The elegant building situated in this court was found in 1928 during the building of the edifice belonging to the Istituto Case Popolari (Institute for popular houses) (Innocenzo Sabbatini, Testaccio IV, 1928-1930). The ancient small rectangular chamber was included in the project of the modern building, and is nowadays preserved only on three sides, missing the east one on Via Marmorata. It was constituted by walls made of tuff pieces and toothing of bricks (opus reticolatum). Inside, double angular small pillars and semicolumns in bricks (two on the shorter sides – still preserved only on the North - and four on the longer one) subdivide the walls in 1.63 m large segments. These divisions, originally faced by a plain pictorial decoration imitating polychrome marbles, were later covered by a new layer of plaster in a uniform colouring so called morellone (violaceaus-red) and included into a nice new frame made of stucco. |
At the same time, the semicolumns were faced by plaster imitating a pod-shaped decoration. In the lower part, the wainscoting keeps the traces of a bench which probably ran around the room. The entrance was probably situated on the missing side. The proposed dating of the structure is the 1st century AD, whereas the following reconstructions would belong to the 2nd century AD. The building, identified as Schola (place used for college or association meeting), was connected to the compitum (a small temple in the Lares honour, located at the crossing roads) of the 13th regio, which some inscriptions, found in its proximities, are probably related to; one of these epigraphs contains indeed the names of the vicomagistri, the magistrates responsible for the Lares cult that took place in the compita spread in all the regiones of the city. |