Lilybaeum. Aspetti della vita in una domus al tempo di Cicerone

In a II c. BC house at Marsala (via Sibilla), partially uncovered in the seventies of the last century, an atrium-like room with four central columns was brought to light. The other excavated rooms are paved with opus signinum and white/black mosaics, and some First Style wall painting fragments were recovered above the floors. Other Late Hellenistic houses at Marsala present the same characteristic tetrapyle courtyard. Some scholars consider these courtyards as atria, others as small perystiled courts. To introduce this theme, it’s briefly discussed the s.c. ‘Romanization’. In the particular context of Roman Republican Sicily, the cultural processes started under the Roman rule should not be considered as simple phenomena of ‘acculturation’: they were actively supported by the local elite and by the Italic businessmen resident in Lilybaeum, one of the most important harbours of the island and seat of quaestor.