Roman finds, Baths of Domitian

Near Santa Liberata, in the locality of Villa Domizia, there are the remains of a Roman villa dating back to the first century. B.C. built by Domizi Enobarbi, Emperor Nero’s family. The villa was equipped with a fish pond for fish breeding, the so-called cetariae, with a complex system of cisterns, tunnels, reservoirs, thermal pools and port facilities. A portolan of the III century A.D. (Itinerarium maritimum, dall’Itinerarium Antonini) remembers that the place was marked with the name of Domitiana positio, in a list of landings and harbors dating back to the imperial age. In 1572 the tower of Santa Liberata was built over the Roman ruins, which in the upper part was destroyed by the Germans in 1944 during the Second World War. For the presence of the Domizi Enobarbi, Monte Argentario has been, over the centuries, home to numerous findings of historical material: bricks, impasto pottery, city walls and Roman roads.