The Mosaic Floor

Pannonia · AD 360 · the domina’s signet ring is gone · Difficulty: Chief 9 · 16×16

Pannonia, AD 360. In the villa above Lake Pelso the widowed domina Vela unveils the new floor of the Mosaic Hall: George, the Greek craftsman, has set numbered medallions into the floors, and when the gong sounds, everybody freezes. A little later Vela was found dead in the Caldarium, her signet ring gone. The medallions remember who was where.

Rules

Beside each numbered medallion there were exactly as many people as its number shows.
A medallion drawn on two squares is a single medallion: whoever was beside both of its squares counts only once.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the medallions, the pillars, the statues, the amphorae, the chests, the potted plants, the tables, the trees, the hedges, the candelabra, the oven, the fountain, the flower bed, the household shrine, the rain basin, the desk and the shelf) cannot be occupied; the benches, the beds, the chair, the dining couches and the two pools can. A corner of an area is a square of it that faces outwards (another area or the edge of the board) on a horizontal and on a vertical side.
A medallion drawn over two squares is one medallion: a person beside both of its squares counts once.
Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “exactly one row north of him was a man” = the person in the row directly above is a man, in any column.
“The cold pool was somewhere in his column” = on one of the squares of his column, in any area; “somewhere in his area” = on a square of the area he was in. “Right beside an area where nobody was” = a square directly left, right, above or below him belongs to another area, and nobody was in that area. “She and Eulalia were beside the same kind of thing” = beside objects of the same type – two medallions only when they show the same number; they need not be the same piece. “Somebody else was beside the same table as her” = another person was beside the very same table.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Aurel (her son): He was right beside an area where nobody was.
Benett (her son-in-law): The cold pool was somewhere in his column.
Calista (her daughter): She was in a corner of her area. She and Eulalia were beside the same kind of thing.
Dante (her brother): An amphora was somewhere in his column. He was not in a corner of his area.
Eulalia (a neighbour’s widow): Somebody else was beside the same table as her.
Flavian (the tax collector): A chest was somewhere in his area.
George (the Greek mosaicist): Exactly one row north of him was a man. He was on a bench, a bed, the chair or a dining couch, or in the hot pool or the cold pool.
Heloise (a priestess of Isis): She was in the Frigidarium.
Isaura (the housekeeper): A bench was somewhere in her column. She was on a bench, a bed, the chair or a dining couch, or in the hot pool or the cold pool.
Jason (the steward): He was in the Mosaic Hall.
Korina (the cook): There was a guest in her area.
Livia (the bath attendant): She was beside a pillar.
Milo (the doorkeeper): The fountain was somewhere in his row.
Narcissa (the maid): She was right beside an area where nobody was. She was not alone in her area.
Octavius (the scribe): He was alone in his area. He was in the first column.
Vela (the domina): The victim. She was found in the Caldarium – alone with the murderer.

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