Identification The large size and interconnectedness of the rooms suggest they belonged to the same building. Although it could represent a single-family house, a domus, the somewhat unusual layout of rooms is closer to the architecture seen in the large imperial baths on the Map. As the central architecture of the Baths of Titus and of Trajan is rendered with double, recessed lines (see for example frs. 10wzy and 110), this fragment probably does not belong to one of them, unless it depicts a section of the outlying sections of these buildings. It compares well, however, with the Baths of Agrippa in fr. 38. The colonnade in this fragment consists of one straight line of columns, seemingly flanking one side of a large space or entrance hall. As such, it is different from the rows of columns that line all four sides of a peristyle in private houses. If this building is indeed a bath building, the rectangle in the bottom left corner may be a large water basin or pool. In 1914, C. Hülsen identified this fragment as belonging to the upper peristyle of the Domus Augustana on the Palatine Hill (Hülsen 1914, p. 112, pls. 2-3); his thesis was later proven incorrect when the area in question was unearthed (PM 1960, pp. 77-78).

Significance Matching this fragment to one of Rome's great, monumental bath structures would be an significant gain.

Text by Tina Najbjerg