Ruins of the Villa dei Volusii Saturnini at Lucus Feroniae · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Villa of the Volusii Saturnini

Villa Volusiorum Saturninorum

EstateItalia · Fiano Romano, Rome Province, ItalyBuilt 50 BCE · Destroyed 350 CE

About

Highway construction crews accidentally uncovered this senatorial estate in 1962 while building a tollbooth outside Rome, revealing one of the most completely excavated great villas in Italy. The powerful Volusii Saturnini family ran productive farmland here alongside a lavish peristyle residence, next to the sanctuary town of Lucus Feroniae on the Via Tiberina. Its cryptoporticus and storage ranges still stand largely intact.

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.

In ancient writing

Tacitus, Annals 13.30
Records the death at ninety-three of Lucius Volusius Saturninus, head of the senatorial family that owned this villa, and praises his long-accumulated wealth.