DRAFT

House of Icarios (Maison d'Icarios)

Contributor: Jinyi Yang
Published: 2021-04-21
Modified: 2025-09-16

Dates

2nd-3rd century CE

Garden Description

This richly decorated house is considered as one of the most remarkable domus of Africa (Plan view, Fig.1). Twenty-four Corinthian columns that may have reached 3m high, supported a portico on four sides. On the North, the South and the West, the peristyle is surrounded by rooms and apartments, some with their own colonnaded courtyards paved with mosaics (pseudo-atria). The Eastern portico, because of the declivity of the land was constructed on vaults. It probably opened on the exterior by a colonnade that allowed the visitor to admire the sea, the mountains and the valley of Oued Zaghouan. A small wooden fence enclosed the garden except in front of the vestibule and the oecus, from the vestibule one could traverse the garden and enter the oecus, without having to use the porticoes. At a later phase these entries were closed by a basin and cistern. The garden had in its center a rectangular basin, of which only the foundation was found.

Plans

Fig.1: Plan of the House of Icarios
Credit: (Gauckler, P., 1896, fig.1)

Bibliography

  • Ben Hassen, H., Maurin, L., Oudna (Uthina) La découverte d'une ville antique de Tunisie, Paris, 1998.(worldcat)
  • Ben Mansour, S., "Les mosaïques in situ de la maison d'Ikarios (dite des Laberii) à Uthina", in Africa 14, 1996, pp. 113-31.(worldcat)
  • Blanc-Bijon V. and Darmon J-P., "Proposition pour une lecture du programme iconographique de la maison d'Icarios d'Oudna (Tunisie)", in Bulletin de l'AIEMA, 12, 1988-1989, pp. 294-304.(worldcat)
  • Bullo, S., Ghedini, F., Amplissimae atque ornatissimae domus: l'edilizia residenziale nelle città della Tunisia romana, Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 2003, pp. 325-329. (worldcat)
  • Gauckler, P., "Le Domaine des Laberii à Uthina", in MonPiot, 2, 1896, p. 185, fig. 1, pp. 177-229.(worldcat)
  • Malek,A.-A., "Mosaic and nature : "Cultural allusions to Nature in the Roman Domus", in Gardens of the Roman Empire, Volume II, eds., W. F. Jashemski, K. Gleason, A-A Malek, K. Hartswick, Cambridge University Press., NY, 2018, pp. 317-340, pp. 326-329.(worldcat)
  • Tomei, D., "Ancora sulla Casa d'Ikarios a Oudna. Qualche spunto di riflessione", in Antenor, 3, 2002, pp. 63-88.(worldcar)

Keywords

Explore the places containing this garden: