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

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

two rectangular exedrae, the contours of which were followed by cryptoporticus 2,3 m widebuilt behind the back wall of the ambulation. The real porticus miliaria as described by Plinius the younger. In the mortar of one of the walls were founded a bronze coin of Claudius of A. D. 41 (77 CLAVDIUS CAESAR AVG. P; M. TR; P. IMP P. P., Minerva on the reverse with spear and shield) which support the theory of Casari that it was a custem to put the new coin in the wall in time when the building was rise on.

4 The rubble of the structure yielded more than 100 amphorae of Laecanius Bassus with the names of 5 of his vilici, dated by Bezeczky

5 from the Tiberian to Claudian period. Further east along the N shore are buildings identified as library and palaestra. Connected to the palaestra was a two-level pavilion for recreation and bathing. On the upper level were the central, apsidal space with adjoining rooms and a courtyard behaind, as well as the bath (well preserved frigidarium, caldarium, tepidarium, apodyterium and sudatio). In front of the bath semicircular porticus with Ionic capitals were founded. (Fig. 5) In front of the porticus stood a semicircular stone quay with a fishpond at its east end. The industrial quarter with the harbor remains is the least understood part of the estate. Computer analysis of aerial photographs indicated the unexcavated structures.

6 Shrines dedicated to Neptune and Venus which are founded in the area of the maritime villa were on the central position of the site. Neptune was the god of the sea and Venus was born from the sea froth and is the protectress of seafarers and maritime routes (Vitruvius advises that her temples be built in ports). These deities were therefore very important for the owners of the villa whose prosperity and influence probably originated from sea voyages and maritime routes. The area of temples includes three temples positioned in semicircle, connected from the outer side by a semicircular porticus, while their fronts are facing the sea. (Fig. 4) The temples, actually a aediculae - according to Vitruvius the smallest of this type of buildings, measuring 12 by 6 metres (40 by 20 Roman feet). Maritime villas were built like small towns (as described by Seneca the Elder), so perhaps this area of temples imitated a forum built by the sea. An urban opus transferred into the landscape. The area was archeologically explored by A. Gnirs from 1900 until 1914. At the location of the southern temple of Neptune numerous elements of decoration were found - fragments of architrave and friese, parts of epistylos, capitels, fragments of relief, sculptures of the coffered ceiling - all containing attributes of that deity and used in various ways. A fragment of. a friese was found representing Eros riding a dolphin in a hunt for Triton with a raised right hand holding a fish. Further on, there were representations of various fish and shells, a relief of Triton with flute and shell, a fragment of the lower zone of a capitel with a trident inserted between the acanthus leaves, sculptures of dolphins which adorned the middle part of the coffered ceiling.

7 A part of the architectural decoration of Neptune's temple was found in the old Christian basillica of St. Mary on the other side of the island, in the Madona bay, in secondary use as part of the altar partition. Linked with findings in the temple area, it represents a masterly piece of architrave and friese 1.6 m long and 1.5 m wide, executed in high relief representing intertwined bodies of sea lion, Triton, seahorse and dolphin.

8 A capitel with