La flotta ritrovata. Riconsiderando il giacimento di ancore romane di Santo Janni di Maratea

The Roman anchors found in the underwater archaeolog- ical site of Maratea – Santo Janni (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) are here recon- sidered in the light of some information, hitherto neglected, transmitted by ancient historiography, of topographic data, and inscriptions on the lead stocks. The formation of the deposit is related to the bellum Siculum, which from 38 to 36 BC. pitted the fleets of Octavian and Sextus Pompeius in the waters of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Strait of Messina, and to the events of the immediately preceding years, which are best illustrated in the fifth book of Appian’s Civil Wars. Reconsidered in this narrow time frame, names and acronyms inscribed on the anchor stocks could identify some of the protagonists of those tumultuous years. There would therefore be a happy congruence of historical narrative and archaeological data, which allows us to overcome critical issues of other interpretative hypotheses.