A banchetto con Dioniso. Il programma iconografico dei mosaici della “Villa dei Mosaici” di Spello

Excavations conducted outside the walls of Spello from 2005 to 2009 have brought to light a peri-urban villa dating back to between the 2nd and 3rd centuries. e villa was probably located along the main road that crossed the city. e rooms with mosaic decoration overlook a partially preserved peristyle. e allegories of the seasons are depicted in the main room according to an established iconography that begins in the Trajanic age. Between one season and the next are four large spaces where satyrs are depicted. At the centre is a pseudo-emblem depicting a servant pouring wine from an amphora into a kantharos held by a cup-bearer. e wine comes out of the kantharos and ends in a crater resting on the ground. e presence of the seasons, of gures of the Dionysian world and the abun- dant wine, this latter recalled in the amphorae decorated oor, allows us to reconstruct a coherent gurative program and to advance hypotheses about the owner of the villa, whose activity was probably linked to wine trade or production.