HORTI ACILIORUM
gardens on the Pincian hill which belonged to the
Acilii Glabriones in the second century A.D. (
CIL vi. 623); their exact
limits are not known, but the remains that have been found are held to
indicate that they may have extended from the Trinita de' Monti ' beyond
the slopes of the hill into the Villa Borghese, and on the east as far as
the Porta Pinciana' (
LS ii. 131;
iii. 101-3;
iv. 14;
BC 1891, 132-155;
1914, 376; LR 421-429; NA 1904 (May I); HJ 446; P1. 481-482).
These horti belonged to the gens Pincia in the fourth century, and then
to Anicia Faltonia Proba and her husband Petronius Probus (CIL vi. I 75 I)
1
but became imperial property afterwards (cf.
DOMUS PINCIANA). They
were enclosed on the north, west and east by supporting walls, built along
the slope of the hill (Homo, Aurelien 240 ff.) ; the wall on the east and
north was incorporated by Aurelian in his line of defence, and partially
rebuilt. The original structure was of opus reticulatum, in a series of
lofty arcades with massive intervening piers. The famous Muro Torto
is a lower buttress at the north angle in the same material, with tufa
quoins.
2 Just north of the Trinita was a great hemicycle, opening towards
the west, with flights of steps leading down to the plain below (
JRS 1919,
174; Mem. L. 5. xvii. 535-537). Beneath the modern casino was a
piscina, divided into two sections and connected with a reservoir, consisting of a labyrinth of small galleries hewn in the rock, by tunnels
80 metres long. The mound in the present Villa Medici is built on the
ruins of an octagonal nymphaeum (called Parnassus), and ruins have been
found all along the brow of the hill from the Trinita to S. Maria del
Popolo. See Town Planning Review, xi.
(1924) 81, 82; Mon.
L. i.
456-459. Remains found a little to the south of the Trinita (
BC 1925,
276) may belong either to these horti or to the
HORTI LUCULLANI (q.v.).
