Neapolis tardo-antica: la fondazione della basilica costantiniana e le trasformazioni del tessuto urbano

The insula episcopalis of Naples has long attracted the interest of scholars. They focused on the analysis of literary and archaeological sources in order to reconstruct the complex history of this area from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. According to several studies edited in the last decade, the Constantinian basilica would have been founded there on the ruins of imperial houses. From the fourth century onwards several ecclesiastical buildings were added in the area. The objective of this study is to identify, on contrary, the remains of the imperial age with monumental thermae, decorated with frescos and mosaics in the II and III centuries. It is proposed on the basis of an inscription – found there in the eighteenth century and never connected to the insula – and of published and also unpublished archaeological evidence. Moreover in the Late Antiquity the baths were reused and adapted to the new requirements of the episcopium.