Caddeddi on the Tellaro: A Late Roman Villa in Sicily and its Mosaics

The late Roman villa of Caddeddi, near Noto in south-east Sicily, first

came to light over forty years ago. Built in the second half of the

fourth century AD, it is chiefly known for its three figured mosaic

pavements, which after careful restoration in Syracuse were returned to

the site prior to its opening to the public in 2008. This book describes

in detail these and other pavements at Caddeddi, and concludes that, as

at the more famous villa of Casale near Piazza Armerina a generation

before, they are likely to be the work of North African mosaicists

fulfilling an overseas commission for the villa’s owner. The book

attempts to place the mosaics and the villa itself in their wider

Sicilian and Mediterranean context, with discussion ranging over such

topics as late Roman villas elsewhere in Sicily, the iconography of myth

and personification, peacock-feather helmets, the participation of the

military in the Roman animal trade, the parallels between the mosaic

floors of Caddeddi and those of Roman North Africa, the development of a

new Roman saddle type in the fourth century, and military footwear

fashionable at the same time. Of particular note are the 197

illustrations, 184 of them in full colour, which highlight the vividness

and vivacity, as well as the polychromatic variety, of these stunning

late Roman mosaics.