Villa of Agrippa Postumus, Boscotrecase
About
Augustus built this villa above Boscotrecase for his grandson Agrippa Postumus, whose exile and execution around 14 CE left the estate confiscated by the imperial family. Its black-ground and red-ground bedroom frescoes, among the earliest examples of the Third Pompeian Style, rank as some of the finest Augustan-era wall paintings ever recovered, now held in New York's Metropolitan Museum. The original 79 CE eruption ended its life as a residence 38 years before 117 CE.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →