La villa di Ercole ad Aquincum. La terra sigillata e le anfore

The article deals with the results of the topographic studies of the military camp of Aquincum. Remains of a luxurious villa urbana with mosaic floors were discovered in 1958 in the canabae of Aquincum. The systematic excavations and minor salvage works continued up to 1967. In the first half of the 2nd A.D. century an oblong building was erected. In A.D. 106 Aquincum became the capital of Pannonia Inferior, and its first governor was Hadrian. In his term as governor, construction of the governor’s palace began, on the present-day Hajógyár Island. This area lies opposite the zone of the villae urbanae where the Hercules Villa can be found. The second construction period of the villa was from the end of the 2nd century – third quarter of the 3rd century. The villa was enlarged during the 2nd-3rd century, when additional rooms were attached to the north and south ends of the eastern wing of the original structure. In the main building in Room no. 12, an ornate mosaic floor and small traces of painting on the eastern and western walls could be found. The outer frame of this mosaic contains octagons, squares with swastikas, triangles, and double peltae. The emblema of this mosaic represents the myth of Hercules and Deianeira. This mosaic was imported most probably from an Alexandrian workshop (?). In Room no. 11 the central emblema had been destroyed, but the border comprises a meander combined with geometric motifs. Inside this frame there is another one, representing colourful oblongs and squares. The mosaic floor of Room no. 10 has a geometric pattern, with the pattern of the outer frame combining oblongs and squares. Within this, a field with a pattern composed of red and black squares can be found. Within the larger squares, the motifs of “Solomon knots” or triangles can be seen. The central motif has not survived. At the southern end of the representative wing of the villa, a hall with an apse with a mosaic floor can be found. The eastern part of the floor was destroyed. The outer frame of the mosaic contains oblongs and squares. On the western side the change in the pattern (lattice pattern) of the frame indicates the main entrance to the hall. Around the central thiasos-motif, the so-called “Drunken Hercules” in a narrower picture field (in front of the entrance), one sees a winged genius offering a bunch of grapes to an approaching tigress. The mosaic in the apse represents a tiger standing in a vine. The mosaics of Rooms nos. 7, 11 and 12 are datable to the first decades of the 3rd century A.D. In 1958-1959 two mosaics were found east and west of the main building. One of them represents pugilists and a stand with two strigiles, as well as a large palm branch leaning against the stand. The other mosaic, which is preserved only partially, represents a winged figure; a head and a part of the wing can be seen. The first mosaic is very similar to the mosaic floor of the bath of the so-called “Large Dwelling House”, in the civilian town of Aquincum, and represents wrestlers. Both mosaics were probably made by the same local artist. The rooms with the aforementioned mosaics as well as the room with double apses probably form parts of a bath-building that belongs to this villa.