ca. 9m²; central panel ca. 3.7 N-S x 3.8 E-W.

The focal point of this mosaic (the largest of the Villa's floors) is a portrait bust of Dionysos, in a roundel at the centre of a square panel. He has fair hair, in which he wears a golden fillet and a wreath of ivy, and his blue robe is made almost entirely of glass tesserae. The medallion is set in an octagon outlined in guilloche, and the eight surrounding segmental panels frame the heads of the god's companions: Pan and Silenus, two nymphs with bows in their hair, a satyr and three young men, one of whom has a ribboned tambourine behind his head. In the corners of the square there are graceful caryatids, each poised as if about to dance. An elaborate series of borders fills out the floor of this very large room: egg-and-dart, wave pattern, diamond-and-hexagon with meander corners, pelta design, and a background of stepped squares in black-on-white.

Sara PATON