Marcus's mother, Domitia Lucilla Minor (also known as Domitia Calvilla), was the daughter of the Roman patrician P. Calvisius Tullus and inherited a great fortune (described at length in one of Pliny's letters) from her parents and grandparents. Her inheritance included large brickworks on the outskirts of Rome – a profitable enterprise in an era when the city was experiencing a construction boom – and the "Horti Domitia Calvillae" (or "Lucillae"), a villa on the Caelian hill of Rome. Marcus himself was born and raised in the "Horti" and referred to the Caelian hill as 'My Caelian'.