← Back to the map Ruins of the monumental Villa dei Quintili along the Via Appia outside Rome

Panoramic view of the Villa dei Quintili ruins, Via Appia · Wikimedia Commons

Villa dei Quintili

Villa Quintiliorum

VillaItalia · Via Appia Nuova, Rome, ItalyBuilt 130 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

The largest private villa in Roman suburbia, spread across roughly 24 hectares beside the fifth milestone of the Via Appia. It took its name from brothers Sextus Quintilius Condianus and Valerius Maximus, joint consuls in 151 CE, whose grounds held a private hippodrome, baths, and vast cisterns. Commodus later executed both brothers and seized the estate. On 11 August 117 CE none of this stood yet; the hill was still open ground, with construction starting only once Hadrian's reign began.

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.