Ricerc@Sapienza

The period between the end of the third and the mid-second centuries BCE is a crucial moment for the history of economic and social life in Rome. In fact, for the first time, thanks to Plautus’ and Terence’s comedies, as well as Cato’s treatise De Agri Coltura, it is possible to reconstruct an articulated picture of the productive and commercial activities that took place inside the city and of the people (producers, traders, consumers) who took part in it. A framework within which even important members of the nobilitas played an important role, if it is true that in 218 BCE, after the promulgation of Claudius’ plebiscite, they could no longer own commercial ships – at least from the formal point of view. But what is the material evidence for this period? A few years ago this question would have hardly received an answer. The situation however has considerably changed over the last decade. In particular, recent research carried out in the city and its suburb examined important stratigraphies and contexts, which allow us to have first hand evidence of the material culture relating to those ‘roaring years’ and to reconstruct the transition between the Mid- and Late Republican periods.