The Athena Domus at Apollonia (Albania): A Reassessment

Abstract

The city of Apollonia, located to the South-west of modern Albania, was founded in 588 B.C. by Corinthian and Corcyrian people, and was later described by Cicero as an admirabilis urbs. In 44 B.C. when Augustus and Agrippa were studying rhetoric in Apollonia, they got to know of the killing of Caesar and were helped by the local people to return to Rome and take the power back. The city, located on the right bank of the river Aoos, only 12 km from the sea, was a crossroads and a filter for different cultures: Illyrians, Macedonians, the Greeks and the Romans have inhabited the territory over the centuries. The domus, dated between 2nd and 3rd century A.D., represents the connection of the “residential fashion” present at the East and West of the Adriatic Sea. The domus is known in the literature as the “Athena house” because of the statue discovered by the archaeologists inside of it, but also as the “D house” because it was unearthed in “Sector D” of the excavation. The first goal of the research is to analyse the architectural and decorative aspects of the house to understand the tastes of this site. The second goal is to understand the needs of the customer’s social and economic selfrepresentation and the skills of the craftsmen who worked there.

Keywords

• apollonia
• albania
• domus architecture
• mosaic
• roman period