Il liberto Agatirso, l’Augusta Plotina e la villa in Vallericcia tra fonti antiquarie e documentazione archeologica

This paper focuses on the excavations financed by Cardinal Antonio Despuig y Dameto and carried out at the Ariccia Valley between 1790 and 1791. Important epigraphic material, fine architectural elements and many marble sculptures from the Imperial period were discovered. These items were exhibited in Rome at Palazzo Nuñez and subsequently they went to the Raixa Museum in Palma in Maiorca. Combining the antiquarian sources (E. Lucidi and G. Zoëga) with the historical cartography, it is possible to get new information about the original archaeological context where the pieces were displayed. We can locate this discovery near the “Mola di Genzano” and we identify the remains of thermal baths of a luxury Roman villa. In addition, a comprehensive overview of the sculptural programme that included a series of imperial busts, portraits, herms, statues, statuettes, reliefs and labrum has provided the opportunity to reflect on the owner of the villa. It was originally thought to belong to a freedman called Agatirso on the basis of an inscription dedicated to Plotina found at that time. Differences in dates of the sculptures, their iconographic significance and stylistic features shed a different light on this aspect, and the complex could suggest an imperial villa in this particular area of the ager Aricinus.