Located just 7.5 kilometers south of Rome, the former facility was equal parts theatrical stage and winery—as well as the ancient Roman version of a dude ranch.
Wine was a big deal in ancient Rome. The emperor himself opened each year’s wine grape harvest by cutting a symbolic cluster of grapes and sacrificing a lamb to the god Jupiter.
Archaeologists excavated the wine production facility in 2017 and 2018. Located just 7.5 kilometers south of Rome, the elaborate site was equal parts theatrical stage and winery—as well as the ancient Roman version of a dude ranch. Here, the pinnacle of Roman nobility got their hands dirty, playing farmer and winemaker for a day.
Part of a larger complex known as the Villa of the Quintili, the facility was “decorated to a stupendous level,” Dodd says. “They’re taking it to a bizarre degree of opulence we never see in ancient production facilities.”At the same time, it was a fully functional winery. The 1000-square-meter space featured high-end imported marble and storage vats beneath an elaborately decorated floor.
Like an open-air theater, the winemaking spaces were surrounded by luxurious private rooms, perhaps for dining, that would have allowed the emperor and his companions to observe the process from start to finish. “It’s an amazing, bizarre find,” he says. “The emperors are connecting themselves with rusticity and peasants.”
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