This article furthers our understanding of commercial fishing on the lower Tiber during the Republic and Principate, arguing for a robust industry in the center of Rome. Literary references to the lupus fish and a fishing site “between the bridges” direct attention to the area of the river around the Cloaca Maxima and Tiber Island. Situating intensive fishing there requires reconciliation with other commercial uses of the river, a common-pool resource shared by users with divergent and competing needs. Epigraphic evidence offers insight into professional associations and attendant relationships that were leveraged in favor of the interests of both fishermen and barge operators. I contend that two separate navigation zones existed, to the north and to the south of Tiber Island, and that transport barges venturing inland from Ostia did not navigate beyond Rome’s southern wharves. This system enabled fishing and barge traffic to coexist, protecting numerous interests and allowing for the unimpeded transportation of goods.

Macella, specialized market structures built in various urban centers in Roman Italy and the provinces between the Middle Republic and the Late Antique period, have been interpreted widely as urban symbols of elite prestige and conspicuous consumption. While it is true that elites often acted as benefactors of these buildings and written sources emphasize the sale of luxury foods, documentary and archaeological evidence suggest that bureaucratic incentives played a crucial role in their initial establishment. This article presents a new interpretation of the development of macella and argues, in contrast to traditional views, that these markets were not primarily designed as spaces of luxury consumption catering exclusively to elite customers. Rather, they were conceived as physical and permanent institutional control mechanisms over urban food trade in an increasingly complex and integrated Roman economy.

The lessons of ancient rhetoric teachers encompassed not only the art of effective content and delivery, but also the skill of utilizing gestures and facial expressions to maximize the emotional impact of speeches. In this study, we present the outcomes of an analysis examining the visibility of rhetorical hand gestures performed at the speaking platforms of the Forum Romanum during the Late Roman Republic and the reign of Augustus. We consider the visibility of gestures as a proxy for the capacity of the speaking platforms, enabling us to delve into the oratorical taskscape of the Forum Romanum and its transformations. The results not only relate to specific events but also illuminate general trends. Our analysis reveals that the changes in the built environment of the Forum between the Late Republican period (ca. 54 BCE) and Augustus’s era reduced the number of individuals able to perceive the speakers’ gestures. The same changes led to a greater spatial division between audiences at the various venues at the Forum, potentially explaining the shifts observed in the oratorical taskscape there. Our methodology has the potential to contribute to comprehensive analyses of public rituals and ceremonies regardless of their location in space or time.

Three early Imperial reliefs with architectural façades, found in Rome’s Via Lata and referred to as the Valle-Medici reliefs, include representations of the temples of Mars Ultor and the Magna Mater. A third relief showing a tetrastyle Ionic temple is identified here as the aedicula of Victoria Virgo, constructed between the temples of Victoria and the Magna Mater on the Palatine. All three reliefs belong to a monumental altar, similar in scale to the Ara Pacis, that included scenes of sacrifice in the Forum of Augustus and on the southwest Palatine. The figural pediment of the Ionic temple shows three scenes representing different moments in the Trojan War. The design was probably intended to complement the adjacent temple of Magna Mater, whose cult was closely connected to Rome’s Trojan ancestry.

The Portland Vase, housed in the British Museum, is the most important surviving example of “cameo glass,” datable to the early years of the Roman Empire. Until 1909, there was no doubt regarding the provenance of the vase. It was said to have come from the sarcophagus with scenes from the story of Achilles discovered in 1582 inside a large burial mound, the so-called Monte del Grano, which still stands at the fourth mile of the via Tusculana. However, in 1909, Henry Stuart Jones ruled out this provenance. The re-examination of the monument, which should be identified as the tomb of Alexander Severus, shows that the report of the provenance of the vase from the Monte del Grano sarcophagus is authentic. Similar conclusions can be reached from a re-examination of the vase itself, which suggests the two myths it depicts should be identified as the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and the afterlife of Achilles.