Palaces but the sheer size of nero s new toiling was unprecedented. romans complained one house was taking over the entire city to tony as wrote parts of the house were overlaid with gold they were dining rooms with fretted ceilings of ivory whose panels could turn and showered down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfume as. the architectural highlight and heart of the palace was the octagonal hall of all to dome built on an octagonal basis one of the first known concrete vaults in the history of architecture. as atoning has remarked the hall constantly revolved day and night. like they haven t. the complex consumed eighty hectors in the center of rum the entire palace complex