This is a publication based on the author's PhD thesis at the University of Melbourne, and is a catalogue of some three hundred sites which had been decorated with floor mosaics. It has twenty-eight black-and-white figures. The period covered is from the fourth to the eighth century ad. The sites are grouped according to provinces of late antiquity – Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia, and Phoenicia. Each entry is meticulously researched, with a history of the site and its excavation and with all ornamental designs identified according to a schema set out at the beginning of the book, which conforms with the vocabulary first set out by Michael Avi-Yonah (†1974) in the 1930s and refined by Ruth and Asher Ovadiah in 1987.

The book as a whole is consequently one intended for reference use, and to this end the several indices are a welcome constituent. It is obvious that Madden has been meticulous and thorough in his documentation and bibliography. This is a welcome handbook for anyone wishing to discover the extent and nature of mosaic pavements in this period and region, though very few match in quality the extensive remains that have been found in Jordan, as at Madaba and other sites studied by the (late) Franciscan Fr Michele Piccirillo. The systematic descriptions of the abstract ornamental designs and of the figurative and animal representations indicate the main interest of the author, but many readers (like me) will find the most stimulating part of the enterprise to be the collection of inscriptions, some epitaphs but many donor dedications. These are happily (at least in the most part) given in Greek and with good translations. They range from three lines of unexpected sophisticated hexameters (cat. 15, Apollonia; Sozousa, dated to fifth/sixth century), through precise inscriptions with dates and the donors' name recorded, and then to basic prayers for salvation. The wealth of information given in these inscriptions could be usefully submitted to further and more extensive analysis. It is noticeable, for example, that the formula for a donor who wishes to remain anonymous (‘whose name is known to God’) is rare on pavements in this region, and the wish to record the names is the norm and prevalent habit. For anyone wishing to pursue the sociology of church building in the region, this is a very helpful and reliable collection of information.