Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Prag, Jonathan R. W.

Titel

Bronze rostra from the Egadi Islands off NW Sicily: the Latin inscriptions

Ist Teil von

• Journal of Roman archaeology, 2014, Vol.27 (1), p.33-59

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Since 2004 11 bronze "rostra" have been found in the waters of NW Sicily. Nine of the 11 were identified by ongoing systematic underwater survey in the vicinity of the Egadi ("Aegates") Islands; the other two were recovered by chance in the nets of local fishermen. Full details of the survey and of the finds up to the end of the 2011 season were published in this journal in 2012. The "rostra" are the most spectacular pieces within a remarkable set of finds, including helmets, metallic objects, amphorae and other pottery. This material, as convincingly argued by Tusa and Royal, probably represents one part of the site of the final battle of the First Punic War, the Bale of the Aegates Islands, fought on March 10, 241 B.C., between Rome and Carthage. It is not the purpose of this paper to debate in detail that identification, nor to consider the archaeological implications of the finds, nor their significance ("which is considerable") for our attempts to understand ship design and construction in the Hellenistic period. Its purpose is to present a working edition and preliminary discussion of one element from those finds, namely the Latin inscriptions so far identified on seven of the rostra . An eighth ram ("Egadi 3") bearing a Punic inscription is the subject of separate study. [Abridged Publication Abstract]