House of the Gladiators in Episkopi, Cyprus

Most Popular PlacesRandom PlaceListsItinerariesAdd a PlaceDownload the App House of the Gladiators The Créac'h Lighthouse Colle Eletto Cableway Sydney’s Philanthropic Bronze Boar Cryptid Tourism: The Best Museums, Destinations & Festivals Across America 10 days ago A 3rd-century Roman villa in Kourion with one of the only mosaics in Cyprus to depict gladiators fighting by name. Kourion's ruins are full of mosaics: mythological scenes, geometric patterns, hunting parties. But tucked near the main courtyard of one villa is something the rest of the island almost never shows: gladiators, fighting, identified by name.

According to Cyprus's own Department of Antiquities, gladiatorial combat is a rare subject for mosaic art anywhere on the island, which is what gives this otherwise modest 3rd-century house its name. The floor is split into several panels. In one, two fighters face off under their own inscribed names in Greek, Margarites and Hellenikos, locked mid-duel.

In another, a heavily armed gladiator named Lytras advances on an opponent of whom only a helmeted head and a foot survive, while a third figure in civilian dress, a referee named Darios, holds a rod and tries to intervene. It is one of the few places in the Roman world where you can put faces, poses and even names to the men who fought in Cyprus's arenas, most of which have left no other trace. Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter.

Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. The House of the Gladiators sits close to the Agora, on the way toward the House of Achilles, easy to combine in the same walk through the site. Look for the referee figure (Darios) in the second panel, easy to miss next to the fighters.

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