A single fragment of painted plaster, found 50 years ago,discovered in masonry-filled rooms, led the experts to unearth a series of exquisite frescoes commissioned by the man who would later become Rome's first emperor, Augustus.
Frescoes in vivid shades of blue, red and ochre are on public show for the first time since they were painted in about 30 BC and they are among the most splendid examples of Roman wall paintings, maybe work of an Egyptian artist.
One large room boasts a theatrical theme, its walls painted to resemble a stage with narrow side-doors.
Other trompe l'oeil designs include an elegant garden vista, yellow columns and even a meticulously sketched blackbird.
The Rome authorities have spent nearly 2m euros preserving the four Augustus rooms - thought to comprise a dining-room, bedroom, an expansive reception hall at ground-level and a small study on the first floor.
The quality of the work has been compared with that in Pompeii
In the large entrance hall, graffiti on one wall is believed to have been left by the builders, who seem to have sketched out geometric designs, possibly for mosaic floors, and left their names.
The Roman historian Suetonius described how Augustus lived in a modest house on the Palatine before he assumed supreme power and built a sprawling imperial complex higher up the hill, so this is just the first residence of the Emperor and his wife Livia.
Painstaking reconstruction
The great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, he took the name Augustus on becoming sole ruler in 27BC after the civil wars that followed Julius Caesar's assassination.
His rise ended the Roman Republic and marked the beginning of the Roman Empire. He died in AD14.
Some of his interior decoration was found intact when the Italian archaeologist Professor Gianfilippo Carettoni finally broke through to the rooms in the early 1970s.
Other frescoes had to be pieced together from fragments found by a team led by Irene Jacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine Hill.
The art is so delicate that no more than five visitors at a time will be able to enter the rooms.
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