Since the fall of Rome in the west, and the survival of Cicero's magnificent letters in which he mentions the locations of his country villas, the search has been under way to locate the archeological fragments of Cicero's homes. Unfortunately, although southern Italia is full of so-called "Cicero's villas" (in Pompeii, Tusculum, Formiae, and others), there is absolutely no proof linking the great Roman to any of these sites.
Cicero regularly wrote Atticus about his Tusculum villa with notable affection. However, his many letters do give us hints of what kind of villa he built and/or owned in Tusculum, and by exploring Cicero's country home there, much can be learned about the entire villa aesthetic in the late Republic.
Only three generations before Cicero, Romans like Cato the Censor were thrifty farmers who worked their land with overseers and a small number of slaves, and every inch of land, if you believe Cato's writings, was devoted to crops, cattle, and making money from farming olives and other produce. The farm houses themselves were functional rather than beautiful, surrounded by productive acres. As Cato noted, "Build the country house that you can afford. If it is a good property, and you plan the house well and site it well, and live comfortably when in the country, then you will visit more readily and more often, the farm will be better, less will be done wrong, and you will get more profit."
But in the inrush of money that came with Roman conquests in the second century B.C., and the relative cheapness of slaves, large landowners began to acquire small working farms, building them into lavish latifundia with slave labor. More frequently, the owner became an absentee landlord, his steward took over the responsibility of actually working the farm, and the owner began to build structures to display his culture and wealth rather than for use alone.
Cicero was a villa addict, and in building his home in Tusculum he deliberately aimed to show that he had "made it" in Roman society, as well as to display his passionate love for Greek art, architecture, and culture. There is no suggestion that Cicero's villa differed substantially from the normal villa construction of his time, but there is every reason to think that he focused on two areas of it to display his art work and his culture: the interior decorations and the lavish gardens.
Cicero first began work on his Tusculum villa some time after his triumph as prosecutor in the Verres trial in 70 BC. Cicero's earliest extant letters date largely from 68-67, mostly in letters to his friend, Atticus. Atticus had a home in Athens and was frequently resident in Greece; he had access to the best Greek decorative art, and Cicero is constantly writing Atticus begging for more statues, paintings, and decor from his beloved Greece. His letters are perhaps more self-revealing than he knew:
In November, 68 BC, he wrote Atticus, I would like it if you, should you have the chance to acquire any decorative pieces for a Greek-style lecture hall, the sort of place with which you are not unfamiliar, would not let the opportunity pass. I like the Tusculan place so much that I am content with myself when, and only when, I come there.
In February, '67, he noted I have paid the 20,400 sesterces to Lucius Cincius for the statues made of marble from Megara, as you had written to me. Your statues of Hermes, made of marble from Pantela, with the bronze heads, about which you wrote to me, even now delight me. Accordingly, I would like for you to send them, the statues, and anything else which seems to you a match for the place, my interests, and your taste, and especially whatever will work best for a Greek-style lecture hall and colonnade. Because, I am so caught up in my eagerness for this sort of thing that you absolutely have to help me, and others practically have to scold me. If Lentulus’ ship will not be available, load them wherever meets your approval.
Two months later, he nagged, My statues and the portrait bust of Hermes and Hercules, as you wrote about them, when at your greatest convenience, I would like you to send them and if you find anything just approprié for the you-know-which place, and especially whatever seems to you to belong in an exercise yard and lecture hall. In addition, I trust you to get some bas-reliefs which I can lay in the stucco of the small entrance hall and two figured puteals. As for your library collection, be sure you don’t betroth it to anyone else, even though you might find an ardent suitor, because I am saving up all my leftover crops so that I can acquire it as a haven in my old age.
To his friend Gallus, who was also apparently roped into buying statuary for Cicero's park, he noted that he disliked Gallus' choices: I am in the habit of buying statues which contribute to the atmosphere of a Greek-style lecture hall in my park area. But where do I, the author of peace, have room for a statue of Mars, god of war?
Cicero apparently lived intermittently at the villa for the remaining years of his life, until his murder in 43. He would tinker with the interior decoration of Tusculum for the balance of his life.
The entire purpose of a country villa was not only to give rest and refreshment to the spirit, but to impress one's neighbors. We do not know how much land Cicero owned, but it is likely it was several hundred acres, to provide the regular income he needed (and he mentions his crops in various letters). The farm affairs would be the responsibility of his manager, who was responsible for keeping all farm work and staff.
The building itself obviously had some unusual features. It likely showed some of the typical Roman building features: a front entrance into a skylit atrium and an impluvium pool in the center, one or more dining rooms, and colonnaded porticoes that often were far larger than the house proper, with further adjacent rooms in the back of the house. It is singular, in several of Cicero's comments about the Tusculum villa, that he mentions going "up" or "down" from one section of the house to another, which has suggested that he built the villa against the side of a hill in a terraced arrangement; the portico gardens and rooms toward what was normally the back of the house might well have been terraced into a higher level, with corridors with stone stairs leading from the front to the back of the villa.
The floors would have used decorative stone or even mosaic. As noted in his letter to Atticus, apparently Cicero also built at least one lecture room for students in his parks – the “Academy.” Here Cicero could lecture on history, philosophy, and the art of rhetoric. Another room he named the "Lyceum," also honoring a great Greek philosophy school.
We also know that Cicero mentioned a portico walkway with niches for statuary and paintings, which may have connected the buildings in the park to the villa, or to each other. In the last years of his life, Cicero joked that he kept a "school" at Tusculum. No details are known, but it is obvious that the villa was large enough to house half a dozen students who came to stay with Cicero to discuss philosophy.
Typically, villas were built near to a spring or creek or regular water source. In the more lavish Republic Cicero relished, the gardens and adjacent lands to the villa were not for use but for decoration. Instead of a simple spring in the gardens, the property probably boasted a beautiful nyphaeum, a fashionable feature of Cicero's time, with fountains, artificial ponds and even lakes. Around the gardens would have been areas of flowers, trees, statuary, and seats for calm discussion or simple nature-worship. It was popular in Cicero’s time to lay out gardens in a “quincunx” design – a square of decorative plants with a fifth plant in the center. We can thus imagine him spending as much time and money on his decorative park, waterworks, lecture halls, and walks as he did on the house itself.
Cicero's house in Tusculum was built not only for the delight of the owner, but to impress those wealthy Senators who were clustering around Tusculum in their own villas. It was the perfect place, a day's travel from Rome, to unwind. Particularly as Cicero became less and less active politically (roughly from 59 to 49 BC), he withdrew to the peace and coolness of Tusculum to compose his philosophical and other works.
Throughout his life, Cicero adored his only daughter, Tullia. Tragically, Tullia died at the Tusculum villa in February, 45 BC. Cicero never really recovered. It is likely that Tullia was buried on the family grounds.
SOURCES:
Archeological World in the Roman and Greek Period
