The residential areas were decorated with marble reliefs depicting the Labours of Hercules, dated to the 3rd century, or with clipei (shields) with images of deities.

[1] Alexandre Du Mège, the director of excavations at Chiragan in the 1840s, thought that the villa was the ancient city of Calagorris mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary and that the rich findings pointed to an imperial palace.

[2] On the other hand, Léon Joulin, the author of large-scale excavations carried out at the end of the 19th century, suggested that the site was occupied by the procurators in charge of the administration of the imperial lands,[3] which would explain the importance accorded to the figure of the emperor in the villa.

[4] Another hypothesis, put forward by Jean-Charles Balty, sees it as the property of Maximian and thus effectively an imperial villa at the end of the third century.

The opportunity arose from a flood of the river that runs alongside the site: following a heavy storm, the water and the rainfall brought to light the remains of the villa on 23 May 1826.

The interest in the architecture of the villa, perceptible from the 1840s onwards, was to grow until it became central to Léon Joulin's work at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

[8] It was only at the end of the century, in the years 1890–91, that new excavations were entrusted to Albert Lebèque, an archaeologist, pupil of Emile Burnouf and trained at the French School of Athens.

After the scandals involving Du Mège about the commerce of falsified antiques, the aim of Lebèque's excavation campaign was to "dispel doubts" about the conduct of previous investigations, given the lack of confidence of the scientific community.

Léon Joulin took charge of the work from 1897 to 1899, seconded by Abel Ferré, and carried out large-scale excavations financed by the State, the department and the town of Toulouse.

[15] Following most of the work carried out by his predecessors, he proposed a synthesis, based on an interpretation of the site considered in its context of the Martres-Tolosane plain.

In particular, he drew up a plan of the compound, taken as a reference by later generations,[13] in which he identified the estate as a vast villa extending over 16 hectares.

[17] These comprise both the elements necessary for the agricultural production of the rustic villa and the master's residence, with a monumental portico, numerous gardens, and private baths.

[6] The first excavators were struck by the importance of the sculptures, the splendid marble decorations, including some 300 statues of very fine manufacture.