Fish Mosaics in Late Republican Italy

Abstract

Mosaics containing detailed representations of different fish species were produced in large numbers in many parts of the Roman world. This chapter focuses on a handful of the earliest and most technically accomplished examples: the fish mosaics laid in Praeneste and Pompeii during the late second and early first centuries BC. These compositions exhibit striking iconographic similarities, inviting reflections on how they were designed and made. Having reconstructed a possible chaîne opératoire, the discussion then turns to how the mosaics were understood by contemporary viewers. It is argued that the compositions should be connected to the interest in fish and seafood that flourished in Italy during the Late Republican period, but that they may have drawn inspiration from earlier fashions in the Hellenistic East.