Fish pass above the recovered mosaic – Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei.

A stunning underwater mosaic dating to the late Roman Empire has been discovered under the sea in the Bay of Naples.

Deposited there via seismic activity, it was found near the resort town of Baiae, where it would have lined the floors of a patio in a seaside villa owned by the Roman patrician class.

Mad Emperor Nero and Julius Caeser both had villas in this area, but over the years, a seismic phenomenon called bradyseism caused the luxury house and the land around it to sink into the sea.

The marble mosaic is made up of many tiles that the archaeologists at the Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei have identified as coming from “other floors and other walls”.

“In addition to the excavation and the underwater restoration, we also are working on land,” the park authorities wrote in a Facebook post. “The recovered tiles…were placed in large tubs of fresh water to eliminate the marine salt. We’re studying them tile by tile, to see about putting together a whole section.”

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Local mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione called the find “stupendous” in a post on Facebook.

The floor would have been laid toward the end of the Roman Empire, “shortly before bradyseism brought these wonders to the bottom of the sea,” he said.

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Campi Flegri is 125 miles of submerged land in the Bay of Naples stretching between the islands of Capri and Ischia, which forms the caldera of a volcano that last erupted in 1538. It’s a popular diving site, with many underwater ruins surrounded by sea life to explore.

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