Villa of the Volusii Saturnini

Discovery

The discovery of the scale and importance of the site was completely accidental even though a Roman cryptoporticus and related structures in the area were known, and it was very close to the known Lucus Feroniae sanctuary: in 1962 it was found during the construction of the A1 highway at the Fiano Romano tollbooth.

Excavation

The excavation of the complex, cut in two by the highway's access ramp, was done from 1962 to 1971. Renovation continued until the 1990s with the restoration of the mosaic floors, walls, and structures, the setting up of a small antiquarium, and the installation of protective roofs.

History

This villa rustica fits into the group of villas built in the Roman republican age by senatorial families not far from Rome in a fertile area, being not only a country residence but also a large farm.

The villa that can be seen today was largely built around the middle of the 1st century BC by the senatorial family of the Volusii Saturnini, probably on an existing villa that had belonged to the Egnatii family, opponents of Augustus who had their assets seized after their death. From the senator Quintus Volusius, known to Cicero, the villa passed to his son Lucius Volusius Saturninus (consul 12 BC), cousin of Tiberius, who enlarged the building. He adapted it in the style of Hellenistic villas, in vogue in the Augustan age, equipping it with residential and spa facilities, enriching it with new mosaic decorations and expanding the residential part with the construction of a gigantic peristyle and with a lararium with statues of the family's ancestors. The family also owned the more commercial villa-estate at Settefinestre.

On the death of Quintus Volusius Saturninus, who was consul in 56 AD, the villa was probably acquired by the emperor.

Around this date, the villa changed radically from a suburban luxury villa into a large agricultural production centre typical of a latifundium, complete with large slave quarters (ergastulum), and this seems to have continued, with a corresponding deterioration of the quality of the residential part, up to the end of the 4th century AD. The villa was restored between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Traces of devastation (including the violent shattering of the statues) and of fires have been revealed by excavations, but the villa was frequented until the 5th century AD, when a small cemetery was set up in the residential part.

Starting from the early Middle Ages, a religious building was first built and then a small fortified centre with towers and, finally, a rustic farmhouse reported in the maps of the area of the 16th century.

Description

The villa was located about 400 metres (1,300 ft) from Lucus Feroniae alongside the Via Tiberina and was built on an embankment that offered a panoramic view of the lower Tiber Valley.

It was built on two levels, the upper one supported by a cryptoporticus which housed the residential part with an atrium, triclinium, tablinum, with large peristyle, garden and lararium. Overall, around sixty rooms have been identified built in the republican and imperial eras. Some rooms retain polychrome mosaics with beautiful geometric decorations often finished with flowers, birds, and various symbols.

The original phase from about 50 BC consisted of: a large hexastyle atrium with travertine columns surrounded by a beautiful tablinum flanked by side rooms, a series of rooms of various sizes on the long sides of the atrium which include cubicula, a triclinium and living rooms; below was a viridarium with ashlar columns supporting pergolas, while a portico ran externally along the western side, perhaps to connect the villa with the adjacent fields. The eastern side of the villa had very fine geometric mosaics, among which the one decorating room 18 has a polychrome imitation of Hellenistic carpets. The exceptional opus sectile floor in room 23, one of the oldest known examples of such flooring, seems to date back to this period too. …