Magerius Mosaic

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The Magerius Mosaic is a 3rd-century Roman mosaic discovered in 1966 in the Tunisian village of Smirat and presently displayed in the Sousse Archaeological Museum.^[1] The mosaic presumably decorated a country villa belonging to a man named Magerius.^[1]

Depicted in the mosaic is a beast hunt, and four named hunters are shown killing four, also named, leopords.^[2] At the centre of the mosaic a steward is shown with four moneybags on a tray. Each moneybag symbolises a thousand denarii. The steward is surrounded by four named leopards, being speared by four named hunters. The mosaic presents a very rare evidence of the actual sums paid for animals used in the amphitheatre spectacles.^[1] Two of the three other figures on the mosaic are presumably deities, despite the adjacent Latin inscription Mageri.^[1] A figure striding forward on the left is usually identified as the goddess Diana.^[1] Another figure, with a saucer-shaped object in his right hand, and a staff in his left, is usually identified as Bacchus or Liber Pater.^[1]

Amphitheatre venatio shows were often depicted in villa mosaics.