The Roman Villa at Piazza Aermerina - Dr Michael Birrell.

Located in central Sicily near the town of Piazza Armerina, the Villa Romana del Casale is one of the largest Roman buildings anywhere in the Empire. It was the residence and reception hall of a very important official, probably an Emperor. The presence of multiple state rooms reflects the late antique villa's need to satisfy a number of different functions. The Villa del Casale had a magnificent decorative program which makes it comparable to Hadrian's palace at Tivoli. The marble that originally decorated the walls of the grand basilica express the importance and official nature of the space. The mosaics, which are still largely intact in almost all of the rooms, can be dated to the end of the third and first half of the 4th Century AD; they are of extremely high quality and cover a remarkable 4,100 square metres.
Presented to the Roman Archaeology Group, Perth. 19th March 2016.
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[@pauljohansson363kagy5]

Brilliant stuff

[@supersasquatch]

Always awesome to witness the ancient ingenuity of classical 4:3 videos

[@damianranger7284]

I really enjoyed this video. Fascinating! Thank you from Oregon!

[@lucar.5045]

Thanks for the presentation, next month I'm going to visit in person the site.

[@claudiosaltara7003]

Could have been more pictorial.

[@Prussia_is_not_yet_lost.]

There is a reason these domuns romanum where inward looking: thats a safety measure since only today the countryside is not full of thieves, burglars and murderers. Over the milenials people adapted the buildings to their safety needs. If you stuck your nose past the domus walls, you run the risk to get shot with an arrow by an robber. Mostly one had to travel in groups and with armed men for safety. Only Augustus seemed to have appeased the roman empire with the pax augustiana or pax romana. I Latinamerica more an more these kind of domus romanum construction stile will be the ideal for safety reasons as the pax americana is twindling all over the world. Actually these domus are the ideal style for the future. If you sit inside your domus with an integrated cystern, a garden, some green space, etc. you are safe. If you move outside you get robbed and burglared. So stay inside most of the time. Thats the idea of these domus romanum. Actually an very clever design and future proof even for our times. Sacking, looting and burning armies and rolling through tank batallions will most likely not enter soon such an small fortress like the domus romanum.

[@RF_Micrwave]

The faces in the mosaic are all look like eastern nationality ???? perhaps they might have been Arabs

[@picasa-picasa]

is this roman or etruscian? roma is late mosaic period, not fresc period..

[@lucar.5045]

100% roman. By the way Etruscan civilization never settled in Sicily. Also, Romans did know how to fresco, check out Pompei, a roman city.

[@simonstergaard]

this was for sure a 5 star hotel...not a private residence

[@katerinaleparski1448]

If you can eat together than you can sh¥t together! I mean there are 2 holes in the same body - both are equally important. So, what’s the problem!? Go Romans! 😅🎉

[@katerinapatiniotis5598]

These Roman mosaics look amateurish compared to the craftsmanship and attention to detail of the ancient Greek mosaics.

[@Ntyler01mil]

Katerina Patiniotis - This was built in the early fourth century, by which time the Roman world had experienced a lot of disruption and strain. The Arch of Constantine in Rome would be contemporary, which many point to when discussing the decline of form in late antique art. Earlier Roman mosaics, like the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii, are more naturalistic. That said, there’s always a range of quality with these things. The Orthodox Baptistery in Ravenna or the Rotunda of Santa Costanza in Rome perhaps better show late Roman mosaic capabilities.

[@nicholasturner7931]

Disagree respectfully

[@katerinapatiniotis5598]

@@nicholasturner7931 Check the mosaics at the palace of king Philip II the father of Alexander the Great at Vergina in Greece and see the high quality, intricate designs and artistic superiority of the Greek mosaic layers. Your jaw will drop on your feet. The Roman mosaics are of lesser quality and are too basic looking.

[@lucar.5045]

What is your point? National pride or artistic comparation? Giotto's paintings look shit compared to Michelangelos, but they're still beautifull and of great value. Please contextualize your critics.

[@sesilek]

I think the owner could be simply the ancient wealhty trader of wild Animals - why not ? 😉🏛🏡⛰🌋🏚⛵