Poseidon House, Zeugma

VillaSyria · Belkis village, near Nizip, Gaziantep Province, TurkeyBuilt 150 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

At Zeugma, a Roman garrison town on the Euphrates, a family paved their courtyard pool with a mosaic of Poseidon riding a golden chariot pulled by hippocamps. The Poseidon House dates to the 2nd or 3rd century AD, rising after Trajan's death in 117 CE even though Rome had held Zeugma since Augustus stationed a legion there. Rescue crews pulled the mosaic from the ground before the Birecik Dam flooded much of the city in 2000. It anchors the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep today.

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.