The Domus Tiberiana occupied most of the western side of the Palatine, between the area of the temple of the Magna Mater and the slopes going down toward the Forum.

The area chosen by Tiberius to build his palace probably coincided with the location of his father’s palace, where he was born. Most of the building facing the Velabrum, in fact, is built over the ruins of a large domus from the Republican era. The palace was enlarged in the direction of the Forum by Caligula and was later restored by Domitian, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.

In the 1500s the area occupied by the Domus Tiberiana was covered by the Farnesi Gardens, most of which still survive. Thus only the northern and southern parts of the palace have been studied, while the central nucleus is still almost completely unknown.

The eastern side of the Domus Tiberiana is bordered by a long crypto-portico, attributed to Nero’s reign. Some pieces of the pavement and wall decorations are still conserved on site. Particularly suggestive is the plaster ceiling fragment, with coffers, vegetable elements and a panel with four erotic figures, now conserved in the Palatine Antiquarium.

The northern side of the complex, facing the Forum, constitutes the largest of the still visible parts of the palace. It develops along a rising road, erroneously identified as the Clivus Victoriae. On this side of the palace we can distinguish various phases of construction, attributable to the age of Domitian and Hadrian. Some graffiti etched into the plaster of these rooms, with lists of accounts and references to currency, have led to the hypothesis that they were occupied by the imperial tax offices, or perhaps for the distribution of new currency.