The cena trimalchionis is an episode in the 15th book of Satyricon by Petronius, a narrative poem of which only a few fragments remain. Petronius, a Latin writer and poet who lived between the first and second half of the 2nd century AD, provides a refined and ironic description of the values and f...

Element forming part of the support system of the architectural structure, where the imposts are formed of columns. The capital connects the top part of the column, which is circular in shape, with the flat straight area above, composed of the architrave. Its shape is normally a truncated pyramid t...

The Latin word pardalis indicates the spotted panther skin, connected in myth to the god Dionysus. The deity, together with his followers, satyrs and maenads, all wore panther skins. The panther was a sacred animal to the god of wine, and in the mosaic floors of the late antiquity residence there ...

Lycurgus is remembered in various stories and versions, but in all of them he represents the mythical figure of a sovereign, in perennial conflict with the god Dionysus. Homer describes the episode in which Lycurgus drove the bacchae and satyrs out of his kingdom, together with the god himself. Ot...

A deity revered by the Greeks and called Bacchus by the Romans, he is generally known as the god of wine. His worship, perhaps of Phrygian origin, was highly celebrated in Athens, so much so that the theatre of Dionysus represented by the biggest Greek tragedians between the 6th and 5th centuries BC...

Polyphemus is the giant cyclops son of the nymph Thoosa and Poseidon, god of the sea. He is described in the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem, as a rough and beastly shepherd, distinguished by a single eye. In the oldest Greek myths, the cyclops are gigantic figures, children of the Earth and Heaven, t...

Ulysses was a famous Greek hero, his character a mix of mythology and history. According to tradition he was son of Laertes and Anticlea, and is known as the King of Ithaca. One of the most popular protagonists of Greek mythology, his fame crossed the entire ancient world and still remains a refere...

Before the imperial period, in Rome, the lecti triclinaris were each composed of three padded pillows, and were placed around a central dining table on three sides so that nine diners could converse freely. Half lying down, the Romans would eat on their left side and took their place on the lecti a...

In Tetrarchic and Constantinian times, the Romans applied a textile decoration in the shape of a circle, the orbiculus, to adorn their tunic, first with embroidery on the shoulder and then in other areas of the garment. Examples of these ornaments have also been found in the Byzantine and Coptic ar...

A clavus is a purple stripe that symmetrically decorates the shoulders of a tunic, a regularly worn male garment. The clavus, of generic decoration, later becomes a sign of distinction that distinguishes the robes of senators when it is wide, or those of knights, recognisable by a narrower band fal...