“The excavation lasted a year and the result was the discovery of a very important Roman villa”.

Dionisio Moretti

#VilladeiSeveri

At the height of the 17th mile of the Via Cassia, between 1869 and 1870, the remains of a very rich villa with large, richly decorated rooms were discovered. The excavations returned a huge amount of valuable material (glass, stucco, frescoes, mosaics, imported material), which immediately allowed us to hypothesize the particular importance of the site. Finally, a section of engraved hydraulic pipeline was discovered which made it possible to identify the owners of the villa: the imperial family of the Severi. The villa, originally probably of an ancestor of the emperor Septimius Severus, was transformed and further enriched by Septimius Geta, brother of the emperor. Of the villa the polychrome floor mosaics are very famous (exhibited in the National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo, room IX). The mosaics were made with the opus vermiculatum technique, that is, with tiny tesserae of colored stones and marbles. Some rooms of the spa sector had been brought to light of the villa and at least one cubicle on the upper floor, of which nothing remains today due to landslides and agricultural works.