to become the nucleus of famous monasteries. In this way, the villa system of late Antiquity was preserved into the Early Middle Ages. Benedict of Nursia established his influential monastery of Monte Cassino in the ruins of a villa at Subiaco that had belonged to Nero. Around 590, Saint Eligius was born in a highly placed Gallo-Roman family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near Limoges, in Aquitaine. The abbey at Stavelot was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near Liège and the abbey of Vézelay had a similar founding. As late as 698, Willibrord established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach, in Luxembourg near Trier, which Irmina of Oeren, daughter of Dagobert II, king of the Franks, presented to him. Villas in Roman Gaul As the empire expanded, villas spread into the Western provinces, including Gaul and Roman Britain. This was despite the fact that writers of the period could never quite decide on what was meant by villa, though it is clear from the treatise of Palladius that the villa had an agricultural and political role. In Roman Gaul the term villa was applied to many different buildings. The villas in Roman Gaul were also subject to regional differences, for example in northern and central Gaul colonnaded facades and pavilions were the fashion, whereas Southern Gaul were in peristyle. The villas style, locations, room numbers and proximity to a lake or ocean were manners of displaying the owners wealth. Villas were also centres of production, and Gallo-Roman villa appear to have been closely associated with vineries and wine production. The owners were probably a combination of local Gallic elites who became quickly romanised after the conquest, as well as Romans and Italians who wished to exploit rich local resources. The villas would have been the centre of complex relationships with the local area. Much work would have been undertaken by slave labour or by local coloni ("tenant farmers"). There would also have been a steward in addition to the inhabiting family. Attested Roman villas Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, Italy Villa Armira, near Ivaylovgrad, Bulgaria Fishbourne Roman Palace and Bignor Roman Villa in West Sussex, England Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent, England Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy Villa of the Quintilii, Rome, Italy Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, England Littlecote Roman Villa in Wiltshire, England Villa Rumana in Żejtun, Malta