Roman nobility worried a lot about 'gravitas'... whether history was properly recognising their great works and the excellent blood line provided by their family. Wars were fought... public buildings donated... triumphs staged... along with feasting and carnival entertainment... all to ensure people realised you were to be taken seriously... great to have as a patron... and someone with whom you should always acknowledge your obligations. With sufficient 'gravitas' you can be sure history will not forget you.
Around the year 305 AD one of the senators was using his imagination... trying to figure out a way to build his gravitas. Emperor Constantine was just about to give religious freedom to the Christians... Rome's enemies were getting stronger every day... the senate no longer exercised the powers it once had... other senators were spending money like it was going out of fashion... things looked queezy... about to slip into difficult times.
This old senator had a villa in Sicily... in an area now known as Piazza Armerina... that produced big volumes of wheat for the Rome market... it was a profitable property. But 'profits' and 'gravitas' are very different things. He needed more gravitas!
Then, he had a stroke of genius... he decided to decorate his villa in a manner that would make him famous... not just then... but forever. Instead of covering all the bases usually associated with a famous villa... enormous building... magnificent gardens... lots of marble statues... best vistas in the country... he decided to focus his historical contribution on just one dimension... he would leave the world the best mosaics ever created.
We visited the ruins of his villa today.
He contracted the best mosaics tradesmen of Carthage... had them bring to Sicily their experienced team of slaves... rebuilt the villa following the advice of the mosaics' experts... and told his version of history in the mosaics laid on the floors. If he wanted, his family was related to one of the gods... that is what was shown in the mosaics. He showed a healthy interest in young female athletes and the transport of wild animals from Northern Africa to Rome. He liked the blood lust recurring in mythological fights between gods and devils... he liked the innocence of children at play... and this is how we will remember him.
Oh! Just one small detail... no one has verified the identity of the owner... it's narrowed down to a list of three or four. But when they do decide who he is... he will be guaranteed 'gravitas' for the next 1000 years.I
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