Photo courtesy of the Superintendency of Archaeology of Pompeii.
The owner of the Villa San Marco—like the owners of Stabiae’s other seaside villas—always erred on the side of excess, bringing as much ostentation as he could into his “trophy” home. The villa’s summer triclinium, or dining room, which opened directly on to a terrace facing Vesuvius and the sea, had walls painted with mythological figures and gleaming floors made of shaped marble tiles.