Horti Liciniani

The Horti Liciniani[1] was a luxurious complex of an ancient Roman villa with large gardens and outdoor rooms originally belonging to the gens Licinia.

The horti were a place of pleasure, almost a small palace, and offered the rich owner and his court the possibility of living in isolation, away from the hectic life of the city but close to it.

Between 1875 and 1878 the feverish post-unification development of Rome into an urban capital city and of the new Esquiline district revealed ancient buildings, perhaps belonging to the palace, near the nymphaeum, as recorded by Rodolfo Lanciani.

A number of remarkable sculptures earlier than the nymphaeum were found reused in and around it, notable of which are statues of two magistrates launching the circus games, perhaps Quintus Aurelius Symmachus[7] and his son Memmius Simmacus[8] (in the Palazzo dei Conservatori), who were important in late 4th century Rome.

In 1904 a large mosaic floor with hunting scenes belonging to a long portico of the horti and dated to the early 4th century was found during the construction of the railway underpass.