Imperial Villa at Antium
About
Emperor after emperor kept up this coastal estate south of Rome, an eight-hundred-meter stretch of shoreline inherited by Nero from his family the Octavii and rebuilt on a grander scale after his birth there in 37 CE. Cisterns, quays, and warehouses recovered at the site once stored the olive oil and wine that made Antium a working supply port as well as a retreat. Augustus is recorded using an earlier villa on this shore as far back as 2 BCE, and the estate stayed imperial through the Severans, a century after Trajan.
What happened here
Land held in one ownership and worked as a unit, whether the owner is a senator, an emperor or a town. Day to day it is run by a manager who keeps the accounts, allots the tasks and answers for the shortfall. The workforce is mixed — slaves in gangs, tenant farmers on shares, and seasonal labour hired for the harvest and the vintage. Tenants owe a proportion of the crop and a fixed number of days' work, and the terms are posted publicly, which is how we know them. Buildings cluster: presses, granaries, a smithy, quarters, a shrine. Disputes over water and over how many days are owed go to the estate's own procurator first and to the emperor if that fails.
Sources
Nearby
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