House of Sorothus
About
Soldiers under General Bertrand stumbled onto this Hadrumetum house while digging in Sousse in 1886. Its floor held 56 medallions of half-bird creatures, Nereids, and mermaids playing instruments around a central panel of Neptune riding a chariot of four sea beasts. The mosaic dates to the first or second century, making it one of the earliest large marine floors in Roman Africa. It now hangs vertically in the Bardo Museum, too big to lie flat in its old gallery.
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
Nearby
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