Nothing has so characterized the British School at Rome's approach, from its inception, as the commitment to landscape archaeology in one form or another. This paper discusses the origins of this commitment in the work of Thomas Ashby, but focuses on the major contribution of J.B. Ward-Perkins and the South Etruria Survey. This survey is set in the context both of intellectual developments in landscape archaeology, and the specific circumstances of the BSR, and its Director, after the Second World War. The article traces the impact of this work on subsequent landscape archaeology.

This paper discusses two scanty but complex groups of sources which seem to suggest that Thursday (dies Iovis, that is, Jupiter's Day in the Roman planetary seven-day week) was a day of rest in honour of Jupiter during the later imperial period: a number of ecclesiastical texts from late antique Gaul and Galicia, and three documentary papyri from Oxyrhynchus. The former imply that an unofficial observance of Jupiter's Day, as opposed to the Christian Lord's Day (Sunday), persisted among the populace despite Church opposition to such deviant behaviour. The latter hint at Thursday being a non-working day for official bureaux during the third and early fourth centuries, before the formalization of Sunday as an official day of rest by Constantine in 321. The paper concludes with reflections on the idea that during the later imperial period — as the use of the planetary week became increasingly popular — Thursday became the most important and sacred day in the Roman seven-day week by reason of being the day dedicated to the chief god of the Roman pantheon and, at the same time, the day associated with the astrologically favourable planet that had been named after Jupiter. If Thursday was ever a day of rest recurring on a hebdomadal basis during the later Roman Empire, it was presumably the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day that provided pagans with the notion of a weekly feast day.

1. An analysis of the meaning of the terms aedes, templum, delubrum, fanum, sacrarium, lucus: even if these terms are often interchangeable, the precise meaning of each can be established. 2. On the basis of the original meaning of templum (a ritually delimited space), it is proposed to apply this term to the platform with the aedes of Fortuna and of Mater Matuta, the ‘area sacra di S. Omobono’, and also to the ‘podium’ of the temple of the Capitoline triad. A typological comparison may also be made between these two templa, which were perhaps constructed at almost the same time. 3. The typology of the temple inside an area bounded by a portico may also be referred to the templum. The numerous variants of this typology are examined. 4. After a consideration of templum in its more specific sense of locus augurii aut auspicii causa definitus, the two auguracula—on the arx and the collis Latiaris—are examined in particular, and new identifications are proposed for them. 5. The term lucus raises the question of extra-urban cult sites. A scheme of classification is proposed: shrines of purely local importance, and sanctuaries repeating city cults in more distant sites (political motivation may be detected). For cult sites very close to the city the problem is more complex, involving in part the pomerium, evocatio, and the introduction of foreign cults.

The Via Latina forms the third portion of the description of the Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna, of which two parts have already appeared in these Papers (Via Collatina, Via Praenestina, and Via Labicana, i. 125 sqq.; Via Salaria, Via Nomentana, and Via Tiburtina, iii. 1 sqq.). The general remarks made in the introductions apply, in. the main, to the present portion also: and the preliminary matter may, therefore, be comparatively brief. It is fortunate that Professor Tomassetti has dealt fully with the mediaeval topography of the Via Latina in La Via Latina nel Medio Evo(Rome, 1886, reprinted from the Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria). This indispensable work contains also a very large amount of information as to the classical period, and it will be necessary to cite it constantly in these pages.

The Via Latina originated (cf. Papers, i. 128) during the gradual establishment of the Latin League in the form in which it appears as. completed about 370 B.C. The dates of the various military operations given by Livy as occurring in Algido must not, naturally, be pressed; we can only say generally that the pass of Algidus was a position of considerable importance in the warfare against the Aequi in 465–389 B.C., and that the road must have gone at least so far—possibly further, inasmuch as Signia is said to have been founded by Tarquinius Superbus, and a fresh colony sent there in 495 B.C. Nor can we fix the date of the transformation of the Via Latina into a permanent military highway.

The present survey, like its African predecessor, is an attempt to collect all the epigraphic evidence for costs that has survived from a single area of the Roman Empire; Sicily has been included here as well as Italy, but its contribution to the present survey is negligible (9 out of 875 costs). As before, the only chronological limit imposed is the omission of the few post-Diocletianic costs, on the grounds that price-levels and the nature of the currency had changed so much by the fourth century that costs from that period cannot meaningfully be correlated with those from the earlier Empire. But it has also been necessary to adopt two geographical restrictions, because of the profusion of cost evidence from Italy. Costs from the city of Rome (which survive in some numbers among the 40,000 inscriptions from the capital), together with costs mentioned in the wax tablets and graffiti of Pompeii and neighbouring Campanian cities have been omitted from the survey. A minor generic omission has also been made: the financial penalties for rifling tombs, which have already been recorded in some detail by Liebenam and are of doubtful economic significance. The total number of costs and numerate gifts included in the survey approaches 900 nevertheless.

Questo articolo discute delle condizioni di vita a Pompei negli ultimi anni prima della sua distruzione dall'eruzione del Vesuvio. Si tratta di un argomento di difficile interpretazione, per il quale molte diverse teorie esistono, molte delle quali sono basate su evidenza aneddotica e/o comparativa. In contrasto, l'ipotesi presentata in questo articolo si basa sullo studio di due case collegate nella Regione I e prende in considerazione tutta l'evidenza disponibile: vecchie fotografie di scavo, resti di manufatti del 79 d.C., le strutture attualmente ancora in piedi e i risultati degli scavi del 1995 e 1996. L'evidenza disponibile è, di fatto, contraddittoria: all'interno delle stesse case vi sono segni di commercio a grande scala e di restauro, ma anche di abbandono e distruzione. Viene suggerito che queste contraddizioni possono essere spiegate con un terremoto negli ultimi mesi, o perfino settimane, prima della distruzione finale di Pompei. Gli abitanti della città dovevano aver avuto difficoltà ad affrontare la distruzione ed il caos causate da questo terremoto. Risposte individuali ad i danni causati dal terremoto sarebbero state dipendenti da numerosi fattori, quali le possibilità economiche a sostenere le riparazioni, di conseguenza l'evidenza delle due case esaminate riflette solo una delle possibili risposte. Si conclude che un numero maggiore di studi di case individuali in tutti i loro aspetti è necessario prima che si possa pienamente capire l'impatto collettivo e le conseguenze dell'attività sismica per la vita della città negli anni precedenti al 79 d.C.

This paper looks at one particular group of non-élite tradesmen — barbers — to see what they can tell us about popular culture, primarily in the city of Rome in the early Empire. It begins by looking at the significance barbers had in wider cultural discourse. Grooming the hair sat under that difficult umbrella term, cultus, which related to all manner of adornment and refinement. A key question for the study of ancient popular culture is whether it is possible to see through this largely élite literary construction and discern something of the underlying realities of everyday life. The paper argues that some level of plausible reconstruction is possible, and outlines what characteristics can be discovered about non-élite life. But popular sociability in the barbershop raised concerns among élite writers, and the paper examines these as a way to understand the nature of the relationship between popular and élite cultures.

Lightning was not always regarded as just a meteorological phenomenon: it strongly inspired religious imagination and caused cult observations before science had its word, and even after that. Its history was treated in a masterly fashion by Usener (1905), and there is no need to return to it, especially after O. Gilbert's survey of the scientific lore (1907) and A. B. Cook's substantial and learned supplements and illustrations to Usener (1925). They neglected, however, the Etruscan libri fulgurales which, although depending on both religion and science, are not concerned with either in general but with divination. Here too the ground is well prepared, and three men deserve particular mention, K. O. Miiller, the pioneer, Thulin for his indispensable monograph, and W. Kroll for an observation about the historical background. Müller (1828) and Thulin (1906) discussed the evidence under four headings, consultation, procuration, repulsion, and conjuration, Miiller in a short and selective narrative, Thulin exhaustively; and many valuable observations and interpretations were made by both. Thulin bravely faced all difficulties and contradictions but rather presented the case than decided it: there is no thesis at the beginning and no conclusion at the end. In addition, he did not appreciate sufficiently the problem of origins. This problem did not exist in Müller's day and was not really acute when Thulin wrote. He knew and quoted many Eastern parallels by way of illustration but explained their existence by the Eastern origin of the Etruscans, which is a hypothesis and not an explanation and fails at any rate whenever the doctrine in question is of a recent date.

The trial excavations of which the pages that follow give a short, provisional account, were undertaken during July and August of 1966 on the invitation, and under the auspices of the Superintendent of Antiquities for Apulia, Professor Attilio Stazio. Their purpose was to establish the archaeological possibilities of the Italic site of Botromagno, near Gravina, with a view to the possible mounting of a fullscale archaeological exploration at some future date. The work in the field was under the joint direction of Mr. R. T. Brooks, who very kindly undertook the task at very short notice, and of Mr. Alastair Small, who is currently engaged in a study of the native Peucetian and Daunian cultures within the context of their relations with that of the cities of Magna Graecia. They were assisted by a number of friends and students of the British School, among them Lady Wheeler (who supervised the excavation of one site), Mrs. C. Millard, Misses Ann Stoves (draughtsman), Pamela Pratt, Jacqueline Joyes and Katherine Dunbabin and Messrs. G. Sansbury and R. J. Ling. The sites for excavation were selected on the basis of a surface survey made by Mr. Small and Mr. Campbell MacKnight of the Australian National University, Canberra, and of a trial magnetometer survey conducted by a team from Philadelphia University Museum, under the direction of Miss Elizabeth Ralph.