House of Dionysus and Ulysses

About

Thugga's wealthiest residents built this house south of the Caracalla Baths in the second half of the third century. Excavators pulled nine mosaics from its rooms, one showing Dionysus overwhelming the Tyrrhenian pirates, another showing Ulysses lashed to his mast while the sirens sang. The artist packed real tension into the sailors' faces despite a tiny field of tesserae to work with. Seven of the nine mosaics now hang in the Bardo Museum; two remain in storage.

What happened here

A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.

Sources

• https://www.romeartlover.it/Thugga3.html
• https://www.inp2020.tn/en/2020/04/08/_dougga/
• https://www.academia.edu/37642296/Dionysus_Mosaic_of_Dougga

Nearby

Capitol of Dougga

53 m

Libyco-Punic Mausoleum of Dougga

58 m

Macellum of Dougga

72 m

Forum of Dougga

76 m

Temple of Mercury

89 m

Temple of Augustan Piety

137 m