House of Menander, Daphne

VillaSyria · Harbiye (ancient Daphne, suburb of Antioch), near Antakya, Turkey — general suburb location, offset slightly from the Atrium House entry to avoid an exact-coordinate stack; exact find-spot not pinpointedBuilt 280 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Excavators at Daphne named this elite house for a set of mosaic panels illustrating scenes from Menander's comedies. Built in the late 3rd century AD, the villa rose more than 160 years after Trajan died at Antioch in 117 CE, though it incorporated older mosaic panels salvaged from a 2nd-century building. Its rooms opened onto a peristyle garden typical of Antioch's wealthiest suburb. The mosaics are now divided among the Princeton University Art Museum and other Antioch-expedition collections.

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.