Le 1 octobre 2015
Mis à jour le 26 février 2019
Dr Jonathan R.W. Prag, Associate Professor in Ancient History - Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford
This paper present the 11 bronze rostra so far recovered from the sea-bed at the site of the final battle of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage in 241 BC, in the area of the Aegates Islands off western Sicily. The rostra provide unique evidence for ship design for the period, and present challenges to the traditional narrative of the naval conflit. A number of the rostra are inscribed, and offer essential contributions to mid-Republican epigraphy and institutional history.