Esquiline Hill

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The Esquiline Hill is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. The origin of the name Esquilino is still under much debate. One view is that the Hill was named after the abundance of holm-oaks, exculi, that resided there. Another view is that, during Rome's infancy, the Capitolium, the Palatium, and the northern fringes of the Caelian were the most-populated areas of the city, whose inhabitants were considered inquilini, in-towners; those that inhabited the external regions - Aurelian, Oppius, Cispius, Fagutalis - were considered exquilini, suburbanites.

Rising above the valley in which was later built the Colosseum, the Esquiline was a fashionable residential district. At the southern-most cusp, the Oppius, Nero confiscated property to build his extravagant, mile-long Golden House^[1], and later still Trajan constructed his bath complex, both of whose remains are visible today. Farther to the northeast, at the summit of the Cispius, is the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

In 1781, the marble statue of a Discus thrower - the so-called Discobolus of Myron - was discovered.

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