Nella storiografia tradizionale, i mercanti di Messina appariscono come l'unico caso di cittadini dell'Italia meridonale nel tardo medioevo attivi sulla rete commerciale del Mediterraneo. L'articolo tenta di identificare un gruppo di Messinesi del tardo Duecento e dei primi anni del Trecento chi possedevano investimenti nel commercio levantino; il punto di partenza è la collezione di contratti commerciali lasciati dal notaio genovese Lamberto di Sambuceto, ed alcuni contratti messinesi e documenti pubblici del governo aragonese. Infatti esisteva uno stretto nesso fra commercianti e risorse Messinesi: il vino della Sicilia orientale era venduto ad Acri dai messinesi; la presenza di Genovesi, Pisani ed altri, basati in Messina ed attivi nel commercio di Cipro e dell' Armenia, è documentata. I mercanti messinesi, sebbene sotto una tutela settentrionale, avevano un ruolo permanente nel commercio del Mediterraneo nel tardo medioevo, un ruolo che riflette la nuova importanza della città come punto centrale nella rete mediterranea dopo la conquista normanna.

Nei suoi Annales Romanorum (1615) Stefano Pighius pubblicò sotto l'anno 168 av.Chr. ciò che credeva di essere un frammento di una tavoletta antica promulgando gli acta urbana di sette giorni di quell' anno — infatti il 28 marzo al 3 aprile, epoca della partenza d' Emilio Paolo in Grecia per combattere il re Perseo. Il Pighius pretese che questo frammento fosse trovato tra i papieri di Lodovico Vivès, dotto spagnuolo chi al inizio del cinquecento esseva stato il protetto del re Enrico VIII d'Inghilterra e della regina Caterina d'Aragon. Gli Acta, accolti prima con dubbi, vengono ripubblicati da Tomasso Reinesius nel 1682 e proprio direttamente loro viene aggiunto dal Dodwell e i suoi amici un supplemento di altri acta, una miscellanea disordinata tratta dalla tarda repubblica. L'autore rintraccia la storia della trasmissione degli Acta e riesamina la plausibilità del materiale del Pighius e l'evidenza per una falsificazione dal Vivès.

In 13 B.C. Augustus laid down that the minimum length of army service should be sixteen years. During the Late Republic it appears that at times only six years had been required of recruits, but it may be suspected that in the Civil Wars service had been lengthening—one can note already the gap of sixteen years between the great settlements of 30 and 14 B.C.

In A.D. 5, facing a shortage of recruits and an unwillingness of soldiers to remain in service beyond the statutory period, Augustus introduced a new package deal by which the praemia militiae were stepped up, perhaps considerably, but the minimum period of service extended to twenty years. Such are the figures given by Dio, but it is clear from the epigraphic and literary evidence—the latter provided in the main by Tacitus's account of the A.D. 14 mutinies—that Augustus sometimes succeeded in holding on to his soldiers beyond these limits, by retaining them as reservists sub vexillo, under a special standard, for a period of four years after 13 B.C., and for five years after A.D. 5, making totals of twenty and twenty-five years. Naturally this extension would not be stressed, and it should not be surprising if there is no mention in Dio of service sub vexillo.

Gli scavi e la ricognizione della collina conosciuta come Vacchereccia hanno individuato parte dell'insediamento alto-medievale descritto come Baccaricia nel Chronicon Volturnense. Questi scavi hanno messo in luce molte testimonianze di occupazione sul medio versante della collina, testimonianze che coprono un arco di tempo compreso tra il periodo tardo-Romano e la fine del XII o XIII secolo. Sono stati anche studiati i resti di un villaggio del XIII–XV secolo sulla sommitá della collina, sopra al sito piú antico. Questi scavi gettano una nuova luce sulla storia dell'insediamento rurale nell'Italia centrale e mettono in discussione il punto di vista tradizionale sulla agricoltura dell'Alto Medio Evo nelle proprietá dei grandi monasteri. I risultati pubblicati qui sono frutto della collaborazione tra l'Universitá di Sheffield e la Soprintendenza Archeologica del Molise, una collaborazione che avrá un ulteriore collaudo in altri siti medievali abbandonati nel'Alta Valle del Volturno, nel contesto del Progetto San Vincenzo.

A short note published in 1925 in the Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana (vol. xlv, p. 153) briefly recorded the discovery of prehistoric material during quarrying for gypsum near Ariano five years previously. A footnote to an article by Rellini three years later was a little more explicit. The finds, from collapsed caves at the foot of a hill, were largely of the Apennine Culture of the Bronze Age with some painted Neolithic ware. The same statement is repeated almost word for word in Rellini's La Più Antica Ceramica Dipinta in Italia, p. 75. Then in 1950, in an article on the prehistoric collections in the Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Buchner wrote a short paragraph which attracted far less attention than it deserved. It recorded that in material sent in from the quarry between 1920 and 1938 impressed and scratched neolithic pottery was also present.

It is one of the paradoxes of the study of Roman architecture that what, in terms of the written record, is probably the most thoroughly and reliably documented phase of its whole development, the Augustan age, is from the point of view of the architectural historian still one of the most obscure and controversial. That it was a vital turning point in the history of Roman architecture one cannot doubt; and yet the number of monuments in the capital that can be accepted without hesitation and without reservation as representative of the age is very limited. No doubt the full and critical publication of the excavations of the last few decades will increase the number and provide a firm basis for further studies. But in the meantime we are still dependent—all too dependent—upon those few buildings which are securely and unequivocally Augustan, and which may be used therefore as a safe standard of comparison for some at any rate of the architectural practices current in Augustan Rome.

Lo studio dello stile e dell'iconografia degli affreschi parietali del vestibolo delle Catacombe di San Valentino sulla Via Flaminia suggerisce che essi risalgano all'inizio dell'VIII secolo d.C. e che siano associati al patronato di Giovanni VII (705–707). Essi vengono confrontati ai mosaici di una cappella nella Vecchia San Pietro, ed alle decorazioni parietali di S. Maria Antiqua, ambedue riconducibili a questo stesso Pontefice.

This paper is the result of testing the following proposition, formed during a study of the City Wall of Rome. It was required to prove that the Praetorian Camp had remained unchanged after Seianus built it in A.D. 23 until Aurelian made an addition to its walls when he attached them to his City Wall in A.D. 271. Thus might have been gained with ease an undoubted example of Aurelianic brick-facing for use in identifying work of the same period in the much altered City Wall. But the problem proved complex. Eventually Aurelian's work appeared in an unexpected guise, but not before three previous sets of alterations in the defences of the fortress had been recognised. And these seem worth description, not only as aids to under standing Aurelian's work, nor even because they also link us with Roman accounts of the Praetorians, but because they give elevational views of a Roman fortress such as have rarely survived in full detail to our own times.

Our expedition of 1909 to Sardinia lasted throughout the month of October. Mr. F. G. Newton was present all the time, and after our work upon the Megalithic Monuments was at an end, he even found time to study and draw many of the interesting Pisan churches in the island.

The Archaeological Authorities at Cagliari followed our work with their usual cordial interest. Important archaeological investigations in another part of the island prevented Professor Taramelli from saluting us at Macomer as he had wished; while Cavaliere Filippo Nissardi was kept at Cagliari by official duties, which did not leave him time to meet us at Nuoro or elsewhere on our way.

Our hunt for dolmens, in which as will be seen we had considerable fortune, would have been all the keener for the company of veterans like these.

The first part of the paper reviews the evidence for prehistoric, Samnite and Roman settlement and land-use in the Tappino valley region, and discusses in detail two sites at Cercemaggiore-Gildone: a Samnite farmstead abandoned probably in the second century BC, and a nearby cemetery of the fifth to fourth centuries BC, which may be associated with the first phase of occupation at the farmstead.

The demography, dental pathology, nutritional state and work-induced lesions of the cemetery population (23 individuals) are analysed in the second part of the paper. High frequencies of oral lesions, especially in females, can be related to a poor, high-carbohydrate diet. Diseases of the joints and bone fractures indicate heavy physical activities, particularly in men.

The evidence suggests that agriculture was the most important economic activity of this population. The sample is compared with others from central-southern Italy and a number of close correspondences emerge. It would appear that socio-economic changes, including differences in territorial organisation and subsistence activities, brought about a worsening of the general health of the human population.