Known in antiquity as Pandataria (from the Greek word Pandoteira, literally meaning “bestower of everything”), Ventotene is a small islet of only 1.3 Km2 in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, 45 km offshore the Italian mainland, famous because Emperor Augustus made it part of the imperial patrimony, transforming the island into his private summer residence. Due to the small size which made the island easy to control and to its location close to Rome and Naples, Ventotene became from Augustus’ time a luxurious place of exile for some of the most prominent members of the Roman aristocracy. Agrippa, husband of Augustus’ daughter Julia, probably directed the building works of a luxurious villa, the so-called “Villa Giulia” which had already been built and was in use at the end of the first century B.C. Augustus\’ daughter Julia was the first member of the Imperial family confined to Ventotene because of her immoral behavior. She spent five years on the island (2 BC – A.D. 3), alone with her mother Scribonia. In A.D. 28 also Agrippina Maior, daughter of Julia and Agrippa, was banished to the Ventotene, followed a few years later by one of Caligula\‘s sisters, Agrippina or Livilla, by Ottavia, Nero\‘s former wife (A.D. 62), and eventually by Flavia Domitilla (A.D. 95), the last member of the Roman élite to be secluded in Ventotene.

Due to the social status of these upper-class inmates, the entire island underwent a deep architectonic transformation: the northern promontory, nowadays called “Punta Eolo”, was entirely covered with the large imperial villa, measuring ca. 350 × 100 m. A Roman harbor was carved into the rock, and a complex system of cisterns was designed to provide fresh water to a place where natural springs do not exist, while the remaining area of the island was farmed in order to make the villa at least partially self-sufficient. A monumental fishpond was also cut in the rock, following Columella’s advice to have them built in this way in order to maximize their productivity. The fishery is divided in three main pools. Two of them were covered with vaulted ceilings now partially collapsed, and the third one lies in the open. A series of underwater canals, grids, and lock systems allowed for regular exchange of water with the sea, preventing at the same time the fish from swimming out into the open sea. Circular holes carved on the surface of the tuff platform facing the fishery allowed to collect salt thanks to sea water evaporation. An aedicula is cut in the rock at the larger room, and it probably hosted a statue, possibly of Isis.

It is inside one these two rooms that the statue of the Roman magistrate was found, still resting in the original spot where it was lost, in the spring of the year 2000, representing a Roman magistrate wearing a toga with the box containing the laws’ scrolls to his right side. The statue was recovered in the summer of 2009, and it is currently undergoing the conservation and restauration process at the local archaeological museum.