Latrina romana di Via Garibaldi

When part of the supporting wall of the square opposite St. Pietro in Montorio collapsed in October of 1963, the ruins of an antique Roman latrine were exposed. Only two walls of the ruins in different styles, facing northwest-southeast, perpendicular to each other and broken at the ends, are preserved. The construction of the supporting wall, erected in 1605, when the entrance to the church was also restored, evidently caused the loss of the eastern side and damaged the other wall structures. A canal, about 0.40m wide and 0.80m deep, runs along the remaining three sides. The plane where the canal flows is bipedal and the sides are covered in a type of earthen mixture (cocciopesto). The mosaic floor, geometrically patterned, is far from the walls to allow space for the canal. Another smaller channel used for cleaning once ran alongside and it can only be slightly discerned. Marble seats, called sellae pertusae, were usually placed above the water flow in the drainage canal, where holes were bored in the upper part for their use. No such objects however remain. Therefore, it is therefore assumed that a series of movable tablets, set on supports and probably placed on jutting sections, of which two can still be seen on the western wall, were used as seats. The same explanation has been offered concerning the ancient lavatories, both public and private, at Pompei, the Italian agora at Delo, the villa delle Settefinestre (Grossetto) and in Brittany. On the left wall at the back, near the western wall, a lintel suggests the presence of a doorway, now closed off, leading to a second, not yet excavated, room. On this side, the painted plaster has been noticeably damaged by work done on the foundation of the supporting wall of the square above. The northern part of the mosaic floor was thus demolished, damaging the drainage canal and created space for two large cement pilasters that were added to the northern wall. On the west side there is still a wide section of the walls still partly lined with plaster. The frescoed decorations have a regular pattern. Similar to the contemporary examples (like those that can be seen at the domus of via Eleniana and in the villa under the apse of the basilica at San Giovanni in Laterano), the painting style indicates that the latrine may have been built during the last decades of the second, or early third, century AD.