[4] The nearby settlement of Philosophiana was probably the centre of production and commercial activities, as well as a rest stop along the Catania-Agrigento road, as mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini as a mansio or statio, for travellers looking for a shelter for the night and a change of horses.

[5] During the first two centuries of the Empire, Sicily had gone through an economic depression due to the production system of large estates based on slave labour: urban life had suffered a decline, the countryside was deserted and the rich owners did not reside there, as the lack of suitable villas would seem to indicate.

At the beginning of the 4th century rural Sicily entered a new period of prosperity with commercial settlements and agricultural villages that seem to reach the apex of their expansion and activity.

Firstly, the renewed importance of the provinces of proconsular Africa and Tripolitania for grain supplies to Italy, when Egyptian production, which had up to then satisfied the needs of Rome, was sent to Constantinople, the new imperial capital from 330.

Secondly, the more affluent classes, of equestrian and senatorial rank, began to abandon urban life by retreating to their possessions in the countryside, due to the growing tax burden and the expenses they had to pay for cities.

In the 5th and 6th centuries, the villa was fortified for defensive purposes by thickening the perimeter walls and closing of the arcades of the aqueduct to the baths.

Major excavations took place in the period 1950–60 led by Gino Vinicio Gentili, after which a protective cover was built over the mosaics.

In late antiquity the Romans partitioned most of the Sicilian hinterland into huge agricultural estates called latifundia.

The villa's commercial part, or pars rustica, of the latifundium is most likely centred on the nearby settlement of Philosophiana[8] 6 km away and cited in the Itinerarium Antonini.

The overall plan of the villa was dictated by several factors: older constructions on the site, the slight slope on which it was built, and the path of the sun and prevailing winds.

The whole complex is somewhat unusual, as it is organised along three major axes; the primary axis is the (slightly bent) line that passes from the atrium, tablinum, peristyle and the great basilica (coinciding with the path visitors would follow).

However, all the axes converge at the centre of the quadrangular peristyle and despite the asymmetries, the villa would therefore be the result of an organic and unitary project which, starting from the models of private buildings of the time (peristyle villa with apsidal hall and triclinium), introduced a series of variations to give originality and extraordinary monumentality to the entire complex.

Recent excavations have found a second bath complex close to the storerooms at the entrance dating to the late antique phase and showing rare wall mosaics belonging to a basin or a fountain.

Access to the villa was through a three-arched gateway, decorated with fountains and military paintings, and closely resembling a triumphal arch.

An exceptionally elaborate polychrome opus sectile floor consisting of marbles coming from all over the Mediterranean lies at the entrance and is the richest decoration in the villa; it also covered the walls.

In the north apse is his apotheosis crowned by Jupiter, while to the east are the Giants with serpentine limbs and in their death throes, having been struck by Hercules’ arrows.

In the south apse is the myth of Lycurgus who tried to kill the nymph Ambrosia, but was encircled by grapevines and attacked by a crowd of Maenads.

Several women athletes are shown competing in sports that include weight-lifting, discus throwing, running, and ball-games.