In the Swabian period the city was crossed by a main axis where we can recognise a sort of ‘decumanus’, seen as a urban stretch of the Via Appia that roughly separates the ‘high’ land from the ‘low’ land; the city as a whole being divided into four quarters
Mar Piccolo was covered particularly by fish farms (found also in Mar Grande and near the bridge). Visible on the surface of the sea poles and beams were fixed to the seabed as marks of property limits. Owners of these farms were chiefly ecclesiastical bodies, with ancient rights. They decided whether to exploit them directly or to lease the concession for an income. Exploitation was regulated by formal and complex regulations that coordinated times, the quality of the fish and the shellfish that could be harvested and the technical type of fisheries that could be operated. By far the most important activity of the city was, in fact, fishing, run like a ‘marine agriculture’.