<p>A series of rooms built on three levels descending the slope of the *Velia; located across the *Sacra Via from the *Compitum Acili, the topmost rooms were level with the street and may have been <i>tabernae</i> (small shops) (Colini 1933, 81-82). Two building phases are attested: the earlier walls are of tufa blocks and the later ones worked in <i>opus incertum</i>, which suggests a Republican date for the complex. The function and purpose of each room varied; some seem to have been cisterns, others had high quality pavements, while the structure as a whole served to retain the hillside (Schingo). According to Pliny, one of Rome’s first physicians, Archagathus, practiced in a ‘<i>taberna</i> at the Compitum Acili bought with public money’ (<i>tabernam in compito Acilio emptam ob id publice</i>: <i>NH</i> 29.12-13, <i>c</i>. 219 B.C.). Excavated during the opening of Via dell’Impero (Colini 1933, 81-82), these ruins were destroyed in 1932.</p>