In June and September 2005 excavations were re-opened on the domus of Sallust (VI 2, 2-4), studied and published by Anne Laidlaw from 1969 onwards, with the aim of re-establishing a direct relationship with results already obtained in preceding years.

In collaboration with the project “The First Centuries of Pompeii” three trenches were put into the house, one at the S-E corner of the atrium ’s cubiculum (38), one in the triclinium area (39) and one behind the impluvium at the centre of the atrium (40). The excavations resolved the anomaly involving the S-E corner of the cubiculum: wall E of this room originally continued to the southern perimeter of the building, dividing the shops facing onto the Consular Road from another building which in the 2nd century B.C. was not yet a part of the House of Sallust. The data acquired from trench 39 clearly shows that originally there were no plans for a garden in the place where the triclinium was later positioned. The presence of a green area, even if to date no traces of one have been found, can only be considered if one allows for its creation in a period between the abandonment of the structures found in the trench and the construction of the rooms around the peristyle, including the triclinium, annexed to the House of Sallust in its later phases. Moreover, the stratigraphy confirmed the dating of the domus complex to within the second half of the 2nd century B.C. thus showing that insula 2 was occupied gradually and was only completed during the course of the 2nd century B.C.