A maze of fifteen large rooms of a Roman -era domus from the Republican period for a total of 1500 square metres for each one of the levels, that most likely shouldn’t have been less than three.
From an epigram of Marziale (40 AD– 104 AD) we can suppose that it belonged to Gneo Domizio Apollinare, a replacing Consul in 98 AD.
The replacing Consul was, in practice, the substitute consul appointed to replace the titular consul at times when the latter, for whatever reason, was prevented from performing the function which had been assigned to him by the Senate of Rome.
It is obvious that Apollinare could not have been the first owner of this maritime mansion that, as already said, by the style of its masonry works, dates back to the previous republican period.
Marco Valerio Marziale, invited by Apollinare, spent in the “Domus” or mansion above this structure a day of “otium” or in idleness and he was so enthusiastic that, going back to Rome, wrote the epigram X, 30 entitled:
O temperate dolce Formiae litus….
It’s a real hymn to the beauty of the roman Formiae by Marziale who must have often visited our places if he had also been able to meet Silio Italico, the owner of the domus that belonged to Cicero.
The “domus” of this article had in front of it a structure of 1800 square meters at sea for fish breeding use.
The rooms at the ground floor were used both for the storage of materials of any kind, and as servants and slaves housing.
The picture of the planimetry of the “Pool”:
The pictures have been taken when the site was open.
Raffaele Capolino
