纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 044辛顿圣玛丽肖像(7)（在线收听）

What kind of room was this mosaic in? We just don't know. In grand Roman villas the room with the best mosaic was usually the dining room, but in this case that seems unlikely. There was no under-floor heating in this room and it faced north, so it would have been far too cold for Dorset dining. Normally the walls, as well as the floor, would indicate a room's purpose, but the walls of this room are long gone. There's one intriguing possibility: the figure of Christ faces east, and there would be just enough space for an altar between it and the wall. So this room might have been an early house church.

我们不知道这样的马赛克图案曾出现在一个怎样的房间里。在豪华的罗马别墅，铺设着最美丽的马赛克图案的房间通常是餐厅。但这间屋子似乎并不是。屋里没有地暖，而且朝北，就多塞特的气候而言，在这里用餐未免太冷了。通常，房间的墙壁也能表现出它的用途，但这间屋子的墙壁早已消失。一种有趣的可能性是：鉴于基督肖像面朝东方，而图案与墙壁间的空间刚好可以摆放一个圣坛，因此这里也许是早期的家庭教堂。

People have often worried about the idea of Christ being shown on a floor, and eventually this worried the Romans too. In 427 the emperor specifically banned the making of images of Christ on mosaic floors, and he ordered all existing ones to be removed. But by the date of this proclamation Britain had of course ceased to be a part of the Roman Empire. The villa at Hinton St Mary had probably long been abandoned, and so its floor remained untouched. On the whole the withdrawal of Roman power spelt cultural catastrophe, but in this instance we should be grateful, because it's that which allowed this astonishing survival.

人们逐渐开始对将基督像装饰在地板上感到不安，最终罗马人也对此顾虑重重。四二七年，罗马帝王最终禁止用马赛克制作基督图像装饰地板，并下令毁掉一切业已存在于地板上的基督像。但禁令颁布时，不列颠已脱离了罗马的统治。亨顿圣玛丽的这座别墅很可能遭到废弃，因此地板完好地保存了下来。从整体而言，罗马人的撤离给英国带来了巨大的文化灾难，但在这件事上，我们应感到庆幸。