The Multiple Layers of the Caelian Hill

The Caelian Hill is one of the seven historical hills of Rome and is located between the Domus Aurea and the Colosseum. The etymology of the name is straightforward: the name may pertain to one of the Etruscan leaders, whose name was Caele Vibenna, who helped Servius Tullius to get into rhe supreme power in Rome. According to the emperor Claudius, whose dedicatory temple was built on purpose on the Caelian Mount, Caele Vibenna and Mastarna helped a new Etruscan family to get rid of Tarquinius Priscus. The emperor Claudius was the main scholar about the Etruscan world in antiquity but unfortunately we have lost his writings about the predecessors of the Romans. He revered so much the Etruscans and their religious institutions that we have recorded his speech about the importance of the study of the Etruscan in his Lyons tablets.