Villa Romana di San Biagio
About
A wealthy Roman raised this seaside villa near Tyndaris around 100 BCE, then remodeled its 53 rooms twice more under the early empire. Its frigidarium floor still carries a black-and-white mosaic of dolphins and swordfish chasing across the tiles, fed by baths piped from a spring the Romans dedicated to Venus. By 11 August 117 CE the villa had stood for over two centuries along the coastal road linking Tyndaris to Messina. Excavators brought it back to light in the 1950s.
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
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →