Domus Severiana

The Domus Severiana is the modern name given to the final extension to the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill in Rome, built to the south-east of the Stadium Palatinum in the Domus Augustana of Septimius Severus.

All that remains of the building are the imposing brick substructures at the corner of the hill, which created an artificial platform at the same level as the palace of Domitian, extending it, since the emperors had run out of space on the hill.

They were part of an imperial baths complex or thermae, now visible in the remains below the exedra of the Stadium Palatinum, which may have been built under Domitian and which was rebuilt by Maxentius.

On the side facing the via Appia, Septimius Severus commissioned an impressive three-level facade akin to the scaenae frons in a theatre, with fountains and colonnades.

It is said that the emperor monumentalised this side of the building to impress his fellow Africans, who would arrive in Rome along the via Appia.