Ricerc@Sapienza

Excavations outside the Spello Walls from 2005 to 2009 have brought to light a periurban villa datable between the 2nd and the 3rd century. The villa was probably located on the main road that crossed the city. The rooms with mosaic decoration are located around a partially preserved peristyle. Allegories of the seasons according to the iconography developing in the Trajan age are depicted in the main room (triclinium). Between one season and the other, there are four large spaces containing naked male figures. At the centre there is the emblema with the main scene: a servant pours wine from an amphora into a kantharos held by a cupbearer. The wine comes out from the kantharos to a crater on the ground. The composition is constructed according to a block scheme, the arrangement of which allows establishing a more specific rela- tionship between the figures. The recovered materials do not offer direct evidence to identify a possible villa owner; however, analysing the mosaic decoration as a coherent iconographic program, it is possible to find clues to advance hypothesis on the owner and the activities that took place there.