 In Coronation of the Winner , a mosaic in the floor of a Roman villa in Sicily that dates from the Diocletian period ( 286 – 305 AD ) , young women participate in weightlifting , discus throwing , and running ball games dressed in bikini @-@ like garments ( technically <unk> in modern lexicon ) . The mosaic , found in the Sicilian Villa Romana del Casale , features ten maidens who have been anachronistically dubbed the " Bikini Girls " . Other Roman archaeological finds depict the goddess Venus in a similar garment . In Pompeii , depictions of Venus wearing a bikini were discovered in the Casa della Venere , in the <unk> of the House of Julia Felix , and in an atrium garden of Via Dell <unk> . 
