Vacone is a ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' (municipality) in the
Province of Rieti in the
Italian region
Latium
Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Definition
Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil (Old Latium) on whi ...
, located about west of
Rieti
Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...
.
The parish church,
San Giovanni Evangelista
San Giovanni Evangelista is a church in Ravenna, Italy.
It was built in the fifth century AD by the Roman imperial princess Galla Placidia.
In the Middle Ages the Benedictines annexed to it an important monastery. In the 14th century both the ch ...
is dedicated to St John the Evangelist.
An elaborate ancient Roman villa has been excavated nearby dating from the 2nd century BC.
Roman villa of Vacone
Background
The villa is one of the numerous Roman villas in the Sabina area. The landowners at this time no longer lived in these properties all year, but spent their holidays there in luxury and with many of the comforts of city life. Roman aristocrats often owned several of these villas in Italy, and visited each over the year to check on business and also to enjoy hunting, reading, writing and the rural life. The farms on these estates typically produced lucrative crops that were sold to the cities including olives, grapes (for wine), and even game or other edible luxuries such as snails, fish, and small birds.
The Site
The villa was built on large terraces created on the slope of
Monte Cosce supported by two
cryptoportici to give magnificent views over the region and the valley of the river Aia, and emphasise its grandeur to visitors. The villa was known from the 15th to the 18th century AD from travellers accounts when it was known as that of
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
without any evidence. It was forgotten again until the 1970s when the site was rediscovered during roadworks when it was excavated, with more investigation and restoration following in the 1980s, and again in 2012-18.
[The Ancient Roman Villa of Vacone, Matthew Notarian, 2015, Popular Archeology Summer 2022 https://popular-archaeology.com/article/the-ancient-roman-villa-of-vacone/]
Two
cryptoportici, series of vaulted arches, still exist supporting the terraces, the lower one for the residential area of the villa. The upper terrace had farm buildings northeast of the villa where at least two olive presses were found with brick-lined channels to drain the olive oil into a row of 3 vats, used to separate the oil from byproducts. A basin for collecting grape juice after pressing was also found.
At least 40 rooms belonging to the imperial Roman phase (post 30 BC) have been identified, most being residential with mosaic floors and painted wall plaster. A series of reception rooms opened onto a central peristyle with 5 x 5 columns arrangement, along with additional reception rooms at the back of the villa, bedrooms, and workshops.
Wall frescoes had a variety of designs, such as a unique ring pattern and bird and plant-like motifs. Some rooms also had moulded
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
embellishing walls and ceilings. The 30 mosaic floors are well preserved and include some 16 polychrome mosaics and 7 monochrome. Repairs were made to many of the mosaic floors in antiquity; for example, a large area of damage to opus scutulatum in Room 8 was replaced by red and white tesserae arranged as in the original pattern.
In recent centuries deep holes had been dug through the mosaic floors of the 1st or 2nd century AD in several areas possibly for vines. Excavations within these holes allowed earlier layers to be seen, for example an earlier floor in ''opus scutulatum'' (larger coloured marble pieces set into monochrome tesserae or other types of plain pavement) is in Room 3 which dates it to around 100 BC.
The villa may have gone out of use as early as 200 AD on coin and pottery evidence. New walls were built in a later century on different orientations from the earlier walls, and many of these through the mosaic floors. Later still the rooms were used for human burials, including 4 male adults in their 30s, a young child and a newborn.
Demographic evolution
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References
External links
www.comune.vacone.ri.it/
Cities and towns in Lazio
Roman villas in Italy
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