta Capena, the only topographical approach that had not yet been exploited.Wiseman Timothy Peter. Conspicui postes tectaque digna deo : the public image of aristocratic and imperial houses in the late Republic and early Empire. In: L'Urbs : espace urbain et histoire (Ier siècle av. J.-C. - IIIe siècle ap. J.-C.). Actes du colloque international de Rome (8-12 mai 1985) Rome : École Française de Rome, 1987. pp. 393-413. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 98
