In 2004 11 rostra have been found around the Egadi islands. Before this event, only 4 warship ram in total were known from antiquity. Scholars say these are with all probability remains of the warships which fought in the Egadi battle between the Roman and Carthaginian fleets in 241 B.C. This make of these objects some of the most remarkable finds of our century. The finds are also interesting for the inscriptions in Latin (7) and Punic (1) found on them. A Quaestor approved those rams and the inscriptions tell us this fact. Since one of the names on the rostra can be identified, with a good degree of probability, to the period identified by the archaeological analysis, the rams carry 3 more names of questors from the third century B.C. thus increasing of ΒΌ the total number of questors known for this period, as Johnatan Prag has shown. The quaestors performed the standard duty of checking constructions, including that of the fleet prepared for the First Punic war. The formal action performed, the probatio corresponds as attested by other sources to contracting a work on behalf of the state.

Here are all the rams with Latin inscritptions, from the Epigraphic Database Roma:

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Room 1 - Inscriptions and history: Previous | Next

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

Room 0: Introduction

Room 2: Script and Alphabets

Room 3: Objects and the relation between image, text and context

Room 4: Emotions in inscriptions

Room 5: The stone cutter, methods and mistakes

Room 6: Digital technologies for epigraphy

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