ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the value of using a wide array of techniques, from X-ray to lexicography, thus combining novel approaches with more traditional forms of historical analysis. It focuses on the methodological perspectives in the contextualised study of the sounds of Roman antiquity. One of the principal contributions of the anthropology of the senses is to have underscored the extent to which sensory perceptions of social phenomena are anchored in the space and time that presided over their genesis. The distinction between a sound and its perception is a fundamental one: they are two subjects of study which are often confused even though they derive from different levels of analysis and even types of source. In order to enrich the knowledge of how the ancients perceived the sound of the tuba, the most pertinent method, is a systematic review of all the adjectives qualifying it in the written sources. The most common acoustic adjective is raucus, followed by clarus.
