The area, low as well as flat and exposed to the periodic floods of the Tiber, hosted vegetable gardens and vineyards (and mentioned for its unhealthy climate and bad wine) until the end of the first century BC, when the development of local roads along the Via Cornelia (towards the port of Caere), the "via Triumphalis" towards Veii and the via Aurelia nova made possible for the families of the aristocracy the construction of luxurious private suburban residences ("Horti").