The rescue excavation undertaken prior to the construction of a football pitch produced important data regarding the urban topography of Sessa Aurunca (Latin colony founded in 313 B.C.). The area investigated is situated along the line of the town walls next to the _forum_. Buried beneath a dump of rubble were the remains of an imposing substructure in _opus reticulatum_ made of Roccamonfina tufa, with string courses in bipedales, and articulated by a series of niches. The entrances to the _versurae_ were richly decorated with _clipei_ in Proconnesian marble framing busts in Luna marble. The excavation of the orchestra and the stage pit of the Roman theatre revealed numerous architectural elements and statues of female divinities, principes (first half of the 2nd century A.D.), a satyr herm and a splendid statue of Matidia Minor as Aura velificans: in fact, the two monumental basilicas at the sides of the scena were built at her expense. The one on the town side was a great aula, entered from the upper part of the town via an imposing staircase with limestone steps and frescoed walls. This opened onto the southern parados through a three spanned arch faced with marble on whose architrave was the great dedicatory inscription in honour of the Empress, which celebrated the restoration of the theatre and porticus. Facing the entrance was a monumental _nyphaeum_ (13 m long), faced with polychrome marble and glass paste mosaics in which stood a statue of the Nile. The symmetrical aula to the north, had a Corinthian portico of grey granite with bases and capitals in Luni marble. The trabeation, also in Luni marble, was decorated with an elegant spiral of _acanthus_ leaves. Nearby a small crypta, cut into the tufa, was identified. This formed a link between the extra-urban roads and the northern parados. Near the entrance was a _sacellum_ with a fresco depicting a _lararium_ probably dedicated to the _Genius Theatri_.

The excavation and restoration of the Roman theatre of Suessa Aurunca were completed. The first restoration was undertaken of the most important sculptures found, such as the loricate statues of the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian and the sumptuous dark grey marble statue of Matidia Minor as _Aura velificans_. These were put on show in the “Castello ducale”.

Beyond the theatre the areas situated below the complex were examined. Immediately south-east of the theatre’s _porticus post scenam_ (area B), is a terrace sloping down to the present Porta dei Cappuccini which was occupied in antiquity by a grandiose suburban villa perhaps dating to the first half or the first quarter of the 1st century B.C. The villa was situated at the edge of the construction free area surrounding the theatre. Excavations showed that the villa was supported by a tract of the 4th century B.C. town wall. The blocking of a number of rooms and the pottery recovered from the excavation confirmed that the villa was occupied until the mid Imperial period. A central room was identified, facing onto a peristyle paved in perfectly preserved _opus spicatum_. Two large fragments of Egyptian grey granite columns lay on the paving. The ambulatory walls were visually linked to the granite columns of the peristyle through the use of masonry-built half columns which echoed their positions on the inner wall. One of the excavated rooms had plastered walls with traces of frescoes, whilst the floor was in _opus signinum_ ornamented with coloured marble _tesserae_. The second room presented a fresco with a yellow dado with a tuft of greenery and white panels with red borders. A vast rectangular _triclinium_ opened off of the back of the ambulatory, delimited by walls on which traces of painted decoration were still visible. The mosaic floor had a background of white _tesserae_, set diagonally, and a central panel of _opus sectile_ bordered by a motif of crossed buds forming circular elements. In the _pars rustica_ the _torcular_ comprised a room on two levels: in the upper part the _lapis pedicinus_ was set into the _opus signinum_ floor. The lower floor had two large trachite stone bases showing the remains of the cavities in which the coclea was fixed allowing the _prelum_ to be lowered and thus press the grapes.

Investigations continued of the suburban villa situated in the area of the present Porta dei Cappuccini, just outside the town of _Sinuessa_. The chronological phases of its development were defined: the first, datable to the end of the 2nd century B.C., was characterised by walls in _opus incertum_; the second phase, datable to the first half of the 1st century B.C. was built in _opus quasi reticulatum_; the third phase, the Augustan period, was characterised by regular structures in _opus reticulatum_; the final phase, coinciding with the abandonment of the building, was dated to the first half of the 2nd century A.D. by the pottery fragments recovered from the collapsed structures. It was definitively established that the large quadrangular space paved in _opus spicatum_ was an _atrium_ with a marble lined impluvium in the centre. It was surrounded by a tetrastyle colonnade of which the white marble bases remained, together with a column of Egyptian grey granite lying on the pavement. The other rooms identified in the residential sector were a rectangular _triclinium_ with a geometric mosaic floor at the centre of which was an emblema in _opus sectile_; a room on the southern side of the _atrium_, preceded by a sort of antechamber, which preserved substantial remains of its pictorial decoration in the late IV Pompeian style (first half of the 2nd century A.D.); a _cubiculum_ next to the latter with an _opus signinum_ and coloured marble _tesserae_ floor, in which a central emblema was inserted, realised in polychrome mosaic with white, black, and yellow _tesserae_ and azure glass paste. On the southern side of the central courtyard was a long corridor dividing the residential area from the villa’s production zone, of which the wine press was uncovered as described above. The excavation campaign which ended in July 2005 confirmed that the villa extended far beyond the present limit of the excavation.