The lex Metilia fullonibus dicta and the production and trade of creta Sarda

Abstract

A new interpretation for the context of the lex Metilia (220) and the censorial involvement in the approval is offered. The regulation was approved at that time due to the recent conquest of Sardinia, from where one of the main detergents employed by fullers was imported. The censors’ intervention is connected to the administration of vectigalia: either some fullonicae in Rome were public property (or placed on public land), or, more probably, the Republic obtained revenue from quarries of fuller’s earth in Sardinia.