Private entrance to the baths

The realistic depiction of a spa procession with a high-ranking female figure

The choice of subjects and scenes that animate the floor decorations of the Villa Romana del Casale is not random. A precise iconographic program was skilfully translated by groups of workers, even from North Africa, who used their knowledge to enrich the models already used by mosaicists on the island. At the centre of the mosaic, a woman of high social class, perhaps the lady of the house, wears a long draped dress. The type of helmet-shaped style her brown hair is gathered into reveals the typical fashion in vogue during the tetrarchic period.Next to her are two young men with long blonde hair. The most common hypothesis is that they are her children, or perhaps Germanic servants, who would have exalted her beauty. At the edges of the group, there are two handmaids carrying the objects necessary for the thermal bath, such as boxes to contain clothes, ointments and perfumes.

The senses tell the bi-apsed ambulatory – Corridor of the “Great Hunt”

The senses tell the Vestibule

The protagonists of the mosaics

The rural sacrifice

The prestige of the dominus is revealed through the wall frescoes

Form of greeting or ritual?

A dialogue between mythological and realistic scenes

The senses tell the room in the private apartment known as “small hunt”

Banquets and panegyrics enlivened the vast hall, against the background of a floor mosaic celebrating the feats of Hercules

The paths of virus, a reflection of the Dominus

The capture of wild animals for the roman amphitheatre games

The senses tell the Quadrangular Peristyle

The senses tell the Sacellum of the Lares

Outdoor breakfast

A large colonnaded portico, a place of connection between the rooms

The late antiquity residence: locus amoenus and centre of administrative activities in the heart of Sicily

A line of armed men for an important Dominus

A small room used as a privileged entrance to the baths

A day of hunting at the villa

A royal room housed the Dominus during his audiences

Is the profile of the dominus hidden among the scenes depicted in the mosaics?

The senses tell the Basilica

An individual who has attracted the attention of scholars

A view of the race from the imperial gallery

The senses tell the Tri-Apsed Triclinium

A small room embellished with marble

A chariot race, set in the circus Maximus of Rome, connects the villa to the city and centre of power

The public and private rooms of the villa

A hidden meaning

An organic microcosm: the structure of the villa

The senses tell the private entrance to the spa

The protagonists of the mosaic and the military themed frescoes

The senses tell the massage room

A small room represents one of the activities of the thermal bath route

An eloquent symbol: the signum

The main nuclei of the Domus

The apotheosis of Hercules

Semi-public rooms

An official ceremony to welcome the Dominus

The marble from the regions of the empire to decorate the basilica

The golden age: hypotheses about the villa’s period of construction and clues

The astral interpretation of the mosaic

The realistic depiction of a spa procession with a high-ranking female figure

The possible celebration of a solemn event

The catalogue of animals

The Latifundium

High-ranking characters depicted in the mosaics of the apsidal niches of the frigidarium

The senses tell the frigidarium

Auspicious symbols and perhaps the initials of the commissioner’s name decorate the mosaic of the apsidal room

The senses tell the Bi-Apsed room

The mosaics of the late antiquity residence

Solemn and majestic architecture to welcome a high-ranking commissioner

The mansio of Philosophiana. A stopping place

Worship of the Lares

The senses tell the monumental entrance