This excavation looked at an area of the Palace of Maxentius on the via Appia Antica, inside and outside of the Palatine aula. The aim was to carry out an in depth investigation of the Maxentian structures and those of earlier date. The investigations of the sectors inside the aula uncovered a series of channels cut into the tufa bedrock, linked through tunnels to collection wells. These structures can be related to the monumentalisation of the villa belonging to the family of the Anii undertaken by Herod Atticus in the 2nd century A.D. The sectors outside the Palatine aula also revealed substantial evidence of the 2nd century A.D. villa, in particular in the eastern sector the excavation extended the 2007 trench thus uncovering the colonnade of a portico also belonging to the villa. The excavations inside the aula confirmed that the Maxentian palace was not completed. Excavation will continue in 2010.

In May-June 2011, the excavations promoted by the Superintendency of Rome in collaboration with the University of Boulder, Colorado, continued in the area of the palace of Maxentius to the east of the Aula Palatina. The aim was to expose more of the Hadrianic porticoed structure, discovered during the course of previous excavations. A stretch of the portico’s back wall and the remains of a drainage system built in tufa blocks running along the line of the colonnade were excavated. The wall was built in opus mixtum and was compatible with other structures belonging to the 2nd century villa (attributed to Herodes Atticus). It had been altered in the post-Hadrianic period, with the opening of a passage, later blocked. The extension to the east of the excavation area in correspondence with this aperture revealed the associated room, paved in marble slabs. The portico, which showed traces of the mortar floor make up, was demolished in the Maxentian period to make way for the construction of the Aula Palatina. This portico probably formed one side of the garden peristyle of the villa of Herodes Atticus. The finds recovered are being studied at present. At the end of the campaign, the technicians of the Subterranean Rome Association began exploration of well n. 1, discovered by earlier excavations, in the south-western corner of the Aula Palatina. More cuniculi were discovered, relating to various phases of the development of the water supply system overlaid by various residential structures and the palace of Maxentius. These structures will be excavated in future campaigns.