You might think these women are at the beach… Not exactly. However, they are athletes competing in a sporting event as depicted by a mosaic floor at the UNESCO recognized Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily. The “Chamber of the Ten Maidens” does offer scholars of fashion a reference point for the history of the bikini, knowing that the Villa, really an estate that probably was the “headquarters” for a large latifundium (or agricultural plantation), was constructed in the early 4th century A.D., during the Roman Empire.