During the Roman Empire, mosaics were constructed in large rooms to make these rooms more admirable and exciting. There was an architect who wrote a book about mosaics and how they were designed, but that book did not explain how the tiles (a pattern of small squares) were harvested or how they were arranged. This man's name is Vitruvius. This is why there are so many mosaics after the Roman Empire. They can tell stories of normal life or mythology or be portraits, but the style of these mosaics varies from Rome to North Africa to Syria and beyond. The style also reflects what decade it is. Take a mosaic from Syria depicting a griffin, it would be different from a mosaic from Rome as you can see. This also proves my other point, which is that if they're not in the same decade, they won't be very similar, just like if they're not in the same region of the Roman Empire. Additionally, the main deciphering factors between Roman mosaics are the location, decade and/or culture of the city or region. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Guide to the region Mosaics have been found all over the Mediterranean peninsula, the ones I will feature are from Rome and Syria (photos are shown above) the one from Rome which has a different style to that of Syria due to the culture being different from the culture of Rome at the time, the culture revolved around your wealth whereas in Syria the mosaic came far beyond the peak and fall of the Roman Empire. The details of the mosaics are: that of Rome; Roman, from Rome, Italy 115-150 AD Syria; Roman, from Syria, 400-600 AD. Source Analysis The mosaic from Rome is a decorative mosaic which does not show any history, but there is the face of Medusa (a gorgon with snake hair) which is surrounded by a pattern of growing (in size) triangles to form a circular shape. This circle is surrounded by shapes that appear to wrap around something, which leaves room for larger triangles that have what looks like a bell. These bells face the center of the mosaic. The Syrian mosaic is also more decorative and in addition to representing a character from Roman mythology, a griffin but this mosaic does not have a decorative circle of crescent triangles around it, this one is on a simple piece of rock. Even though there is no backdrop, he is holding what appears to me to be a decorative wheel, the spokes of the wheel appear to have a sun like pattern, this could be symbolic, I don't know not.