The restoration of the Terme dei Cisiarii, begun in the 1990s, required some archaeological research as well. The baths date to the Hadrianic period, and occupy part of the central and northern area of a larger insula fronting on the Decumanus Maximus, at the point where the late republican commercial complex of the Magazzini Repubblicani was built. The sondages carried out to help understand the conservation showed the relationship of the baths to the Magazzini and clarified the various phases later than the Hadrianic period, linked to transformations and enlargements of the baths and their service buildings. Particularly interesting were the investigations under the pavement of one of the hot rooms, perhaps a tepidarium, where a Severan rebuilding of the hypocaust was brought to light, dated by brick stamps to between AD 198 and 217. In the layer representing the collapse of the ceiling over the pavement, which resulted in the destruction of the pilae of the underlying floor, were found numerous fragments of the stuccoes of the vault which can be added to those already discoverded at the beginning of the twentieth century in excavations which were never completed. In 2001 a project was initiated to restore the stuccoes, with the aim of reconstructing the decorative scheme of the vault, walls and lunettes. The coffered ceiling was articulated in octagons and roundels with vegetal motifs, with moulded figures in high relief. In the roundels were found rosettes and heads, while in the octagons were figured scenes – people on fantastic beasts, mythological figures, and putti at play. The walls were probably joined to the ceiling with bands of multiple figured friezes. There is no certainty as to the position of a group in high relief composed of a couple, perhaps Hercules and Athena, although it is probable that they were placed on a flat surface.
(Margherita Bedello Tata)