a horse for the harvest

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Outside the town of Fraga in Spain lie the ruins of the Roman Villa Fortunatus. This villa dates from the third century AD, but its beautiful series of animal mosaics is thought to have been installed a century later.  The series is an agricultural calendar, with an animal representing each month.  Though it's a farming calendar, few of the animals portrayed are domesticated.  This is one of the few: the horse of September with a vine, representing autumnal games and the grapes to be harvested.  At least that's what I've figured out from trying to translate this page on the mosaics, which is part of a fascinating look at the site overall.

dogs underfoot: mosaics

By Daderot (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

The elegant hunt scene above is a Roman work from Homs, Syria dating circa 450-462 AD.  It's all too easy to see the same dog mosaics over and over and over again when doing online research, so I was happy to find this website with photos of examples I'd never seen.  Some show in vivid detail how the hunt plays out, which makes me muse afresh on what earlier civilizations found acceptable.  I personally would find it hard to enjoy my pork-stuffed dormice over a mosaic of a hare getting its head snapped off, but I suppose I am a soft barbarian.
Here's the link to the dogs again.
Here's some Roman recipes, with a different prep for dormice.
The website has some modern cat mosaics you may enjoy.