The colorful material weighed over 5 pounds and was likely made to decorate an emperor’s palace, Italian officials said.

We sit outside, just a hundred yards from the slumbering Domus Aurea, at Osteria da Nerone, one of the few structures in Rome that bear the emperor’s name. “The restaurant is always full ...

Despite Rome’s glorious architecture ... Wealthier Romans – including those who lived in the countryside – lived in a domus. This was a house built around an unroofed courtyard, or atrium.