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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.
我們不知道這樣的馬賽克圖案曾出現(xiàn)在一個怎樣的房間里。在豪華的羅馬別墅，鋪設(shè)著最美麗的馬賽克圖案的房間通常是餐廳。但這間屋子似乎并不是。屋里沒有地暖，而且朝北，就多塞特的氣候而言，在這里用餐未免太冷了。通常，房間的墻壁也能表現(xiàn)出它的用途，但這間屋子的墻壁早已消失。一種有趣的可能性是：鑒于基督肖像面朝東方，而圖案與墻壁間的空間剛好可以擺放一個圣壇，因此這里也許是早期的家庭教堂。
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.
人們逐漸開始對將基督像裝飾在地板上感到不安，最終羅馬人也對此顧慮重重。四二七年，羅馬帝王最終禁止用馬賽克制作基督圖像裝飾地板，并下令毀掉一切業(yè)已存在于地板上的基督像。但禁令頒布時，不列顛已脫離了羅馬的統(tǒng)治。亨頓圣瑪麗的這座別墅很可能遭到廢棄，因此地板完好地保存了下來。從整體而言，羅馬人的撤離給英國帶來了巨大的文化災(zāi)難，但在這件事上，我們應(yīng)感到慶幸。
