Sunken Roman Bathhouse in Baiae May Be Cicero’s Lost Villa!
Just three metres below the surface of the Gulf of Naples, archaeologists have uncovered an astonishingly well-preserved Roman bathhouse in the submerged ruins of Baiae , the Roman Empire’s most infamous seaside resort. The find, located in Zone B of the Parco Archeologico Sommerso di Baia, may be the first tangible evidence of the villa belonging to Marcus Tullius Cicero, the celebrated orator, statesman, and philosopher.
The site was first spotted in 2023, but recent work has now mapped it in detail, revealing a pristine mosaic floor supported by small brick columns. These columns formed part of the suspensura system, an advanced Roman underfloor heating method. Hot air would circulate beneath the floor and through hollow wall tiles (tubuli), creating a luxuriously warm and evenly heated space. The layout suggests the structure functioned as a laconicum, a dry sauna, typical of high-end Roman leisure complexes.
Photo Credit: Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei – Ministry of Culture
Fragments of vivid wall paintings still cling to the building’s interior, hinting at the opulence enjoyed by Rome’s elite. Archaeologists have also recovered ceramic pieces that could help date the bathhouse and reveal more about its purpose and eventual abandonment.
Ancient sources tell us Cicero owned a villa in Baiae, making this discovery a compelling candidate for his private thermal baths. If confirmed, it would mark an unprecedented physical link to one of Rome’s most famous minds.
Baiae itself was a byword for luxury and excess. Perched on the north-western edge of the Gulf of Naples and named after Baius, the helmsman of Ulysses, it was famed for its warm sulphurous springs, praised since the 2nd century BCE for their healing qualities. By the 1st century BCE, the resort had become the ultimate playground for the Roman elite, a place where politics and pleasure intertwined. Marius, Lucullus, Julius Caesar, and Augustus all enjoyed its charms; Emperor Nero built a palace here, and Hadrian is said to have died in its baths in CE 138.
Photo Credit: Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei – Ministry of Culture
Its reputation for decadence was immortalised by the poet Sextus Propertius, who called it a “vortex of luxury” and a “harbour of vice.” Among its more outrageous moments was Emperor Caligula’s stunt in CE 39, constructing a nearly five-kilometre floating bridge across the gulf to defy a prophecy, before riding over it on horseback.
But Baiae’s fortunes declined. Invasions and the restless geology of the Phlegraean Fields took their toll. Gradual volcanic subsidence (bradyseism) between the 16th and 18th centuries sank much of the city beneath the waves. Today, its ghostly streets, statues, and villas form one of the world’s largest underwater archaeological parks, explored by divers and glass-bottom boats.
The newly discovered laconicum will undergo careful restoration this autumn, including cleaning its mineral-coated mosaic floor and conserving its fragile wall paintings. Specialists hope that the combined study of its ceramics, architecture, and decoration will finally confirm its identity as part of Cicero’s villa, adding another extraordinary chapter to the story of Baiae, the city where Rome came to play, to heal, and, perhaps, to lose itself.