Architettura e rivestimenti pavimentali delle ville del territorio di Forum Novum (Vescovio, RI). Un riesame alla luce delle più recenti ricerche.

A recent analysis of the emerging structures of the Roman villas in the Forum Novum territory (Ri- eti), together with a review of the related archival documentation, has shed new light on the articulation, construction phases, and decoration of the residential complexes in the Sabina Tiberina. With the exception of the villas of Vacone and Cottanello, most of the Roman villas in this area are known only from sporadic finds and have never been the subject of extensive excavations. However, the re-examination of some of the mosaic decoration, belonging to villas in the areas of Montebuono, Casperia and Montopoli (some of them substantially unpublished) allows us not only to reconstruct the functional purpose of some rooms, but also to propose new hypotheses concerning the construction phases and the chronology of the villas. The research further increases our knowledge of the settlement dynamics of this area, which, especially between the Late Republican period and the 2nd century AD, was one of the territories most closely linked to Rome from a socio-economic point of view.