Constructed between the third and last quarter of the 2nd century B.C. this building was richly decorated ( opus signinum pavements with geometric motifs, First Style wall-paintings), and was arranged around an atrium with an opus signinum impluvium. The reception rooms were on the south side, with a large distyle exedra and an uiridarium or portico at the back.

In the 1st century B.C., probably following Sulla’s siege of the town, the domus ceded the three spaces mentioned above to the adjoining property and the atrium was transformed into a tetrastyle with reused columns. In the post-earthquake period the eastern and western sectors of the building were divided and the atrium was transformed – as were the adjoining rooms – into a stabulum. The earthquakes immediately preceding the eruption of 79 A.D. must have been responsible for the substantial damage noted during the excavation: The cisterns surrounding the central one and extending below the entire atrium came away from the surrounding walls. The central cistern itself and the impluvium above it, which must have formed a large solid structure, collapsed and the vaults of the cisterns gave way causing the floor to slope downwards, provoking fractures all around.

The area was affected by the activities of the recuperatores, and began to be excavated from 1811 onwards. The atrium was subsequently covered over to threshold level (a depth of over 1 m of earth). In fact, the impluvium, was noted by the excavators and marked on Bibent’s plan of 1827, and then copied onto that of Sorgente for Giuseppe Fiorelli’s famous work. However, it later “disappeared” from most of the documentation and was no longer visible.

During its last phase of use various structures for watering animals were built; a small channel was created which carried rain water from the street into the impluvium which had perhaps been transformed into a manure-pit.