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Villa d'Assio in Colli sul Velino: where Cicero was a guest in 54 BC
In the locality of Grotte di San Nicola, in the municipality of Colli sul Velino (province of Rieti), the remains of Villa d'Assio are a significant example of a Roman villa rustica, owned by an identified senator. Quintus Axius, consul in 55 BC and in the circles of Varro and Cicero, owned two villas in the Ager Reatinus. That at Grotte di San Nicola stood on the slope known as Promontoro, on the shores of Lake Velino, built on an artificial terrace raised above the fields.
Cicero came to stay in 54 BC
In 54 BC, Axius hosted Marcus Tullius Cicero here, who had been called to defend the people of Rieti in a legal dispute brought by the citizens of Terni. Cicero described the villa in a letter, praising its location and the hydraulic systems fed by the springs of Santa Susanna, known in antiquity as Septem Aquae.
What to see today
Of the original complex, a wall in polygonal masonry (opus polygonale) remains, measuring approximately 100 metres long and 8 metres high. It features seven large niches, likely the remains of a cryptoporticus, along with an underground cistern. The site was inhabited until the 5th-6th century AD.
