Since the first excavation undertaken in 1713, this villa has been identified as that described by Pliny the Younger in a letter to his friend Gallus (Ep. II, XVII). This attribution, however, has not been confirmed either by the more extensive archaeological investigations directed by A.M. Colini in 1934 or by the successive excavations. With a panoramic view of the ocean (now ca. 500 meters away), the villa was surrounded by a defense wall, on the outside of which, and almost parallel to the coast, ran the via Severiana. The most consistent part of the surviving structures is the quadriporticus in opus reticulatum (n. 1), with a reconstructed brick arch belonging to the internal colonnade. In fact the colonnade is double; the columns themselves were built in brick, covered with stucco and fluted. At the center of the garden delimited by the peristyle there is a mixtilineal tub. A bath (n. 2) lies at the southern end of the northwestern arm of the quadriporticus. The first room of this area is paved by a black and white mosaic depicting Neptune pulled by seahorses. The cleaning and restoration in 1992 of the southeastern wing of the quadriporticus led to the discovery of previously unknown structures belonging to a sector farther along toward the coast (n. 3). These include an apsidal room datable between AD 125 and 150 that was restored several times up until the Severan period. (Anna Maria Ramieri)