Agrigento, House of Mysteries

There is a house, in the so-called Hellenistic-Roman quarter of Agrigento, full of mysteries and surprises. and writing on the walls. Students and researchers from the University of Bologna directed by Professor Giuseppe Lepore are excavating it, thanks to an agreement with the Valle dei Templi Archaeological and Landscape Park in Agrigento. It extends over an area of ​​400 square meters and is divided into a ground floor and a first floor, with a height of seven meters. Its last inhabitant was certainly a very rich Roman and may also have been of great political importance.It has a characteristic that makes it truly precious: at a certain point this house collapsed in on itself, most likely demolished.

The first puzzle: Why demolish it? Why was it not built on its area in the following centuries? However, all over Roman Agrigentum was teeming with houses, thermal buildings, and theatres. It stretched a few meters in all its extraordinary features forums, among the largest in the Hellenistic-Roman world. Then the question arises: why? Perhaps because Professor Lepore supposes, The demolition must have been the result of a political-judicial decision similar to the one that led to the destruction of Cicero’s house in Rome when the great orator fell into disgrace.In these cases, the remains should be left visible as a reminder of shame and as a warning to any mimics.

The fall from grace of the eminent Latin enriches our archaeologists’ research, because the collapse and consequent ban on building in the area today allow us to explore the intact materials of the house during its development from the third century BC. C to the second d. C- Intact floors, decorated with ceramics or mosaics, walls painted in bright colors similar to those of the Pompeians, and above all amazing traces of daily life through some of the drawings on the walls of the first floor rooms, recently read thanks to researchers from the University of Macerata. The writing is in Latin, in some cases in neat handwriting, traced by awl on plaster of various colors at hand height.One of these drawings refers to the doveri ruling over the city, a sign that the house should belong to a prominent figure, while another refers to performances between gladiators and beastmen. The text is divided into six lines. We are aware of the reference to dating in connection with the Ides of May and the reference to pairs of athletes or gladiators; which suggests notes relating to versions of Woody, a sort of reminder of gladiatorial performances, a frequent practice on Pompeian frescoes.

There is enough there to open a new antiquity-chase, after the one that lasted five centuries and ended seven years ago when it was finally found on the south side of Egor: now it is the turn of the amphitheater. According to the graffiti, circus performances were held in Agrigentum. It would seem, if not evidence, then solid evidence confirming the existence of a circus monument. In Sicily, those in Syracuse, Catania, Termini and Imeries are known. In the park environments one winks at oneself complacently, but does not go away. It is known with certainty that there is still an entire city to be discovered under the olive and almond trees of the valley.Professor Lepore launches a hypothesis which may also be that at a certain point the theatre, recently discovered and not yet excavated if not minimally, was converted into an amphitheater by adding the missing arch. Another reason to resume excavations of the theater, which had been interrupted for a long time.