Villa di Domiziano al Circeo, Archaeological site of Roman imperial villa in Sabaudia, Italy.
Villa di Domiziano al Circeo occupies a 45-hectare peninsula on the lagoon of Paola between Sabaudia and San Felice Circeo. Most of the estate remains unexcavated; three areas are visible: the Exedra baths with a palaestra and marble opus spicatum paving, the apsidal basin at the north-western tip, and central cisterns for water collection and distribution.
The earliest villa on the site dates to the late-Republican and Augustan eras; it may be the villa of the Triumvir Lepidus, exiled there in 36 BC. Domitian (r. 81–96 AD) greatly expanded and enhanced it, and the Lex Irnitana records a document recitatae Circeiis, dictated at Circeii in October 91. Brick stamps from his reign, found in 1934, confirm the attribution.
The villa's name comes from the locality still called Palazzo, between Sabaudia and San Felice Circeo. Martial's verses place Domitian's mistresses here, and a Spanish municipal law, the Lex Irnitana, records a decree recitatae Circeiis, dictated at Circeii in October 91. Visitors can see brick stamps from Domitian's reign in the excavated southern area.
Only three parts of the villa are visible: the Exedra baths on the south-western shore, the apsidal basin at the north-western tip, and the central cisterns. Most of the 45-hectare peninsula is unexcavated and covered by pines planted in the 1940s, whose roots threaten the buried ruins. Plan to walk between the three zones.
The villa's 45-hectare peninsula is mostly unexcavated, and only three areas are visible: the Exedra baths, the apsidal basin and the central cisterns. The 1940s pine planting now threatens the buried ruins with its roots.
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