An excavation covering circa 1,800 m2 was undertaken as part of the archaeological investigations at Banzi between 2004 and 2006, in the locality of Orto dei Monaci, beside the Abbey of S. Maria, in the town’s historic centre. The investigation looked at a vast area situated immediately north of the auguraculum excavated in the 1960s by M. Torelli. On the western side of the area the baths complex, partially obliterated by the structures of the medieval abbey of S. Maria, was uncovered. On the eastern side the structures of a large domus were revealed. Both faced towards the area occupied by the auguraculum via a porticus which in turn faced onto the main road crossing the city on an east-west alignment. Together these structures suggest that this was a public area, perhaps the forum of the Roman city.

Ten rooms of the bath complex were excavated, in some of which the first construction phase of late Republican date was documented. The calidarium, tepidarium and entrance hall were identified. Already in the first construction phase a mosaic inscription was positioned in the entrance. The inscription names an individual, probably a priest, a member of the tribe Camilia, who undertook an act of euergetism to the advantage of the community of Banzi by building the balnea, either public or private, using his own money:

[—-]OMANIVS M. F. CAM.
SACERDOS,
BALNEA EX SVA PECVNIA
FACIVNDA CVRAVIT

The inscription was inserted in the pavement of rhomboidal clay tiles arranged in a herring-bone pattern. A road probably separated the balnea from the nearby and contemporary domus, which at the end of the 1st century B.C. was enlarged to incorporate the baths in a single large complex. The domus, occupied continuously until the 3rd century A.D., had an entrance on the south side defined by a series of tabernae which opened onto the porticus. Its position between the baths and the auguraculum suggest that it may have had a public function.