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mansiomansio Philosophiana Philoso- phianain the in thehinterland hinterland of Piazza of Armerina Kim Bowes, Mariaelena Ghisleni, Gioacchino Francesco La Torre and Emanuele Vaccaro Introduction The 4th-c. Villa del Casale outside Piazza Armerina is one of the best-known Roman vil- the prime exemplar of the Late Roman ‘great estate’, its luxurious living quarters signaling an alleged retreat of élites to the countryside, the growth of the so-called latifundia, and the evolution away from in-house slave labor towards tenancy.1 New excavations at the villa are beginning to yield a more precise account of its post-Roman chronology,2 but there 3 agrarian hinterland, and the local road-network that transported its produce to market is understood in only an impressionistic fashion.4 Assessments of the villa’s economic basis,

c.6 km to the southwest across the Nociara statio or mansio Philosophiana of the Antonine Itinerary (88.2) both on the basis of tiles bearing the FIL-SOF mark found at the site5 and from its cor- to . The name with its -iana ending has been read as an adjectival, presumably Philosophiana, modifying praedia (estate).6

1 Among a vast bibliography, fundamental are G. Gentili, La villa imperiale di Piazza Armerina ( 1951); B. Pace, Mosaici di Piazza Armerina (Rome 1955); A. Carandini, A. Ricci and M. De Vos, ( 1982); R. Wilson, Piazza Armerina La di Piazza Armerina ( 1988); G. Gentili, La villa romana di Piazza Armerina. Palazzo Erculio (Osimo 1999); and the comments and summary in C. Sfameni, Ville residenziali nell’Italia tardoantica (Bari 2006) 29-46. 2 P. Pensabene et al., “Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina: nuovi scavi,” FOLD&R 2009 no. 158; P. Pensabene and C. Sfameni (edd.), Iblatasah Placea Piazza. L’insediamento medievale sulla Villa del Casale. Nuovi e vecchi scavi (Piazza Armerina 2006); P. Pensabene (ed.), Piazza Armerina. Villa del Casale e la tra tardoantico e Medioevo Kokalos 43-44 (1997-98) 301-3. 3 L. Villari, L’Ibla sicana e il sito della villa imperiale di Piazza Armerina (Rome 1995); R. Panvini and La Sicilia centro-meridionale tra il II ed il VI sec. d.C. del Casale e il territorio di Piazza Armerina tra tardoantico e Medioevo. Le nuove ricerche del 2004-2009,” in id. 2010 (supra n.2) 9-10; L. Guzzardi, “Montagna di Marzo: nuovi dati sulla sto- ria e sulla tipologia del sito,” Kokalos 45 (2003) 535-51. 4 G. Uggeri, La viabilità della Sicilia in età romana (Galatina 2004), which is largely based on map

5 First BdA 1956, 158- 61. No photographs were published; although the early excavation records were stored in the museum, 6 G. Manganaro, “La Sicilia da Sesto Pompeo a Diocleziano,” ANRW 11.1 (1988) 33; P. Arnaud, © Journal of Roman Archaeology 24 (2011)