[MUSIC PLAYING] BETH HARRIS: Here we are
in a virtual world that recreates Hadrian's
Villa the way that it looked in
the second century AD, created by Dr.
Bernie Frischer. And Bernie, you're here in
the virtual world with us. BERNARD FRISCHER: Yes,
I'm really Hadrianos. You're seeing me right now. So this is really my place. I built it between 117
and when I died in 138. And now I've come back to earth
and to life to show you around. BETH HARRIS: And I notice
that you have a beard, but I don't think most
emperors did before you. BERNARD FRISCHER: One
ancient biographer said it was because I had acne
and was trying to hide it, but that is not true. The real reason
is I loved Athens and the Athenian
philosophical schools, and all philosophers
wore beards. BETH HARRIS: And here
we are in your villa, which is located
outside of Rome. So how long did
you work on this? BERNARD FRISCHER:
Really from the moment I became emperor in 117. I started thinking,
wouldn't it be good to have a government
retreat, outside of Rome, but near Rome? And one reason that I thought
that was that, unfortunately, in my early days
as emperor, in 117, I had to put three
senators to death. So that always made me
a little bit sheepish about being in Rome. BETH HARRIS: How
big is this villa? BERNARD FRISCHER: Well, you
would say about 200, 250 acres. And there are 30 major
building complexes. I was an amateur
architect, and I just kept building and building. I was a bit of a maniac
when it came to building. My predecessor and
relative's chief architect, Apollodorus of Damascus,
said some very unkind things about a building I
designed in Rome, so I forced him
to commit suicide. But that just shows how
much I loved architecture. BETH HARRIS: There
are libraries here. There are temples. There are living quarters. There are baths. BERNARD FRISCHER: There are
sculpture gardens, ponds, and fountains. There are dining halls,
indoor winter dining halls, and outdoor summer dining halls. So you really can have a good
time here all year round. And it's kind of a city in
miniature, Rome in miniature. BETH HARRIS: This was
fabulously decorated. BERNARD FRISCHER: None
of that lower class painted fresco for me. We used only cut marble on
the walls and on the floors. And we brought in marbles
from all over the empire to use here. Even we're now looking at this
obelisk right in front of me, granite from Egypt. This is somehow expressive
of the power of Rome in all of its wealth
and resources. BETH HARRIS: Could you
take us on a tour, some of the highlights of your villa? BERNARD FRISCHER: I would
be happy to do that. So just follow me, and we'll go
out to a road that's in front. We can see at the end of
the road is a big structure, called the vestibule
by you moderns that was the receiving area
for all important guests coming from Rome. And you know, when
you arrive, you tend to be a bit
grimy and tired, so right next to
the vestibule, we put a beautiful bath building. And then when you finished
bathing, you could have a meal. And then if I did
receive you, it would have been in one of
the many audience halls in the villa. This is a hall
that could actually have held hundreds of people. And the villa, in its
heyday, for example, when the Senate
visited me out here, could've had hundreds of guests. This is the very
first reception hall. BETH HARRIS: I notice
these lovely views when I look through the
doorways and the windows. BERNARD FRISCHER: I'm
very interested in views and I'm very
interested in directing the gaze of the viewer to
what I want him or her to see. Right now we're
looking straight ahead at a very famous part of
the villa which, I think, occurs in many textbooks
of your young students. It's called the Canopus. And I put one of my most
creative pieces of architecture there. It's actually a curved
colonnade, and the part of the colonnade
above the columns, we call the architrave. It's actually arched. Underneath the arches, I put
some of my favorite statues. I wanted to make sure that
even at the moment of arrival, my important visitors would
be able to see and admire my design. BETH HARRIS: And the sculpture
that decorated the villa, this is all inspired by ancient
Greek sculpture, but also some ancient Egyptian sculpture. BERNARD FRISCHER:
I had copies made of my favorite
types of Egyptian, and Greek, and even
Roman sculpture. But I also commissioned
some new pieces. I had two highly
talented sculptors who worked for me I
brought from Aphrodisias-- in the middle of modern day
Turkey-- Papus and Aristeas. And they made some
beautiful pieces I am told are still well
preserved today and can be seen in the
Capitoline Museum. BETH HARRIS: Could you take us
to see the so-called Canopus? BERNARD FRISCHER:
I'd be happy to. We're down in the
Canopus at the end looking toward one of
my very favorite parts of the villa, the
so-called Serapeum, the temple of Serapis. This is not a temple at all,
really, but an outdoor dining area where we love
to eat in the summer. So I mentioned that after
you arrive in the vestibule and bathe, you might be
invited to an audience with me, but you also might be invited
directly to dine with me. You can see how I cleverly
designed this place to be very refreshing, because
it's filled with cascades of water from my own
private aqueduct. The semi-circular structure
right in front of us is a so-called stibadium. It's a big couch. And we could have 20 or 30
diners banqueting with us on that couch. Of course, we would
put down our cushions. Right now, you're
looking at a colonnade with Corinthian capitals. One thing you don't see
is something I loved and that I revived
in other parts of the villa, the Doric order. Not so frequently used in
Roman imperial architecture where everything before me
tended to be Corinthian, but I love the Doric
order, as well. Again, it reminds me
of Athens and Greece. BETH HARRIS: I also heard
you were a religious man. BERNARD FRISCHER: I am. There's no one more
religious than me. After all, I am a future
god, and therefore have to maintain
respect for the gods. I built temples
all over the place, including right
here at the villa. BETH HARRIS: Should
we go visit one? BERNARD FRISCHER: So we've just
teleported from the Serapeum to the so-called Roccabruna. That's just a modern name. On top is a temple
in the Doric order. But even more interesting is the
sanctuary of the goddess Isis that I put in a rotunda below. If you look around
the sanctuary, there we can see the priest. We have a rotunda
here that's actually 2/3 the size of the Pantheon. The candelabra that
we see in front of us are decorated with
bases that have images pertaining
to the cult of Isis. We can see in front
of us the statue of Isis, which is now
in a museum in Rome. Isis was the queen of heaven. As such, she rules over not
only the earth, but the sky. And her festival in Rome
was on the summer solstice. We turn our clock back to the
summer solstice at sunset. And now we look at the statue. We can see how I have aligned
the statue in the niche exactly so that
at sunset it would be all lit up on
the summer solstice. BETH HARRIS: That's fabulous. And there's a frescoed
ceiling in the dome? BERNARD FRISCHER: There is. The ceiling had a
dome of heaven motif that I put in with the
sun god on his chariot at the peak of the dome,
the zodiac at the lower register of the dome. And look what we
find right over Isis. We find the twins, Gemini. I put them there because
the last day of Gemini is the summer solstice. So this is all oriented
very much towards the summer solstice, sunset on
the summer solstice, because that is a day
very important to Isis. BETH HARRIS: I'm honored
that you gave us this tour. Thank you. BERNARD FRISCHER:
You're welcome.