The building known as "Livia's House" was built on the Palatine Hill, most likely in the first half of the 1st century BC, and underwent a substantial renovation (to which the magnificent frescoes visible today are due) around 30 BC. The rooms feature very simple floor decorations, made with black tile patterns on a white tile background, while the series of frescoes that cover the walls are rich and evocative.

The TABLINUM, the main room along with the TRICLINIUM, enclosed the most interesting sequence of paintings, in light of what has survived to this day. The still legible frescoes show a low dado surmounted by a series of columns that divide the wall into three sections and support a false coffered ceiling that breaks through the perspective, creating an illusory three-dimensionality. Between the columns, imaginary views open up: in the central section of the right wall it is possible to recognize a copy of a famous ancient painting "Io guarded by Argus and Mercury who arrives to free her," a well-known episode of mythology that was masterfully painted by Nicia. On the entrance wall, however, there was depicted the myth of Polyphemus and Galatea, unfortunately almost completely gone today. To the sides of the central paintings, other false openings span views of fantastic architecture and imaginary landscapes, while the false architecture is enriched with decorative motifs such as sphinxes, winged figures and candelabra. In the adjoining room, the simpler, but no less evocative, decoration shows the wall traversed by festoons and garlands with fruit, framed by a similar series of columns and architectural elements. A cornice frieze runs along the entire upper part of the wall: the technique similar to the sketch and the use of highlights make the sequence of Egyptianizing subjects lively and dynamic. The building is attributed to Livia, the wife of Augustus (but others have hypothesized the Livia daughter of Tiberius Nero) because on the lead pipes found, the name of the owner is inscribed: IULIA AUGUSTA.