In the Middle to Late Roman Empire (ca. 200—650 AD) there is a clear trend for even greater differences in private-house size and sophistication than we observed for LH-ER times (Scott 1997). Palatial mansions have been excavated in all the major cities of the Aegean, whilst we observe the largest number of extensive estate-centers known at any time for the Greek countryside (except Late Ottoman times, see Chapter 21). However although rural villas with impressive architecture are known in survey and excavation, many, perhaps most, lacking such luxurious facilities, may have been foci for estates whose owners lived in distant centers.
The town houses of the wealthy and powerful often have facilities for receiving their peers, clients or tenants on a large scale, prominent sizeable rooms often with an elevated apse where the elite family could entertain and address dependents. In Thessaloniki, 10 excavated, substantial Late Roman (LR) villas have been linked to the rise of a class of imperial administrators and military officials, who were largely replacing the traditional wealthy local councilor elite (curiales) (Grammenos 2003). Constructed in the north and east of the town where building density was light, they provided seclusion from the bustle of the downtown and harbor zones and a more favorable climate. All were based around a large reception room (triclinium) possessing the usual elevated niche at one side. The pragmatic attitudes of suburban villa-owners are clear from the juxtaposition in the same complexes of luxury fittings (wall-paintings, stucco, mosaics, marble revetments), with cottage industry and storerooms.
In Athens, several large villas have been identified around the Acropolis and neighboring Areopagus hill. Some may reflect a special source of wealth in the Roman-era city, in modern terminology “private colleges” (Camp 2001). Athens’ educational reputation was already attracting young members of the Roman elite in late Republican times, and this was only enhanced by the greater catchment which opened up through incorporation into the expanding Roman Empire. One mansion could as well belong to a successful philosophy professor as to a wealthy landowner or imperial official, and, like others in this quarter of fourth - to sixth-century AD Athens, it had private baths, marble peristyle courtyards, sculpture collections, and rich wall decor. At Sparta mansions outside the restricted LR “kastro” walls have gardens, private baths, and elaborate decoration for the triclinium, where mosaics with figure patterns were set to delight the reclining diners around them (Raftopoulou 1998). At Argos luxurious homes are notable from the fourth century onwards, some with their own bath complexes (Oikonomou-Laniado 2003): as elsewhere
The Complete Archaeology of Greece: From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD, First Edition. John Bintliff. © 2012 John Bintliff. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Figure 16.1 The fifth-century palace in the Old Agora, Athens, lying outside the new city wall on its right. J. M. Camp, The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven 2001, Figure 224.
In Greece, mosaic scenes emphasize elite pastimes such as hunting, the seasons, and appropriately Dionysos and his entourage with their associations of feasting and leisure. Since wealthy individuals were commonly donors of churches, their taste could intrude into Christian basilica floors, and similar scenes are often found there.
It has been suggested that the weakening of civic culture led to even greater dependence on patron-client relationships in Late Antiquity, stimulating larger spaces in elite mansions for the entertaining of followers (Scott 1997). With parallels in the private Triconch palace at Butrint (Albania) and Diocletian’s retirement palace at Split (Croatia), a massive palace was constructed in the fifth century amidst the ruins of the Athenian Old Agora, now left outside the fortifications (Figure 16.1), although it is unclear if it was for a very wealthy private individual or an imperial official (Camp 2001).
World History
