Dai rostri delle Egadi : immagini di società alternative

Latin and Punic inscriptions found on naval rams recovered in the seas of Sicily and dating from the First Punic War give us a picture of two profoundly different civilitazions: on the one hand, the Carthaginian society that seems to base its aggregative force on mystical and irrational thinking and, as such, deresponsabilizing; on the other hand, the res publica civium romanorum, all focused on a properly human and rational ethic in which the secular and concrete values of sacrifice, commitment and personal ambition are the ones that excel. The epigraphic texts, combined with the narrative of the traditional sources, provide us with new and unexpected insights into how Rome’s transformation into the greatest naval power in the Mediterranean was made possible not only by an ef- fective political-administrative organisation, but above all by the extraordinary social and moral cohesion of its ruling class.

Keywords: Naval Rams; First Punic War; quaestores classici; sexviri; ultrotributa; secularism.