Villa Romana del Tellaro

Discovery and site

The remains of the villa were found in 1971 beneath an old farm building dating from the 17th century. Treasure hunters had tried to remove and sell the mosaics illegally but they were intercepted. Eventually, the farmhouse was bought to allow excavations and eventual opening to the public.

The site is near the Tellaro river in a fertile agricultural area.

In 2008, more than 30 years after the start of excavations, it was opened to the public.

History

The villa is likely to be one of the latifundia, or great private estates, specialising in agriculture destined for export (grain, olive oil, wine) which played a large role in society and in the economy in the Imperial period.

By the 2nd century AD, latifundia had displaced small farms as the agricultural foundation of the Roman Empire.

During the first two centuries of the Empire, however, Sicily had gone through an economic depression due to the production system of the large estates based on slave labour: Urban life had suffered a decline, the countryside was deserted and the rich owners did not reside there, as the lack of suitable villas would seem to indicate. Furthermore, the Roman government neglected the territory, which became a place of exile and a refuge for slaves and brigands.

At the beginning of the 4th century, rural Sicily entered a new period of prosperity with commercial settlements and agricultural villages reaching the apex of their expansion and activity. An obvious sign of transformation was the new title assigned to the governor of the island, from corrector to consularis. In the 4th century therefore, Sicily was not merely the "granary of Rome," but also became a favourite residence for families of the high Roman aristocracy, like the Nichomachi and the Caeionii, who brought with them the luxury and taste of the capital of the empire.

The reasons seem to be twofold: First of all, the renewed importance of the provinces of proconsular Africa and Tripolitania for grain supplies to Italy, while Egyptian production, which had up to then satisfied the needs of Rome, was sent to Constantinople (new imperial capital from 330). Sicily consequently assumed a central role on the new trade routes from Africa. Secondly, the more affluent classes, of equestrian and senatorial rank, began to abandon urban life by retreating to their possessions in the countryside, due to the growing tax burden and the expenses they had to pay for cities. The owners also looked after their own lands, which were no longer cultivated by slaves, but by colonists. Considerable sums of money were spent on enlarging, beautifying and making the villas more comfortable. …

The villa

The villa was constructed around a 20m-long peristyle courtyard, on the north side of which opened three luxurious residential rooms of the villa decorated with exceptional figurative polychrome mosaic floors.

The high quality of the mosaics and the scenes depicted demonstrate not only the high artistic levels of the craftsmen, but also the refined taste, wealth and sophistication of the owners.

Many other mosaic floors that were probably in rooms to the north and east of them have completely disappeared, although a few mosaic fragments were found collapsed into basement rooms.

The main Roman road along the east coast of Sicily passed nearby to the east of the villa. The entrance to the villa was at its north-east corner, convenient for access from the road, and was imposing with a series of seven wide steps in white marble leading up to a small vestibule which had a geometric mosaic floor.

The portico on the north side had a 15 m-long mosaic floor with a veritable carpet of laurel wreaths forming circles and octagons with geometric and floral motifs. More octagonal medallions with concave sides fill the voids between the laurel wreaths, forming a continuous pattern with bright colours and brilliantly mastered chromatic variations, giving the pattern depth, naturalness and fluidity. This mosaic, in contrast to the

others, was not removed and reassembled after conservation, and still exhibits some dark stains on its western side, traces of the fire that destroyed the building around the middle of the 5th century AD. The notable unevenness of the floor's surface is also a consequence of the fire, whether through the roof collapsing or due to the many earthquakes that have occurred over the centuries. …