Pornographic Pompeii wall paintings reveal the raunchy services offered in ancient Roman brothels 2,000 years ago

The sexual behaviours of ancient Italians have been exposed in wall paintings found in a renowned Pompeii brothel. The ‘Lupanar of Pompeii‘ is adorned with wall murals showing vivid sex scenes that date back centuries.

The sex house was once a hangout for wealthy businessmen and politicians before the Roman city was famously wiped out by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD.

Researchers believe the erotic paintings depicting group sex and other acts may have indicated the services offered by prostitutes.

The Lupanar of Pompeii was the centre point for the doomed city’s thriving red-light district.

The ancient Roman brothel was originally discovered in the nineteenth century. It was closed but was recently re-opened to the public in October 2006.

While the brothel is neither the most luxurious nor the most important historic building in what remains of Pompeii, it is the most frequently visited by tourists from across the world.

Prostitutes at the brothel were not exclusively women.

Men, especially young former slaves, sold themselves there too – to both men and women. The erotic lives of Pompeii’s prostitutes were recently illustrated by Western University professor, Kelly Olson. Professor Olson focuses her work on the role of women in Roman society, and the apparent open sexuality visible in the many frescos and sculptures.

The Classical Studies professor travelled to the ancient city as a featured expert on Canadian broadcaster CBC’s programme ‘The Nature of Things. Speaking of life in ancient Pompeii brothels, she said: ‘It’s not a very nice place to work.’

‘It’s very small, dank and the rooms are rather dark and uncomfortable,’ she told CBC.

‘Married men could sleep with anyone as long as they kept their hands off other men’s wives,’ she said.

‘Married women were not supposed to have sex with anyone else.’

The building is located in Pompeii’s oldest district.

The two side streets that line the brothel were once dotted with taverns and inns. Upon entering the building, visitors are met by striking murals of erotic scenes painted on the walls and ceilings.

In each of the paintings, couples engage in different sexual acts.

According to historians, the paintings weren’t merely for decoration – they were catalogues detailing the speciality of the prostitute in each room. Two thousand years ago, before the devastating volcanic eruption, prostitution was legal in the Roman city.

Slaves of both sexes, many imported from Greece and other countries under Roman rule, were the primary workforce. The Unesco World Heritage Site is of special importance because, unlike other Pompeii brothels at the time, the Lupanar of Pompeii was built exclusively for prostitution appointments, serving no alternative function.

Its walls remain scarred by inscriptions left by past customers and working girls. Researchers have managed to identify 120 carved phrases, including the names of customers and employees who died almost two thousand years ago.

Many of these inscriptions include similar phrases to that one would find in a modern-day bathroom, including men boasting of their sexual prowess.

On the top floor of the building sit five rooms, each with a balcony from which the working girls would call to potential customers on the street.

Much like in ancient Rome, researchers speculate that Pompeii prostitutes were required to legally register for a licence, pay taxes, and follow separate rules to regular Pompeii women.

For example: When out on the street, Pompeii’s working girls wore strict attire – they wore a reddish-brown coat at all times, and dyed their hair blonde. Prostitutes were separated into different classes depending on where they worked and the customers they served. 

Though the historic sex site has been ‘closed for business for some time, that hasn’t stopped some raunchy holidaymakers attempting to re-christen the building.  In 2014, three French holidaymakers were arrested for trespassing after breaking into the brothel ruins for a late-night sex romp.

A Frenchman and two Italian women, all aged 23 to 27, allegedly broke into the Suburban Baths to fulfil their fantasies inside a former brothel that is still decorated with centuries-old wall paintings depicting explicit sex scenes.

But authorities brought the group’s middle-of-the-night threesome to a premature end.

A Long-Lost Legendary Roman Fruit Tree Germinated From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds

Plants have been produced from date palm seeds that have been buried for 2,000 years in old ruins and caves. This extraordinary achievement demonstrates the kernels’ long-term vitality after being nestled in succulent Judean dates, a fruit variety that has been lost for millennia. The findings suggest that it might be a good option for examining the lifetime of plant seeds.

From those date palm saplings, the researchers have begun to unlock the secrets of the highly sophisticated cultivation practices that produced the dates praised by Herodotus, Galen, and Pliny the Elder.

“The current study sheds light on the origins of the Judean date palm, suggesting that its cultivation, benefiting from genetically distinct eastern and western populations, arose from local or introduced eastern varieties, which only later were crossed with western varieties,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“These findings are consistent with Judea’s location between east-west date palm diversification areas, ancient centres of date palm cultivation, and the impact of human dispersal routes at this crossroads of continents.”

In an ancient palace-fortress built by King Herod the Great, and caves located in southern Israel between the Judean Hills and the Dead Sea, archaeologists retrieved hundreds of seeds from the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera).

Then, a team of scientists, led by Sarah Sallon of Hadassah Medical Organisation in Israel, sorted through this bounty. They selected 34 seeds they thought were the most viable. One was separated out as a control; the remaining 33 were carefully soaked in water and fertiliser to encourage germination. After this process, one more was found to be damaged, and was subsequently discarded; the remaining 32 seeds were planted.

Of these, six of the seeds successfully sprouted. They were given the names Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, Hannah and Adam. (A previous attempt by Sallon and colleagues published in 2008 produced a single sapling; it was named Methuselah.)

Seedlings in hand, the scientists could now run tests and analyses they couldn’t perform on seeds alone. First, they collected fragments of the seed shells still clinging to the roots of the plants. These were perfect for radiocarbon dating – which confirmed the seeds date back to between 1,800 and 2,400 years ago.

Then, the researchers could conduct genetic analyses of the plants themselves, comparing them to a genetic database of current data palms. This showed exchanges of genetic material from eastern date palms from the Middle East and western date palms from North Africa. This suggests sophisticated agricultural practices – deliberate breeding to introduce desirable traits into the cultivated trees.

“Described by classical writers including Theophrastus, Herodotus, Galen, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Josephus, these valuable plantations produced dates attributed with various qualities including large size, nutritional and medicinal benefits, sweetness, and a long storage life, enabling them to be exported throughout the Roman Empire,” the researchers wrote.

“Several types of Judean dates are also described in antiquity including the exceptionally large ‘Nicolai’ variety measuring up to 11 centimetres (4.3 inches).”

Indeed, the researchers found that the ancient seeds were up to 30 per cent larger than date seeds today, which probably meant the fruit was larger, too.

And, of course, there’s the seemingly miraculous germination after so many centuries. As anyone who buys seeds for their garden knows, seeds deteriorate; the longer you have a packet of seeds sitting in storage, the fewer will germinate when you finally plant them.

If scientists can discover how the date seeds retained their viability for so long, that could have important implications for agriculture.

The once-rich date groves gradually declined after the fall of the Roman Empire. Judean dates could still have been cultivated in the 11th century CE, the researchers said, but certainly, by the 19th century, the groves were completely gone.

Now, those famous dates may make a comeback – at least for scientific purposes.

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“As new information on specific gene-associated traits (e.g., fruit colour and texture) is found, we hope to reconstruct the phenotypes of this historic date palm, identify genomic regions associated with selection pressures over recent evolutionary history, and study the properties of dates produced by using ancient male seedlings to pollinate ancient females,” the researchers wrote.

“In doing so, we will more fully understand the genetics and physiology of the ancient Judean date palm once cultivated in this region.”

Stolen Roman frescoes returned to Pompeii after investigation

Three of the frescoes were retrieved by Italian police last year, while the others were discovered during the 2012 bust of illegal excavation.

Fragments of six frescoes once stolen from the walls of ancient Roman villas were returned to Pompeii in a ceremony at the archaeological site on Tuesday morning.

Three of the frescoes were recovered by a local Italian cultural heritage protection unit last year as part of a larger investigative effort to crack down on the illegal trafficking of ancient artefacts.

The objects were believed to have been taken from Stabia, an archaeological site located near Pompeii, in the 1970s, before being promptly smuggled out of the country. By the 1990s, they had been sold to collectors in America, Switzerland, and England. 

The fragments from this group, which have been dated back to the first century, depict a dancer, a cherub, and the bust of a woman. They were not in the UNESCO database of stolen cultural assets when found, according to a statement from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

The other three frescos were discovered in 2012 when Italian police disrupted an illicit archaeological dig in Civita Giuliana, a villa located roughly 2000 feet north of the walls of ancient Pompeii.

The incident led to the establishment of a state-sponsored excavation at Civita Giuliana in 2017. It was there, in 2020, that archaeologists discovered a ceremonial chariot and the remains of a master and his slave, who were killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

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“The return of these fragments is significant for several reasons,” Massimo Osanna, the Italian Ministry of culture’s general director of museums, said in a statement.

“Each finding constitutes an important piece of the history and knowledge of a place and must always be protected and preserved.

But above all, it is a victory of legality, against the phenomenon of illicit excavations and the trafficking of works of art and ancient finds, and a confirmation of the important role of the police in the protection of cultural heritage.”

Roman Baths Emerge On The Banks Of The Cosa River In Frosinone

The remains of Roman imperial-era baths have been discovered in Frosinone, 50 miles southeast of Rome in central Italy. The complex on the left bank of the Cosa river retains sections of black-and-white mosaic floors and marble cladding lining a rectangular pool.

The baths were discovered last month during a preventive archaeology survey at the site of planned sewer work on the Ponte Della Fontana, a street named after the Roman bridge, long-since obliterated by flooding, that once crossed the Cosa river at this spot. 

Very few remains from the Roman city have survived, and while Frosinone was known for its rivers and mineral springs in antiquity, there are no ancient sources documenting baths, so the discovery comes as a total surprise to archaeologists. It’s also the first archaeological evidence that the imperial Roman town occupied the left bank of the river.

Found just a few inches under street level, the surviving mosaic floors can be dated by their style to the 2nd century A.D.

The black-and-white mosaics adorning the floor of a large room depict mythical marine creatures and deities, including a taurocampus (a fish-tailed bull), a hippocampus (fish-tailed horse) over whom looms the god Triton, son of Poseidon, blowing a conch shell like a trumpet. There are others visible as shadows under a layer of plaster.

At one end of the large room is a pool lined in marble. A large proportion of the cladding is extant, as are bronze staples used to affix the marble slabs to the walls of the pool.

The pool also had a mosaic floor, albeit not a figural one; just a monochromatic white. There are patches evident from repairs done in antiquity.

The large mosaic floor also has a number of patches where tesserae were lost and squares of marble and larger, more roughly-cut tiles in varying sizes were used to fill in the blanks.

A smaller room adjacent to the large one also had a mosaic floor, although from what we can tell there were no figural motifs. It was white tile with a thick black border.

The function of this space cannot be determined, as most of the room was lost when the baths were destroyed.

Archaeologists believe their source of water was the ultimate cause of their demise. The Cosa changed course in later antiquity, shifting 30 feet and taking a bunch of the bath complex with it.

Excavations of the site are ongoing and cultural patrimony officials plan to conserve the mosaics and marble walls in situ. The remains will be covered and secured. The ultimate goal is to include them in a future Cosa River city park.

‘Vampire’ discovered in a mass grave

What may have been an exorcism of a vampire in Venice is now drawing bad blood among scientists arguing over whether gravediggers were attempting to defeat an undead monster.

The controversy begins with a mass grave of 16th-century plague victims on the Venetian island of Nuovo Lazzaretto. The remains of a woman there apparently had a brick shoved in her mouth, perhaps to exorcise the corpse in what may have been the first vampire burial known in archaeology, said forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy.

Vampire superstitions were common when plague devastated Europe, and much, if not all, of this folklore, could be due to misconceptions about the natural stages of decomposition, Borrini said.

The recently dead can often appear unnervingly alive. As the corpse’s skin shrinks and pulls back, for example, hair and nails may appear to grow after death.

The remains of the woman were apparently wrapped in a shroud, based on the position of her collarbone, Borrini suggested. A corpse might appear to have chewed through its shroud because of corrosive fluids it spewed as it decayed, perhaps frightening gravediggers into thinking it was a vampire.

Vampire myths link the monsters with contagions, and the plague ran rampant in Venice in 1576, killing as many as 50,000 people, nearly a third of the city, including famed Renaissance artist Titian.

The gravediggers that ran across this corpse may have wanted to prevent a vampire from ravaging the city further with pestilence, Borrini and his colleague Emilio Nuzzolese suggested in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2010. The “vampire” has since been discussed on Italian national TV and a National Geographic documentary.

However, now other researchers are openly deriding this claim. Where some might see an exorcism, these researchers see a brick accidentally falling into a skull’s mouth.

“I find surprising that the reviewers of an important journal such as the Journal of Forensic Sciences had given permission to publish the article of Nuzzolese and Borrini with inadequate scientific evidence to support their hypothesis,” physical anthropologist Simona Minozzi at the University of Pisa in Italy told LiveScience.

To start with, photos of the site where the purported vampire was found show her remains were surrounded by stones, bricks and tiles, Minozzi said.

They also note the jaws of corpses often gape open, allowing any number of items to fall in — for instance, they note a skeleton with a thighbone in its mouth was found in the cemetery of Vecchio Lazzaretto in Venice.

They also note there is no clear evidence of a shroud, as coffin walls might also explain the position of the collarbone. They add that the legend of the so-called nachzehrer, or “shroud-eaters,” were apparently tightly confined to the East German region and not Italy. Minozzi and her colleagues detailed their argument in the May issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Minozzi called the vampire idea “nonsense.” “Unfortunately, this is a common practice in the last few years in Italy,” she said. “This is probably due to the strong cutting of funds for research in Italy, so researchers seek to attract attention and money through sensational discoveries that often have little to do with science.”

Borrini and his colleagues strongly rebut the argument over their analysis. They discussed how the physical details of the site supported their interpretation in a response in the May issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences, and that while the legend of the nachzehrer was found in Germanic areas, Venice was a crossroads during the epoch in which such legends from distant lands might have circulated.

“Regarding the criticism of my Italian colleagues, I have to admit that it’s a quite unpleasant situation,” Borrini said. “It seems that the main reasons for the interest in my research are its mass media success. Well, I want to be clear regarding this — I never looked for the media.”

World War I Soldiers’ Artifacts Found in Alpine Cave

According to a CNN report, continuing glacier melt has revealed additional World War I artefacts in a cave near the peak of Mount Scorluzzo in northern Italy. Twenty Austrian soldiers took shelter in the cave, which is located near the strategic Stelvio Pass, and camouflaged it from aerial view.

While people knew the shelter existed, researchers were only able to enter it in 2017 as the surrounding glacier had melted, added Morosini, who is the scientific coordinator of the heritage project at Stelvio National Park and teaches at the University of Bergamo.

Inside they found food, dishes and jackets made from animal skins, among many other items, he said.

The artefacts illustrate the “very poor daily life” of the soldiers, who had to deal with “extreme environmental conditions,” said Morosini. Winter temperatures could drop to -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit), he added.

“Soldiers had to fight against the extreme environment, fight against the snow or the avalanches, but also fight against the enemy,” Morosini said.

“The artefacts are a representation, like a time machine, of… the extreme conditions of life during the First World War,” he said, adding that more items appear in the area every summer as the glacier melts.

“It’s a sort of open-air museum,” said Morosini, who said that five years ago the bodies of two soldiers were found, along with documents that allowed them to be identified and their remains were given to their families.

The artefacts from the cave shelter are being preserved and will form part of the collection, due to open in late 2022, at a museum dedicated to World War I in the northern Italian town of Bormio, said Morosini.

The shelter was occupied in the first days of the war by Austrian troops, who made it completely invisible from the Italian side or from aerial observation, according to a statement from White War Museum, located in Adamello, northern Italy.

It sits at an altitude of 3,094 meters (10,151 feet), just below the peak of Mount Scorluzzo, and excavation work has been carried out each July and August since 2017, removing around 60 cubic meters of ice from the cave.

A total of 300 objects were recovered, including straw mattresses, coins, helmets, ammunition and newspapers.

“The findings in the cave on Mount Scorluzzo give us, after over a hundred years, a slice of life at over 3,000 meters above sea level, where the time stopped on November 3, 1918, when the last Austrian soldier closed the door and rushed downhill,” reads the museum’s press release.

Marble Head of Augustus Unearthed in Southern Italy

Artnews reports that a marble head of the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 B.C.–A.D. 14) was unearthed in southern Italy’s region of Molise by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Francesca Giancola. 

The sculpture, which has lost its body and nose was discovered while renovating Isernia’s historic city walls – built during the imperial Rome period.

It was identified as Augustus, adopted son of Julius Caesar and Rome’s first emperor, by its distinctive facial features and hairstyle. The bust is not rare as dozens of statues, busts and coins of Augustus have been discovered from Roman times.

But researchers say the discovery proves the Romans’ presence in the ancient colony, known at the time as Aesernia, which once held strategic importance as a gateway to the rest of Italy.

The marble head, which is in fairly good condition, was discovered along the Via Occidentale by a construction crew last Thursday. 

No definitive date for the sculpture has been announced but the depiction in line with the Augustus of Primaporta, a well-known marble statue of the emperor dating to 20 BC. 

Archaeologists are confident it is Augustus, due to his iconic ‘swallow-tail hairstyle – thick strands of hair parted in a distinctive V-shape, with protruding ears and broadly spaced locks, isNews reports.

‘Yes, it is really him, the emperor Augustus, found today during the excavation,’ the Archaeological Superintendency of Molise wrote on Facebook. 

Augustus was always presented as clean-shaven and, though he lived to 76, as a man in his late teens or early 20s. 

He ruled Rome from 27 B.C. until his death in 14 A.D, overseeing the expansion of the empire into Egypt and other parts of Africa and establishing both a standing army and the Praetorian Guard.

In 295 BC, Rome wrested control of Isernia away from the Samnites, an ancient Italic people in south-central Italy.

Key to access to the rest of the country, the town briefly fell back into the Samnites’ hands in 90 BC, before reverting to Roman authority a few years later.

Roman forces levelled most of the city and rebuilt it as a Roman outpost, with both Caesar and Augustus trying to establish colonies there. Isernia’s ancient city walls, some of which were constructed under imperial Rome, are in serious need of repair.

The marble head was discovered after part of one wall collapsed, according to ANSA. But suggestions to reinforce them with concrete pillars have been met with criticism.

‘[That] solution was not feasible, not in the least because the piling would have risked destroying the foundation of the walls and any traces of ancient presence in the area,’ superintendent Dora Catalano and archaeologist Maria Diletta Colombo told isNews.

Instead, they’re looking for a less invasive way to strengthen the walls without disturbing their artistic and historical value.

According to isNews, the head will eventually go on display at Isernia’s Museum of Santa Maria Delle Monache.

The sunken Roman city now lies beneath the waves off of Italy

The sunken city of the Caesars, which has been lost beneath the waves off Italy’s west coast for 1,700 years, has been revealed in stunning new photographs taken by divers who were given permission to explore the region. According to historians, Baiae was ancient Rome’s Las Vegas for the super-rich, with sprawling mansions and a reputation for luxury and wickedness.

However, when volcanic activity forced the coastline to retreat 400 meters inland, driving the entire city underwater into what is now the Gulf of Naples in modern-day Italy, most of it was lost to the sea. The site has since been re-discovered, 1,700 years after disappearing beneath the waves on the west coast of Italy. Divers were allowed to explore the site recently and snapped photos of the treasures that can still be found in the underwater city.

Antonio Busiello, who lives in Naples, photographed the site and found that roads, walls, mosaics, and even statues had survived the ravages of time.

The 45-year-old said: ‘The beautiful mosaics and the villas and temples that have reemerged or still underwater show the opulence and wealth of this area.

‘It was considered one of the most important Roman cities for centuries. Pliny the Younger used to live here and from here, across the gulf, he witnessed and described the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.’ 

He added: ‘Diving here is like a dive into history, looking at ancient Roman ruins underwater is something hard to describe, a beautiful experience indeed.’

In its heyday, Baiae was frequented by famous Romans including Julius Caesar, Nero, Pompey the Great, Marius, and Hadrian – who died there. Among the sights now visible are the Pisoni and Protiro villas, where intricate white mosaics, as well as residential rooms, can be seen.

There’s also the Nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio, where divers swim among the statues of Ulysses and his helmsman Baius, for whom Baiae was named. A documentary released earlier this year, titled Rome’s Sunken Secrets, followed a series of dives led by underwater archaeologist Dr. Barbara Davidde and involving historians and scientists from across the world. They revealed vast villas, priceless statues, and breathtaking mosaics, as well as heated spas, cobbled streets, and even a nymphaeum – a grotto of pleasure – in the city that lies 150 miles south of Rome and 50 north of Pompeii. 

One significant find was a section of lead water pipe just a few inches in diameter inscribed ‘L Pisonis’. This pinpoints the exact location where one of the greatest scandals in Roman history unfolded. As classics professor Kevin Dicus explains, ‘L Pisoni’s was the mark of the Piso family. The villa it was attached to was almost certainly the property of Gaius Calpurnius Piso, who was a close friend of Emperor Nero.

‘Ancient texts tell us that Piso plotted to murder the emperor at his holiday villa in Baiae so he could become emperor instead, but he had a change of heart at the last minute. When Nero learned about the plan, he ordered Piso to commit suicide.

The sunken city of the Caesars, lost for 1,700 years beneath waves off of Italy’s west coast, has been revealed in stunning new photographs taken by divers who were allowed to explore the area. Baiae was the Las Vegas for the super-rich of the 1st Century’s ancient Rome, covered in sprawling mansions and synonymous with luxury and wickedness, historians claim.

But as time passed, much of it was lost to the sea as volcanic activity caused the coastline to retreat 400metres inland, forcing the entire city underwater into what is now the Gulf of Naples in modern-day Italy. The site has since been re-discovered, 1,700 years after disappearing beneath the waves on the west coast of Italy. Divers were allowed to explore the site recently and snapped photos of the treasures that can still be found in the underwater city.

Antonio Busiello, who lives in Naples, photographed the site and found that roads, walls, mosaics, and even statues had survived the ravages of time. The 45-year-old said: ‘The beautiful mosaics and the villas and temples that have reemerged or still underwater show the opulence and wealth of this area.

‘It was considered one of the most important Roman cities for centuries. Pliny the Younger used to live here and from here, across the gulf, he witnessed and described the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.’ 

He added: ‘Diving here is like a dive into history, looking at ancient Roman ruins underwater is something hard to describe, a beautiful experience indeed.’ In its heyday, Baiae was frequented by famous Romans including Julius Caesar, Nero, Pompey the Great, Marius, and Hadrian – who died there.

Among the sights now visible are the Pisoni and Protiro villas, where intricate white mosaics, as well as residential rooms, can be seen. There’s also the Nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio, where divers swim among the statues of Ulysses and his helmsman Baius, for whom Baiae was named. A documentary released earlier this year, titled Rome’s Sunken Secrets, followed a series of dives led by underwater archaeologist Dr. Barbara Davidde and involving historians and scientists from across the world.

They revealed vast villas, priceless statues, and breathtaking mosaics, as well as heated spas, cobbled streets, and even a nymphaeum – a grotto of pleasure – in the city that lies 150 miles south of Rome and 50 north of Pompeii.  One significant find was a section of lead water pipe just a few inches in diameter inscribed ‘L Pisonis’. This pinpoints the exact location where one of the greatest scandals in Roman history unfolded.

As classics professor Kevin Dicus explains, ‘L Pisoni’s was the mark of the Piso family. The villa it was attached to was almost certainly the property of Gaius Calpurnius Piso, who was a close friend of Emperor Nero.

‘Ancient texts tell us that Piso plotted to murder the emperor at his holiday villa in Baiae so he could become emperor instead, but he had a change of heart at the last minute. When Nero learned about the plan, he ordered Piso to commit suicide.

‘So we now know where the assassination attempt would have taken place. For the archaeologists, it was like finding the Holy Grail.’

Piso’s villa had its own jetty and two huge bath complexes, but that was nothing compared to the opulence at another estate the team discovered.  Slowly revealed over many dives was a mansion so luxurious archaeologists believe it was the Imperial Villa specially built for Emperor Claudius.

‘So we now know where the assassination attempt would have taken place. For the archaeologists, it was like finding the Holy Grail.’ Piso’s villa had its own jetty and two huge bath complexes, but that was nothing compared to the opulence at another estate the team discovered. 

Slowly revealed over many dives was a mansion so luxurious archaeologists believe it was the Imperial Villa specially built for Emperor Claudius.