Formerly an imperial bathhouse, the Baths of Diocletian (306 CE), were repurposed in later centuries as storage for the city of Rome. Stefano della Bella omitted the signs of this modern usage in order to portray the baths as symbolic of an ancient, untouched and idealized past. The artist also reflects their
original function as a space for social gathering and leisure through the team of relaxed horses in the foreground.