| Summary: | <p>This thesis considers the architecture, functions, and usage patterns of imperial
villas in Italy, with a focus on the period between Antoninus Pius and Maxentius (AD
138–312). Modern scholarship has been concerned either with imperial ownership—
which has been examined in its historical issues—or with Roman villas; some imperial
villas have been analysed individually, but a work addressing them as a study subject
per se is lacking. Using data from ten residences, combined with textual and
epigraphic evidence concerned with the period under consideration, this thesis
investigates the forms in which imperial villas provided a venue for the activities
which emperors performed in fulfilment of their role. After discussing villa-use
patterns as they emerge from literary sources, the study tackles the settings of the
emperors’ official business, the entertainment buildings installed at imperial
residences, their bathing suites, dining halls, and the facilities for wine production.
Lastly, it looks at the features employed to define a spatial hierarchy within individual
residences, and seeks to define the routes on which different categories of individuals
could circulate to reach the areas where they were permitted access.</p>
<p>The thesis reveals that, both in the villas built from scratch and in those which were
altered in the timeframe under consideration, the necessities of more-or-less long stays
of the imperial court are reflected in their configuration: a concern existed towards
equipping imperial villas with the facilities which emperors needed to fulfil their
functions when they were not in Rome. It shows that a distinction existed between
villas which were alternative to the main residence in Rome, and others which were
ancillary to it: the acquisition of the functions of the Palatium on the part of specific
residences culminated in the institution of the Tetrarchy and in the consequent
creation of four different imperial seats.</p>
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