the Villa dei Quintili is the largest ancient residential complex in the suburbs of Rome and is part of the Appia Antica Archaeological Park. The Quintiles were killed by the Emperor Commodus in 182/183 AD for having plotted a conspiracy against him, so their residence on the Appia was confiscated and became imperial property. Since then Commodus himself and other emperors after him lived in the Villa, leaving traces of their presence in the grandeur of the architecture, in the richness of the sculptural decorations and in the refinement of the wall and floor coverings in colored marble slabs, still splendidly preserved. The original access to the villa was from the Appia Antica, through a large hippodrome garden with a monumental nymphaeum overlooking the consular road, a few hundred meters from the Santa Maria Nova farmhouse. The great exedra of the nymphaeum is today profoundly modified by the medieval structures that have reused the walls to raise a fortification with a watchtower.