The Tiburtine villa of the emperor Hadrian has been subject to archeological study for over 500 years, yet it is still not possible to describe with certainty the nature of its design and use, ultimately leaving inconclusive even the most learned speculation about its meaning and significance. Recent scholarship has now laid the groundwork for a provisional attempt at a synthesis that explains the workings of the whole. The culmination of this study is the recreation a sequence of images which would be encountered on a walk through the villa by a contemporary visitor. An analysis of how the villa worked and what it meant can afford a glimpse into the transitory world of experience lived and willed by Hadrian, emperor of the Roman for twenty one years nearly twenty centuries ago.
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