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.