Archaeologists and community volunteers have unearthed an extraordinary Roman mosaic floor in the remains of an otherwise modest Roman villa in Boxford, West Berkshire. The mosaic dates to the late 4th century, about 380 A.D., when incursions from Saxons, Picts and Irish were on the rise and the usurper Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus (r. 383–87 A.D.) was withdrawing troops stationed in Britain to reinforce his army in his home base of Gaul. Other villas in Britain have been found with handsome new mosaics laid around this time, however, so it seems some of the rural villas at least were prosperous and secure enough to invest in new art.
The central panel, which has not been fully uncovered yet, depicts scenes from the life of the her Bellerophon. In one he is borne aloft by the winged stallion Pegasus as he attacks the chimera. Another scene is believed to depict King Iobates offering Bellerophon his daughter Philonoe’s hand in marriage as a reward for his successful killing of the chimera. If the provisional identification can be confirmed when the rest of the mosaic is excavated, this will be the only known mosaic depiction of this particular scene from the Bellerophon mythos ever discovered from Roman Britain.
We can't come close to recreating what the Romans had in terms of art in building. The skill sets are lost to time.
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