Page 422 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

frigidarium, its central mosaic a marine scene of sea nymphs, tritons, and little
cherubs rowing boats and spearing fish. A walkway leads out of the baths and into the
villa proper, to the massive central courtyard or peristyle. This is where guests would
have been received, and the vestibule displays a fragmented mosaic depicting a formal
welcome by an attendant holding an olive branch. The corridor around the four sides

of the courtyard is covered with a series of animal-head medallions: snarling tigers,
yapping dogs and unicorns. Just off here, a balcony looks down upon one of the most
vivid pictures, a boisterous circus scene showing a chariot race. Starting in the top
right-hand corner, the variously coloured chariots rush off, overtaking and crashing at
the turns, until finally there’s victory for the green faction. The next room’s mosaic
shows a family attended by slaves on their way to the baths. Period detail – footwear,
hairstyles and clothes – helped archeologists to date the rest of the mosaics.

Small rooms beyond, on either side of the peristyle, reveal only fragmentary
geometric patterns, although one displays a small hunting scene, an episodic
adventure that ends with a peaceful picnic in the centre. Another room contains what is
the villa’s most famous image, a two-tiered scene of ten girls, realistically muscular
figures in Roman “bikinis”, taking part in various gymnastic and athletic activities.
One of the girls, sporting a laurel wreath and a palm frond, is clearly the winner of the

competition.

The great hunting scene

The peristyle is separated from the private apartments and public halls beyond by a
long, covered corridor, which contains the best of the villa’s mosaic works. The great
hunting scene sets armed and shield-bearing hunters against a panoply of wild

animals, on sea and land. Along the entire 60m length of the mosaic, tigers, ostriches,
elephants and even a rhino, destined for the games back in Rome, are pictured being
trapped, bundled up and down gangplanks and into cages. The caped figure overseeing
the operation is probably Maximianus himself. Much of the scene is set in Africa,
Maximianus’s main responsibility in the Imperial Tetrarchy, while an ivy-leaf symbol
on the costume of the attendant to his right is that of his personal legion, the
Herculiani.

The rest of the site

Family apartments and public halls beyond the great hunting scene are nearly all on a
grand scale. A large courtyard, the xystus, gives onto the triclinium, a dining room
with three apses, whose mosaics feature the labours of Hercules. One bloody scene
portrays his fight against the giants, all struck by arrows, who writhe and wail with

contorted faces. A path leads around the back to the private apartments, based
around a large basilica, with mosaics echoing the spectacular scenes of the main