Horti Spei Veteris

The subsequent name of Horti Variani is due to the inclusion of the nearby land belonging to Sextus Varius Marcellus, father of emperor Elagabalus, into imperial state property.

[11] The expansion included the construction of the civil basilica intended for official functions (which was for a long time considered the Temple of Venus and Cupid due to the statue found there) and the transformation of a large rectangular atrium of the Horti Variani, an architectural hub that connected the living quarters with the circus and the amphitheatre and was originally covered by a flat ceiling, into a place of worship (later the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme),[12] where she placed in 327 the relics she brought after her visit to Jerusalem and the eastern provinces[13] including large parts of the "True Cross".

The residential rooms of the imperial family before the construction of the church were probably located in this area, given the discovery of sections of the corridor that connected them to the pulvinar (the royal box from which the emperor and the court watched the shows in the Circus).

The complex of the Horti Spei Veteris was developed under Elegabalus from a circus-palace association model for imperial and other luxurious palaces completely integrated with the other buildings.

The fabric of the curtain walls of the circular building, the amphitheatre and the atrium shows that they were conceived and built almost simultaneously, as part of a grandiose unitary project carried out by Elagabalus on the western elevation of the residence.

[21] This type of building of monumental dimensions consists of a long portico divided in half by a central spine or colonnade into parallel passages and ending with two circular rooms.

The plan of the complex has been handed down to us from the Renaissance drawings of Andrea Palladio and Giuliano da Sangallo,[25] while the remains of the cistern that fed it are still visible at the crossroads between the modern via Eleniana and via G. Sommeiller, made up of twelve chambers arranged in two parallel rows.

The remains of the baths were demolished at the end of the 16th century by Domenico Fontana at the behest of Pope Sixtus V in order to allow the opening of the section of the road in front of the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.