The Mosiacs of the Roman Villa della Casale Cyclops. Triclinum. Discus. And the winner is...

Let's start with the toilets. It is surmised that the Roman aristocracy of the 4th and 5th centuries enjoyed combining bodily functions with information gathering, just as we do today. In the Villa della Casale the communal toilet (about 10 seats) indicates that the activity was quite a lot more social than today, there being an obvious lack of newsprint. The workings of the latrine was as sophisticated as one might expect from the Romans, the creators of roads, central heating, and indoor plumbing. Under the seats a little canal of running water ensured that the room stayed fresh and clean. The pre-toilet paper solution was a sponge on a stick that got washed between uses, perhaps by the users themselves, but more likely by the many servants (slaves and free servants) that worked here. The latrine floor was just as elegant as the other floors in the villa with a beautiful mosaic depicting running animals, and conveniently located at the front-center of the villa (room #14, below). No smelly old outhouses for the Romans. But the toilet is only one of the 42 rooms in this country getaway that are decorated with mosaic floors. The 63-room villa was the playground of some nobility of the Roman Empire at its zenith. It was either the 4th century imperial hunting villa of Roman co-emperor Maximianus Herculeus, or the 5th century summer house of Roman consul Rufio Albino..the argument continues, and the is evidence to prove both cases. No matter. The place indicates a fabulous lifestyle few have ever experienced, with hot baths, warm baths and cold baths and all the other elements of today's fancy spas. It has rooms for herbal treatments, dilapatory, hairdressing, and a massage hall. Water was brought in from the nearby river and heated--you can see the system, the furnace rooms and the passageways where the hot air passed.. At the entrance was a grand archway flanked by two lesser arches -- only three of the columns still stand -- leading into a grand courtyard with a fountain that leads into the series of rooms that are still being recreated by archeologists and artists and open to the world via a system of raised hallways and plexiglass barriers. I wandered for hours, marvelling at the architecture and the work of the mosiac artists and the life that these people must have lived! The mosiacs in many rooms reflected the function of the room.Changing rooms depected people changing clothes. Dining room floors depicted scenes honoring gods and goddesses of abundance. The "bikini room" that was most recently excavated was used for women's competitive sports--discus, long jump, and running. The floor was built over another beautiful mosaic floor that can be seen from a broken corner. The "bikini room" depicting women's sporting competitions and victories. I love the way that the place is available to the public while being excavated, and that that you can see how it was built. The mosaic work began with a foundation of large rocks called a statumen followed by a later of stone and lime which formed the 25 centimeter rudus layer. A 12 centimeter nucleus layer was made from clay and lime. Then the tiles were coated with plaster and highly polished. Many different stone and glass tiles have been found, all of different colors--21 types of stone and 16 types of glass, probably from Egypt. It's surmised that it took the artists an average of six days to create two meters of mosaic, that is, once it had been drawn on paper and approved. Also in some of the rooms were statues of gods or goddesses, fountains, cubbyholes, columns and archways. Rooms were arranged to take advantage of the sun or the shade, and a great garden area in the center provided an open air space for gathering and relaxing. In the intense heat of the Sicilian sun this place, even in ruins, remains a luxury. Hunting scene, interesting because of the soul of the bull leaving its body as it is being killed. < previous | next >