K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2005/9. (Veszprém, 2005)

BEGOVIC DVORZAK, VLASTA: Villa maritima on Brioni Islands/Istria (Croatia)

dolphins has been found in secondary use in thermae which, in the late antique period, were transformed into a Christian sanctuary. The northern temple is attributed to Venus based on a finding of marble hydria with representations of flying swans with ghirlands in their beaks, as well as palmettas and rosettas in low relief. This is thought to be the support of the statue of Venus, a copy of the Aphrodite of Cnidus. Hydria, made of pantelic marble, had a groove at the rear along its entire length which served to provide connection with other parts of the statue.

9 In the area of the northern temple Corinthian capitels were also found, as well as fragments of rosettas as part of the temple decoration. Alongside the temple of Venus there was a representative diaeta which made up the beginning of the porticus miliaria. Diaeta consisted of a vestibule, a large semicircular room (solarium) whose floor was covered with a polychrome mosaic, a cistern, a bath and two more rooms in which a black and white mosaic was found depicting a branch of ivy. Diaeta, the large porticus and temples give the impression of being parts of an architectural whole. In the plaster of the wall of diaeta a coin of the Emperor Claudius was found, a well preserved piece which was probably never used. According to Casario it was a custom to insert a newly minted coin into the plaster of the buildings being built at that time (his explorations of the Forum in Aquileia). This element enables a datation of the diaeta in the period of Emperor Claudius' rule. In the year 43, at the time of his rule, there began the conquest of Britain, a feat which could only be done by crossing the sea. The favour of the sea deities Neptune and Venus was, therefore, very important, and it is possible that the building of temples falls into the same time-frame. Caius Laecanius Bassus, the father, supposedly the owner of the villa (at that time) was, according to Tassaux, flamen divi Claudii. At the time of Emperor Claudius he could have erected temples at the villa dedicated to deities which enabled the triumphal conquest of Britain, an island known at the time as the end of the known world. This conquest which created a burst of euphoria in Rome was seen as testimony of the infinite power of the Empire. The temple of Venus in Pula, located close to the nymphaeum, east of the city walls (between the walls and amphitheatre) is dedicated to Venera Caelestis on the basis of three inscriptions. One of them is a fragment of the architrave with the inscription Ve(n)eri Caelesti Lai. The latter Gnirs read as Laecanius, and a more recent opinion reads it as Laecania.

]0 It is beyond doubt that a member of the Laecania genus dedicated the temple of Venus in Pula. Rural nobility were also the urban elite. The bath is dated to the period of Neron (or early Flavian date), according to the rest rooms a ground-plan turned 45° from the main axis - an innovation not found in Roman architecture before Neron's Domus Aurea.

n Diversifeied commercial enterprises evidently grew with the rise in the production and trade of Istrian olive oil. They were developed from investments by Italian senatorial families after the civil war and further promoted by the policies of the Julio-Claudian emperors. In an study of roman family Laecanii who owned the figlina in Fazana close to Brioni islands Tassaux noted that many new men in the Senate were recmited from these favorites of Augustus and Tiberius.

12 Starac pointed out that some of those Istrian senatorial proprietors were members of the concilium principisP Senatorial investments in Istrian