Napoli - piazza Municipio - cantiere metropolitana

The villa of Lucullus was an extensive and sumptuous ancient Roman villa built in the first century BC in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

by the famous gourmet, general and consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus. It was one of his several known villas in addition to the Gardens of Lucullus in Rome, one in

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Classical Rome, Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable dist ...

in the Alban Hills, one on the island of

Nisida Nisida is a volcano, volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago, in southern Italy. It lies at a very short distance from Cape Posillipo, just north of Naples; it is connected to the mainland by a camera-enforced 1km-long pedestrian zone. ...

and another at

Misenum Miseno is one of the ''frazione, frazioni'' of the municipality of Bacoli in the Italy, Italian Province of Naples. Known in ancient Roman times as Misenum, it is the site of a great Roman port. Geography Nearby Cape Miseno marks the northw ...

also in the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. The villa was equipped with piers that stretched out into the sea, a very rich library, fish ponds and moray eel farms and lavish gardens with peach trees imported from Persia which for the time were a novelty along with the cherry trees he brought in from Cerasus. It was here that it was said that Lucullus had a "mountain" pierced at a greater outlay than he had spent on his villa, in order to make a channel to connect the sea to his fish ponds; for this reason Pompey the Great called him " Xerxes in a toga". The villa was so famous for its banquets that even today the adjective ''Lucullan'' indicates a particularly abundant and delicious meal. At some point after the death of Lucullus (57/56 BC), the villa passed to the Roman emperor; later, under

Valentinian III Valentinian III (; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the Western Roman Empire, West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful general ...

(419-455), it was transformed into a fortress, and since then has been called the ''castellum Lucullanum'', and was the place of exile of

Romulus Augustulus Romulus Augustus (after 511), nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire, West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne while still a minor by his father Orestes (father of Ro ...

, the last Western Roman Emperor.

Remains

Remains of the villa, given its enormous area, are visible at several places in the city of Naples. The villa included and extended from the islet of Megaride where its nucleus stood, to Mount Echia on the south side and, most likely on the south-east side up to the district of Maschio Angioino.Ciotola, Marco, La villa di Licinio Lucullo, l’inedito itinerario archeologico sul lungomare di Napoli. Archeologia Vesuvio. Vesuvio Live (2019) https://www.vesuviolive.it/cultura-napoletana/archeologia-vesuvio/311800-villa-di-licinio-lucullo-napoli/ The largest and perhaps most important nucleus is located in the cellar of the Castel dell'Ovo situated on the islet of Megaride, the so-called "hall of columns" derived from the Roman columns still standing. Other parts are visible on the Pizzofalcone hill where the city was founded in the 8-9th century BC and many near Piazza Municipio after recent finds.

References

{{reflist L Archaeological sites in Naples