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Since Antiquity, Rome’s boundaries have never been easy to locate. A possible topographical trace might be the horti suburbani, which are all located outside the Servian city-wall, and the pomerium, the symbolic and religious landmark of the city as a territorial entity and holy ground. One estate stands out as being both inside and outside the city: Maecenas’s gardens on the Esquiline, spreading over both the wall and the pomerium. The wall was integrated into the gardens and even torn down in order to build a pleasure-house, and the gardens “stepped into the city,” toying with the line. This state of affairs was coupled with a problem of designation (horti/domus) due to the topographical and symbolic confusion this position created: Maecenas made innovative use of housing and of space. He carried out his political activities in a place designed for leisure. He may have been supported by Augustus in this. Indeed, the emperor had a political need for both Maecenas and his gardens, which, through their play on limits, had a symbolical significance for the mastery of urban space