The first villa was erected in the 1st century probably by his father Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, ex-praetor, provincial priest, then consul suffect in 133 AD.

The archaeological remains offer proof of a second phase, around the year 165, when overwhelmed by the loss of his wife Régilla and his sons, he covered the villa with artistic works of his relatives.

About forty years later, the German archaeologist Ernst Curtius refuted the idea of an urban wall in favour of Roman domestic use, without making any connection with Herodes Atticus.

The rectangular atrium is occupied in its centre by a channel 3 m wide, which delimited an island of 60 × 15 m and which was fed by an imposing nymphaeum to the west, an architecture reminiscent of the maritime theatre of the villa of 'Hadrian at Tivoli.

The south wing, the highest, was occupied by a 100 m-long cryptoporticus linking, from west to east, an octagonal tower, baths, a serapeum and a basilica (or aula) forming a heroon to Antinous.

In the northern part extended in the 4th century a vast basilica with three naves of 940 m2, supported by two rows of four columns, which ended in the west with an apse adorned with statues.

Among the figures and scenes depicted are the Muses Euterpe and Calliope, Dido, Aeneas, the nymph Arethusa, the river-gods Ladas, Alpheus and Acheloos, the Labours of Heracles and Achilles slaying Penthesilea.

On the site a considerable number of statues, busts and reliefs have been unearthed, most of them in Dolianá marble, including classical masterpieces and Roman copies, representations of deities, portraits of the Antonine imperial family and the adopted sons of Herodes Atticus, Achilles, Polydeukes and Memnon.