The house identified on more recent maps as the House of M. Epidius Rufus has a very early layout dating from the third century BC and underwent relatively few changes in later periods.
The entrance leads into a distinctive colonnaded atrium paved with tuff slabs. Cubicula and other residential rooms are arranged around it, while the tablinum and triclinium lie on the entrance axis. The rear of the property, set at a higher level because of the natural slope of the ground, included a vegetable garden and a viridarium.
The identification of the owner as Marcus Epidius Rufus is traditional and should not be regarded as wholly certain. It is therefore useful to retain the building’s older conventional name, the House of the Diadumeni.
