Since 1982, the Archaeological Superintendence of Rome has been conducting investigations in the Villa of Livia, called by ancient sources ‘ad gallinas albas’, in memory of an extraordinary event that happened to Livia, wife of Octavian Augustus, while she was going to her estates: “…to Livia Drusilla…an eagle dropped from above into her lap…a hen of extraordinary whiteness holding a laurel branch with its berries in its beak. The soothsayers commanded to raise the bird and its offspring, to plant the branch and guard it religiously. This was done in the villa of the Caesars overlooking the Tiber River near the ninth mile of the Via Flaminia, which is therefore called alle Galline; and miraculously a small wood was born from it.” (Plin. nat. XV, 136-137).
The precise topographical location and the imposing retaining walls of the ‘basis villae’, always visible, have exposed the complex to repeated spoliations since the end of the empire. In 1863, some fortunate but not adequately documented explorations led first to the discovery of the famous statue of Augustus in lorica, now in the Vatican Museums, and immediately after the semi-basement room with walls frescoed with the famous garden paintings, detached in 1951 for conservation purposes and transferred to the National Roman Museum and now exhibited at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.
In the area, acquired by the Italian state, several excavation campaigns have been conducted that have allowed the discovery of much of the ancient structures, particularly of the private zone with atrium and small inner garden, the representative area with large frescoed rooms and floors in mosaic and ‘opus sectile’ overlooking the peristyle. Recent explorations of the large thermal complex have led to the definition of an initial phase from the early Flavian age with the presence of two ‘piscinae calidae’ and a ‘natatio’, followed by a radical restructuring in the Severan period. A large U-shaped porticoed terrace with garden, probably the ‘lauretum’ remembered by sources, adorned the eastern side of the imperial residence.
In the Antiquarium, located near the current entrance of the archaeological area, the most significant finds unearthed on the site are exhibited.
Information about Villa di Livia
Via Villa di Livia, 125
00188 Rome (Rome)
0633626826
ssba-rm@beniculturali.it
https://archeoroma.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
