BOLLI DI ANFORE RODIE DA TERRACINA

Abstract

Five Rhodian amphora stamps have been found in Terracina. They shed light on the history and
topography of the ancient city. They are evidence of a trade which grew in importance from the
180s BC onwards as the taste for Greek wine developed among Italic peoples. The amphoras they
belonged to were not imported directly from Rhodes but through emporia in the Aegean and in
Magna Graecia. From a topographical point of view, the stamps found in Terracina help us to better
understand the urban and commercial development of the lower city from the first quarter of the 2nd
century BC, a period in which the maritime and ports as well as the waterways which connected
them, already constituted an alternative to the road system, whose main axis was Via Appia.

Keywords: Rhodian amphora stamps; Terracina; ancient trade; landscape archaeology.