During his reign, the emperor Decio (249-251) had a bathhouse erected on the Aventino, which had become an aristocratic area during the Imperial age.
The character of these baths, probably constructed on his family’s property (Caecinae Decii Albini), was less popular than the one Caracalla built a few decades before. This was because it concerned important people of the times. It can be seen in certain inscriptions found on the site describing the use at least up to the V Century (these baths were last restored in 414, following a Gothic incursion).
The plan of the building can be identified by a drawing by Palladio discovered by Lanciani in the Devonshire collection. In Palladio’s plan, the symmetrical development of the various rooms (nymphaeums, gymnasiums, dressing-rooms) to the sides of the large central room can be seen as well as the frigidarium or the tepidarium.
As the ruins were still visible during his lifetime, Nolli illustrated a plan in 1748. The location of the baths can certainly be identified in the area now the piazza del Tempio di Diana and the nearby buildings, erected in the area of the antique Vigna Torlonia.
During chance findings and excavations, the ruins were unearthed. In the seventeenth century, a room with mosaics and walls decorated with painted stucco were found, possibly when many other famous works were recovered (like the Ercole fanciullo in green basalt, and the bas-relief of Endimione dormiente, now at the Capitoline Museum). Other remains emerged during reconstruction of the piazza in the first decades of 1900.
Some are still hidden underneath the Casale Torlonia and a section of the walls which can still be seen, under the piazza.
This wall divides a section of a previous residence, which had been used as the foundation for the baths themselves. Its rooms, now accessible, situated 10.2 m under street level, are especially imposing due to the height of their painted walls.
Frescoes decorate the white plaster walls with linear divisions in red and green stripes and small squares depict painted landscapes, masks, candelabras, flowers and other plant-shaped elements.
The choice of this type of painting, used in the ceilings is particularly interesting as they are decorated with a concentric motif that transforms the crossed vaults into octagonal cupolas.
Based on the marks in the brickwork and the pictorial style, the rooms can be attributed to the first half of the second century AD (between the late period of Adriano and that of the Antonini).
Earlier structures, which belonged to a private late Republican home, were enclosed in this building and are still partially covered by paintings of the first Pompeian style, attributed to the 2nd century BC.
Other chambers from the same complex were found in the Vigna Torlonia during the reinforcement works of 1867-72, carried out to protect the Aventino from the Garibaldini.
These chambers probably belonged to the same nucleus that enclosed smaller houses and go back to the Republican era (at about 70m. under “Casa Bellezza” at Largo Arrigo VII, another important residence belonging to the same period was brought to light).
The buildings have been recognized as the Privata Traiani, Traino’s house that sources give as on the Aventino, while others identified them as the ruins under the Church of S. Prisca. It is however probable that the opulent residence formed part of the Imperial heritage and was then partially included in Decio’s baths.
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 | | | I Municipio
Rione XII - Ripa
Regio XIII - Aventinus
Piazza del tempio di Diana |  |
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