Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
 
   The second mosaics features, in its central medallion, a female character seated on a throne, wearing a helmet and holding in one hand the celestial sphere and in the other a spear. The attitude and the attributes of the character indicate that it represented Rome as Athena Minerva, helmeted and armed. Around this central character, appear six female figures, three of whom in full length and allegories of the provinces. Thanks to their attributes most of these provinces can be identified : Africa, wearing the traditional elephant hide, Egypt holding a sistrum, musical instrument of the Goddess Isis; Asia wearing a turreted hair style; Spain holding an olive branch, a symbol of its role as the main supplier of oil to Rome; a function that will be taken away from her by Africa, as of the end of the 2 nd-c. Sicily represented as huntress Diana, bearing the “triskelis” (three legs bent behind the head evoking the three tips of the island); finally a province which is not easily identifiable, due to unclear attributes.

Rome
 
    The idea of associating the image of Rome with the personification of the provinces is here a symbol, which is meant to highlight for propaganda purposes - the extensiveness, the unity, the might and the prosperity of the Roman Empire. By invoking all these symbols, the owner of the house has undoubtedly aimed to show, through the ornamentation of his house, his attachment to Africa and to the Empire..

 

 

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