In the mid-1st century A.D., the crowded, chaotic center of Rome was surrounded by a green belt consisting of over 60 parks. Some of these estates, called horti in Latin, remained Imperial property for nearly five centuries, and were continuously embellished with new architectural structures and works of art.
Following the model of the country pleasure villas, the horti were conceived as green stretches of land with a variety of residential buildings and pavilions for leisure and repose blending into the surrounding landscape. The palaces were surrounded by votive chapels, porticos, fountains, and tricliniums for summer banquets (diaetae), often placed on terraces sloping down a hillside. Within the frame of this artificial Arcadia were placed hundreds of statues, of widely varying size and subject, some of them rare and precious original Greek sculptures.
