Piano della Civita (approximately 1 km to the south of the modern town of Artena at the northern extremity of the Monti Lepini on the valle del Sacco) houses the remains of an ancient city, the name of which is still unknown. Excavations have revealed three phases of occupation of the city, preceded by a sporadic occupation of the seventh – sixth century BC as suggested at the moment only by a few fragments of archaic pottery.

The first phase, to which belong a series of buildings and cisterns, dates to between the fourth and the beginning of the third century BC. The site was abandoned in the course of the third century BC following a traumatic episode, as suggested by numerous traces of fire on the interior of the dwellings.

During the second phase of occupation, begun immediately afterwards, the houses were given a walled enclosure, with a large terrace and a access road. In the course of the first century BC, an atrium-style villa was constructed at the center of the terrace. The villa was enlarged between the first and second centuries AD, as testified by a series of brick stamps. The building was at this point organized around a tetrastyle atrium, with a bath installation in the northwest corner and a large peristyle on the south side. Located to the east of the atrium was a production room for the working of olives and grapes. The private baths were comprised of the classic sequence of praefurnium, calidarium and frigidarium, paved with mosaics, and were covered with decorated plaster. The grand peristyle was delimited with columns in bricks which sustained a porch. The water supply was provided by one large cistern, perhaps connected to the remains of an aqueduct found in 1998 at the top of the mountain.