The country villas of the late Roman aristocracy give us a unique insight into the lifestyles of the super-rich and, by their choice of interior décor, into their individual tastes and preferences. Sicily possesses some outstanding examples of this phenomenon, in particular the great villa of Casale near Piazza Armerina which, 70 years after the main excavations, is still unmatched anywhere in the Roman Empire for the sheer number of its figured and geometric mosaic floors. Less well known are the villa at Caddeddi on the Tellaro river, not far from Syracuse, and that at Patti Marina on the north coast. This talk will not attempt to cover all aspects of these spectacular sites, some of which will already be well known to those who have visited Sicily, but will focus on recent work which has broadened our knowledge, especially of the first two. It will also present the speaker’s own recent excavations at a fourth site, Gerace, near Enna in central Sicily, which, while not at the same level of luxury as the other three, has nevertheless yielded fresh information about a further late Roman Sicilian estate, and even the name of its owners. The talk will also consider the end of high-status rural life at these villas (and, briefly, what followed it), and will also discuss the likely significance of an old find, long neglected, which might possibly suggest that luxury living in rural Sicily may, just occasionally, have continued a little later than is currently thought.

Im Anschluss an den Vortrag findet ein kleiner Apéro statt.