The archaeological excavation campaign under the Basilica of Massenzio, initiated by the Department of Sciences of Antiquity of Sapienza University in collaboration with Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, has allowed the exploration of the stratigraphies from the Imperial age and an initial analysis of the characteristics of the horrea Piperataria, the pepper and spice warehouses, built by Domitian and subject to the control of the imperial tax authorities. The latter, already known in the archaeological literature for their attendance by the doctors of the imperial court and for the presence of the famous Apotheca of Galen, were hidden by the monumental Basilica.
A series of architectural and structural phases, material evidence of the sequence of historical-urbanistic events between the Augustan age and the Constantinian era, have unexpectedly revealed a spectacular architectural backdrop with niches from the Julio-Claudian era, attesting to a structure completely unknown until today.
The archaeological project aims at a complete knowledge of the urban history of the Velia hill, a crucial area in the centre of Rome, which appears in ancient documents, both in relation to some festivities of the Archaic age and in the sources of the Republican and early Imperial age, until the gradual disappearance caused by the subsequent building works carried out in the area, from Nero to Massenzio.
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