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.

In 36 BC on the death of the historian, the residence passed to his adopted great-grandson of the same name, and eventually to Claudius as imperial property[3][4] but was maintained for several centuries by the Roman Emperors as a public amenity.

Pliny writes that the remains of the guardians of the horti, Posio and Secundilla, were found there in the reign of Augustus and measured 10 feet 3 inches tall.

Its walls were encrusted with enamels, pumice and shells, which framed small landscapes and scenes with animals and flowers painted in bright colours.

Also part of the later complex was the temple of Venus Erycina which stood at the bottom of the valley, a Republican building located just outside the Porta Collina and incorporated in the horti under Caesar.

This small temple was reminiscent of a Hellenistic tholos, a very common type in the late Republican age and a typical element of large suburban villas.

The main part of the building was a large circular hall (11 m in diameter by 13 in height), covered by a dome with alternating concave and flat segments (a very rare form, found only in the Serapeum).

A large Hadrianic cistern also survives under Collegio Germanico at the corner of Via San Nicola da Tolentino and Via Bissolati[11] consisting of two levels: the first, 1.8 m high, acts as a substructure to the second (overall 39 x 3.3 m).

Testimony of the importance and wealth of the Horti Sallustiani are the great works of art found, many of them ancient Greek originals, even though numerous robberies took place over the centuries.

The Niobid should have decorated the pediment of a Greek temple but was found hidden to save it from the barbarian raids that devastated the area in the 5th century AD.