Italica, was the first city founded by romans in Spain and the birthplace of Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.  The great Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio (Africanus) founded Italica in 206 BC to settle his victorious veterans after the Second Punic Wars against Hannibal and the Carthaginians. The city was built upon a native Iberian town from the Turdetani, dating back to the 4th c. BC. 
The vetus urbs or old city is nowadays under the village o Santiponce, only 6 miles NW of Seville. It developed into a prosperous city with public buildings and a forum at the centre and was linked to a busy river port.  At some point, members of the Roman tribes Gens Ulpia and Aelia moved into Italica. They were the respective families of the Roman emperors Trajan (97-117) and Hadrian (117-137) who were later born here.

The site has been excavated extensively and some renovations have been done recently. The small baths and the Theatre are some of the oldest visible remains, built in the time of Augustus. Italica’s amphitheatre was the third largest in the Roman Empire at the time. It seated 25,000 spectators, about half as many as the Colosseum in Rome. The central pit was used for animal cages (bears and wild boars) during gladiatorial combats. In 2016 it was used as a filming location for the internationally famous TV show Game of Thrones.

Beyond this, on and around the wide main avenue or Cardus Maximus, about five large houses of prosperous families have been excavated, some with well-preserved, colourful mosaics, including  floors with exquisite design of birds, the Neptune Mosaic, the Birds Mosaic, the Planetarium Mosaic, the mosaic of Hylas, and the Rhodian Patio. These mansions measured up to 15,000m2. The remains of the Traianeum, temple of the Emperor Trajan, Termas Menores and Mayores (baths), and the sophisticated sewer system normally seen in larger cities can also be seen here.

The House of Cañada Honda.
The excavations started in the seventies directed by prof. Luzón. The perimeter of the house of Cañada Honda was found and some of the walls restored, but most of the work was surface cleaning. Now, there is a two-year project to deeply study and excavate the house, of which one third of the plant still unknown.

This is not just any Domus. Although in Italica most of them are wealthy houses, this one is located on the street that leads to the Traianeum, the biggest temple to worship the emperor in Hispania and that is believed to have the same scheme as the library of Adrian in Athens. The house faces two streets with numerous tabernae that give a sense of the important role of commerce in this area of the city close to the temple.

This house has something very rarely found before the IVth century. In the peristilum (garden), surrounded by brick columns, there was a ninfeum (fountain) surrounded by a stabadium (semicircular bed) for feasting. This could be an early triclinium, a place for gathering and celebrating big banquets. There is only another example in Villa Adriana in Tivoli.
As a curious fact, the colossal forearm that is now in the Archaeological Museum of Seville was located in one of the taverns of this house that overlook the street that leads to the Traianeum.