OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS

The aim of the Oxford Classical Monographs series (which replaces the
Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs) is to publish outstanding
revised theses on Greek and Latin literature, ancient history, and ancient
philosophy examined by the faculty board of Literae Humaniores.
From Barbarians to New Men
♦
Greek, Roman, and Modern Perceptions of
Peoples of the Central Apennines

EMMA DENCH

CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD

 This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification
in order to ensure its continuing availability

OXFORD
U N I V B R S I T Y PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarsliip,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Emma Denen 1995
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
Reprinted 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
ISBN 0-19-815021-0

Jacket illustration: Roman Republic silver denarius.

Photograph: British Museum.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS book began life as an Oxford D.Phil, thesis, written at Wadham
College and St Hugh's College, and at the British School at Rome. It
was finished at Birkbeck College, University of London. I would like
to thank the Warden of Wadham, the Principal of St Hugh's, the
Fellows of both colleges, and, above all, the Craven Committee,
and the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters, and the Director
and Assistant Director of the British School at Rome for the invalu­
able assistance I received for my research in Italy as a Craven Fellow
and a Rome Scholar.
I am indebted most of all to the three successive supervisors who
advised, encouraged, and bore with me while I wrote my thesis:
Fergus Millar (whose perceptive comments have also been very
helpful in turning the thesis into a book), Barbara Levick, and
Nicholas Purcell. My examiners, Oswyn Murray and John North,
gave me excellent guidance and inspiration for the book. Chunks
have also been read by Michael Crawford, Peter Derow, and Dominic
Rathbone: from their insight, expertise, and encouragement I have
benefited enormously; for their generosity I am most grateful.
Many others have answered queries, asked questions, given me
hospitality, and helped me in all sorts of ways. I should like to thank
above all John Lloyd, John Penney, James Davidson, Emmanuele
Curti, Tim Cornell, Ray Laurence, Jean-Jacques Aubert, Jairus
Banaji, Henrik Mouritsen, Jonathan Bowker, Emanuele Laudanna,
Amanda Claridge, John Patterson, Valerie Higgins, Valerie Scott,
the people of Agnone (particularly Remo de Ciocchis and Mario
Longhi), and the people of Colli a Volturno (particularly Michele
Raddi). Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my
parents, for their encouragement, and my colleagues in the History
Department at Birkbeck, for their warmth and support.
 CONTENTS

Map: The Peoples of Central Italy by the Early Third

Century BC ix
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
PART I: GREEK AND ROMAN CONTEXTS

1 Greek Contexts 29
2 Roman Contexts 67

PART II: LOCAL SOCIETY

3 Mountain Society 111

4 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-charmers:
Religion in the Central Apennines 154
5 Questions of Identity amongst the Peoples of the
Central Apennines 175
Epilogue 218
Appendix A: Occurrences of the Name Safin- 222
Appendix B: Uses of the Ethnic Sabellus in Latin
and Greek 223
Bibliography 227
Index
 Map ix

MAP. The Peoples of Central Italy by the Early Third Century BC (adapted
from E. T. Salmon, Saminium and the Samnites (Cambridge, 1967), 25).
 ABBREVIATIONS
AION(Arch) Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli,
annali del seminario di studi nel mondo
classico, sezione di archeologia e storia
antica
Alton, Wormell, Courtney E. Alton, D. Wormell, and E. Courtney
(eds.), P- Ovidi Nasonis Fastorum Libri
sex (Leipzig, 1988)
AION(Ling) Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli,
annali del seminario di studi nel mondo
classico, sezione linguistica
Astbury R. Astbury (ed.), M. Terentii Varronis
Saturarum Menippearum Fragmenta
(Leipzig, 1985)
Athen. Athenaeum
BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical
Studies, London
BMC Italy A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the
British Museum, Italy (London, 1873)
Bourgeoisies (1983) Les Bourgeoisies municipales italiennes
(Centre Jean Bérard, Institut français de
Naples, 1983)
CAH(2) Cambridge Ancient History 2nd edition
Civiltà arcaica dei Sabini nella Valle del
CASVT (1977) Tevere (3 vols.; Rome)
M. Chassignet (ed.), Cato Les Origines
Chass. (Fragments) (Paris, 1986)
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin,
CIL 1893- )
CP Classical Philology
CQ Classical Quarterly
DDA Dialoghi di archeologia
FGH F. Jacoby (ed.), Die Fragmente der griech-
ischen Historiker (Berlin, 1923-58)
FIRA S. Riccobono (ed.), Fontes Iuris Romani
Antejustiniani (Florence, 1941)
Frazer J. G. Frazer (ed.), The Fasti of Ovid
Edited with a Translation and Commen-
tary (5 vols.; London, 1929)
 Abbreviations xi

HIM P. Zanker (ed.) Hellenismus in Mittalita-

lian (Göttingen, 1976)
Hist, Historic
IG Inscriptiones Graecae (Berlin, 1873- )
ILLRP A. Degrassi (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae
Liberae Rei Publicae (Florence, 1957-
63)
ILS H. Dessau (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae
Selectae (Berlin, 1892-1916)
J H. D. Jocelyn (ed.), The Tragedies of
Ennius: The Fragments Edited with an
Introduction and Commentary (Cam­
bridge, 1967)
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
K C. G. Kühn (ed.), Claudii Galeni Opera
Omnia (20 vols.; 1st edn. 1821-33, Leip­
zig; repr. Hildesheim, 1964-5)
W. M. Lindsay (ed.), Sexti Pompei Festi
de Verborum Significatu quae Supersunt
cum Pauli Epitome (Leipzig, 1913)
Lindsay W. M. Lindsay (ed.), T Macci Plauti
Comoediae (Oxford, 1903), i
M F. Marx, Lucilius (Leipzig, 1904)
MEFRA École française de Rome: mélanges:
antiquité
Morel W. Morel (ed.), Poetae Latini, Frag-
menta poetarum Latinorum epicorum et
lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium,
post W. Morel, novis curis adhibitisy éd.
C. Buechner (Leipzig, 1982)
NC The Numismatic Chronicle
ORF(4) E. Malcovati (ed.), Oratorum Roma-
norum Fragmenta, 4th edn. (Turin, 1976)
H. Peter (ed.), Historicum Romanorum
Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1883)
PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome
PCIA Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica
PCPS Proceedings of the Cambridge Philologi-
cal Society
xii Abbreviations
PDP La parola del passato
Po. P. Poccetti, Nuovi documenti italici
(Pisa, 1979)
PSCS (1985) Preistoria, storia e civiltà dei Sabini
(Rieti)
RAL Rendiconti della Classe di Scienze mor-
ali, storiche e filologiche deW Accademia
dei Lincei (Rome)
RDGE R. Sherk (ed.), Roman Documents from
the Greek East (Baltimore, 1969)
RE A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll,
Real Encyclopädie der classischen Alter-
tumwissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1894- )
REA Revue des études anciennes
Rh, M. f. Philol. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie
Riv. stör, ital. Rivista storica italiana
Romanisation (1991) La Romanisation du Samnium aux IIe et
Ier siècles av, J, -C, (Bibliothèque de
l'Institut français de Naples; deuxième
série, vol. ix, Naples)
Saepinum (1982) M. Matteini Chiari (ed.), Saepinum:
museo documentario deVAltilia (Cam­
pobasso)
Sannio (1980) Sannio: Pentrì e Frentani dal VI al I sec
a. C, (Rome) Catalogue of Exhibition
Sannio (1984) Sannio: Pentri e Frentani dal VI al I sec
a, C, (Campobasso) Conference Proceed­
ings
Samnium (1991) Samnium: archeologia del Molise
(Rome)
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
5/G(3) W. Dittenberger (ed.), Sylloge Inscriptio-
num Graecarum, 3rd edn. (Leipzig,
1915-24)
Sk. O. Skutsch, The Annals of Q, Ennius
edited with introduction and commen-
tary (Oxford, 1985)
St, Etr, Studi Etruschi
St, Mise Studi Miscellanei, Seminario di archeo-
 Abbreviations xiii
logia e storia dell'arte greca e romana
dell'Università di Roma
Strzelecki W. Strzelecki (ed.), Cn. Naevii Belli
Punici carminis quae supersunt (Leip­
zig, 1964)
TCPS Transactions of the Cambridge Philolo-
gical Society
Ve. E. Vetter, Handbuch der italischen Dia-
lekte (Heidelberg, 1953)
Wehrli(2) F. Wehrli (ed.), Die Schule des Aristo-
teles: Texte und Kommentar, 2nd edn.,
Basle, 1969)
YCS Yale Classical Studies
 ♦
Introduction

The enduring fascination of images of peoples of the Central Apen­

nines may be seen in Salmon's monograph of 1967, Samnium and the
Samnites, a work that evokes the character of the Samnites by drawing
heavily on images from Horace and Livy. It was not my intention to
rewrite Salmon's book: in particular, I have not set out here any
comprehensive description of aspects of life in the Central Apen­
nines, drawn together from material and literary evidence. This is
partly because the sheer quantity of material evidence available today
would render such a task even more ambitious than it was in 1967.
More importantly, however, this is because my focus is on images of
peoples of the Central Apennines, shifting according to the perspec­
tive of the observer.
Of course there were in antiquity no 'peoples of the Central
Apennines', in the sense that no peoples called themselves, or were
referred to, by this name. As the changing nature of images, defini­
tions, and self-definitions is one of the major themes of this book, it is
important to use as a collective name a neutral, geographically
descriptive title deliberately free of ethnic overtones, unlike the
widely used 'Sabellic', or 'Sabellian', modern terms which are based
very precariously on the comparatively late Latin Sabellus, a collec­
tive for Sabines and Samnites. A map is given of conventionally
accepted 'territories' of peoples of the Central Apennines by the
early third century BC, but it is not without problems. The modern
consensus is that, by the early third century, self-definition along the
lines of the various peoples named in Roman sources for the conquest
of Italy is stronger than before, but such a map obviously gives a false
impression of a fixed and static situation, and cannot possibly repre­
sent the periodic heightening of a sense of connection or difference^
let alone changes in self-definition.
The 'peoples of the Central Apennines' must also remain a loose
definition, as the assertion of connections between various individual
peoples varied according to different circumstances, and at other
2 Introduction
times self-definition of a people might involve the assertion of con­
nections with another people outside this geographical area. For
example, the Sacred Spring myths, which give an account of the
origins of, and connections between, various peoples of the Central
Apennines, seem to emphasize various connections between Samnites,
Sabines, and Picentes.1 In contrast, a tradition recorded by Strabo
asserts, through reference to common Spartan heritage, connections
between the Tarentines and the Samnites.2 On the other hand, certainly
in Roman eyes in the later Republic, the connection between Romans
and Sabines was of considerable importance.3 The closest association
between geographical proximity and 'group characteristics' is found in
writers of the Imperial period. Thus Pliny the Elder, for example,
describes as the 'gentes . . . fortissimae Italiae' ('bravest peoples of
Italy') the whole of Augustus' Fourth Region: the Frentani, Marrucini,
Paeligni, Marsi, Aequi, Vestini, Samnites, and Sabines.4
In stressing the shifting nature of groups, as well as the different
and complex social and historical factors behind these groups, I seek
to challenge the assertion, or, more commonly, the assumption, that
historical events such as the Social War can be explained by reference
to 'origins': common cultural, or even racial, traits.5 These frame­
works, which are reminiscent of nineteenth-century racial theory6 or
Romantic understanding of the origins and nature of nations7 do not
fit the evidence well. In consequence, while theories of early cultural
unity are examined in the last chapter, the main focus of this book is
not on evidence for early migrations or cultural unities, but the
1
Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C; 5. 4. 2 = 240 C; cf. Pliny NH 3. 110.
2 3
e.g. Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C. Cf. Ch. 2, s. 8 below.
4
Pliny NH 3. 106.
5
e.g. E. T. Salmon, Samnium and the Samnites (Cambridge, 1967). 344.
6
Cf. M. Banton, Racial Theories (Cambridge, 1987), esp. ch. 2 and 3.
7
Cf. e.g. E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983), 48-9, for criticism of
explanation of nations in terms of appeal to a remote common past; P. Alter, Nation-
alism (London, 1989), 60 ff., for discussion of the ways in which past political and
imperial orders are appealed to as dubious precedents for the existence of present
nations; for individual studies of the creation of a common 'original* unifying culture
and past to suit the needs of the present, see e.g. H. Trevor-Roper, 'The Invention of
Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland*, in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.).
The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983), 15 ff.; P. Morgan, 'From a Death to a
View: The Hunt for a Welsh Past in the Romantic Period*, in the same volume, 43 ff.
For early 19th cent, insistence that modern Greece was the direct descendant of classical
Hellenism, see R. Just, 'Triumph of the Ethnos*, in E. Tonkin et al (eds.), History and
Ethnicity (London, 1989).
 Introduction 3
contexts for the assertion of various connections, and the terms in
which these connections were expressed.
As this book is about images, it is obviously not a detailed area
survey, although it is heavily indebted to existing studies of this kind.
It is an attempt to use existing archaeological evidence, as well as
accounts written in Greek and Latin, in order to address some of the
problems involved in thinking about 'regional' history, and above all
the history of peoples who had no literature of their own, or whose
literature has not survived. These problems include dealing with
different kinds of evidence from different times, relating to different
cultures and suggesting different points of view. The issues involved
in studying images of peoples of the Central Apennines are suggestive
particularly of the intensely culturally interactive conditions of central
and southern Italy in antiquity.
Precisely because of the shifting nature of images of peoples of the
Central Apennines, I have chosen to concentrate on a period when
evidence to assist 'reading' them is comparatively plentiful, and
relations between cultures are particularly dynamic. The main focus
of this study is Hellenistic Italy from the fourth century BC to the
immediate aftermath of the Social War in the early first century BC.
This is a period of both intense social, political, and economic change,
and intense cultural interaction, which may be illustrated by two very
different examples. One is to be found in the comparatively abundant
and well-known material record of Samnium in particular, reflecting
and asserting membership of the Hellenistic cultural koiné, but
expressive also of concepts of social organization quite different
from the urban ideal of the Hellenistic world in general. Another of
the most interesting aspects of this period is the evidence for Roman
self-definition in terms of her relationship with the other peoples of
Italy. Through her domination of Italy, and the associated assertion of
her own centrality within Italy, Rome came to have a particularly
close relationship with peoples of the Central Apennines, as with
other Italian peoples, defined, revealed, and reflected in her literature
and ideology. Roman self-definition draws on ideological languages
of power and relationships between peoples associated with fifth-
century Athens or fourth-century southern Italy, but the process of
selection, the manner of redeployment of images, and the adaptation
of images all suggest shifting culturally specific priorities within
different social and political contexts.
4 Introduction
1. DISCOVERING THE CENTRAL APENNINES

This present study is much indebted to the work done by archaeolo­

gists in recent years in the modern Italian regions of Abruzzo and
Molise. The story of the development of interest in the Central
Apennines in the modern period is at times in itself a highly sugges­
tive example of the way in which images are created and propagated.
Interest in the material culture of non-Roman peoples has a long
history, and has not infrequently been connected with contemporary
quests for non-Roman Italian identity: Etruscan material culture, for
example, was a particular focus of interest in the eighteenth century,
as the quality and antiquity of artefacts gratified local feelings of
patriotism. Study of the ancient material culture of the Central
Apennines in particular, apart from sporadic interest in localizing
sites known from ancient authors, was a comparatively late develop­
ment. While De Nino, a local enthusiast from Pratola Peligna near
Sulmona, tirelessly recorded ancient material evidence from the
Central Apennines in the later nineteenth century, systematic archae­
ological research in the Central Apennines really belongs to the
period after the Second World War.8
An important turning-point in the study of the Central Apennines
was undoubtedly Salmon's publication in 1967 of Samnium and the

8
e.g. A. Momigliano, * Ancient History and the Antiquarian', Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, 13 (1950), 285 ff., for 18th-cent. interest in pre-Roman
peoples, and in Etruscans In particular, reflecting the contemporary need in Italy to
find and emphasize non-Roman identities. Regarding the Abruzzi in particular, see F.
Van Wonterghem, Superaequum, Corfiniunu Sulmo: Forma Italiae, iv/1 (Florence,
1984), 13 ff., for humanist interest in localising sites in the Central Apennines; A. La
Regina, in trod, to V. Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche antiche d'Abruzzo e di Molise;
(Rome, 1978), i for the large-scale archaeological neglect of this area until compara­
tively recently.
A. De Nino, Abruzzi: usi e costumi abruzzesi (Florence, 1883), iii suggested that the
collection of evidence of ancient local material culture, and of contemporary popular
culture, iii his opinion neglected topics of study, were together vitally important for a
'true history' of the Italian people which would be of profound political importance in
the future. He does not, however, explain in any detail the results that would be
expected from a study such as his: e.g. De Nino, Abruzzi (1879), vol. i pp. viii-ix: *È
solo co* nuovi materiali raccolti e col dare maggiore importanza ai materiali antichi, già
scartati appunto perchè non si referivano a mutamenti politici, potrà comporsi una storia
vera, la vera storia del popolo italiano che conduca a fare giusti calcoli rispetto al
futuro.' (*It is only by the collecting together of new evidence, and by the accordance of
greater importance to ancient evidence, once cast aside because it was not relevant to
political changes, that it will be possible to write a true history, the true history of the
Italian people, which will lead to making the right decisions about the future.')
 Introduction 5
Samnites. Salmon brought together literary, epigraphic and archae­
ological material in a work which remains very important and
influential today for the study of the Central Apennines. Even in
1968, however, Martin Frederiksen expressed doubts about Salmon's
interpretation of the material available to him. Two major criticisms
stand out. One is his overemphasis on the conflict between Rome and
the Samnites: Salmon is inclined to see the destructive force of Rome
at hand everywhere, hell-bent on the elimination of these admirable
simple peasants, and is reluctant to propose alternative explanations
for social and cultural change. 9 The other problem with the work is
that Greek influence on Samnite culture is constantly underesti­
mated. 10 This problem cannot be put down entirely to the date of
publication, and indeed Salmon has photographs of the impressive
late second-/early first-century BC theatre-temple B at Pietrabbondante,
highlighting its Hellenistic features,11 as well as an interesting dis­
cussion of early Greek influences within his chapter on Samnite
culture. However, no attempt is made to integrate this material
properly with Salmon's assumptions about the Samnite 'character',
which emerge frequently in his discussion. 12 His Samnites are ulti­
mately an uneasy mixture of the pre-civilized montani atque agrestes
('uncouth mountain-men'), one striking image within Livy's account
of the Samnite Wars, and the worthy 'Sabellian' peasant-farmers of
Horace Odes 3. 6. 13
Without doubt, the profile of the Central Apennines changed radi­
cally in the course of the 1970s and 1980s, as new finds and studies
challenged conventional assumptions about the cultural isolation and
rusticity of this area in antiquity. These decades witnessed growing
9
M. W. Frederiksen, JRS 58 (1968), 228; cf. 224: 'Professor Salmon has almost
changed into a Samnite himself. His heart clearly warms to the majestic landscape of
the Appennines, and when he turns to write of the long struggle between Samnium and
Rome, he becomes frankly and engagingly partisan.'
10
Ibid. 227: 'the Samnites were neighbours of the Greeks as well as the Romans.'
11
Salmon, Samniumy plates 6—8a.
12
e.g. ibid. 18: 'Samnium was a rugged nurse of rugged men'; 30: 'this latter story
[the Tarentine 'invention' of Pitanate ancestry for the Samnites] . . . arose partly from
the resemblance of their rough and warlike manner of living to that of the Spartans'; 53:
'The average Samnite may not have been a slave, but he lived a life of toil and hardship,
no doubt as the retainer of a local dynast. His rough and ready life had few comforts and
no high cultural tradition.'
13
Ibid. 65-6: 'They were a peasant people, montani atque agrestes, living a hard
and frugal existence: rusticorum mascula militum/proles Sabellis docta ligonibus/
versare glebas." The first tag is a quote from Livy 9. 13. 7, and the second from
Horace Odes 3. 6.
6 Introduction
interest in using in an increasingly sophisticated fashion material
evidence—archaeological and epigraphic—for the reconstruction of
local society, and Roman literature figured less prominently in the
scholarship of this era. Studies of individual tribes and settlements
were produced, following in the train of La Regina's epigraphic and
archaeological study of the Vestini.14 The most notable of these are
those of Letta on the Marsi15 and Van Wonterghem on the cult of
Hercules amongst the Paeligni.16 Broader studies of local society
included those of La Regina on settlement types and patterns in the
'Sabellic' area,17 highlighting local alternatives to urban settlement.
Meanwhile, great advances were made by Prosdocimi18 and Poccetti19
in the study of early 'Italic* and Oscan documents, used to reconstruct
ancient institutions and mentalities: philology became, in the hands of
scholars such as these, a vital and valuable source for social history.
However, no part of the Central Apennines received as much
attention as upland Molise during these decades. Several very impor­
tant individual projects challenged the validity of using Roman
literature such as the passages of Livy and Horace cited above as a
starting-point for the reconstruction of Samnite society..In particular,
the Hellenismus in Mittelitalien project focused attention fully on
cultural interaction in Italy as represented by art and architecture
not just in Rome and Tyrrhenian Italy, but also in geographically
remoter areas of Italy such as Samnium.20 The highly influential
contributions of La Regina21 and Morel22 to this project consisted
of studies of the rural sanctuaries that flourished in the territory of the
14
A. La Regina, 4Ricerche sugli insediamenti vestini', Memorie dei Lincei, 13/5,
(1968), 361 ff.
15
C. Letta, / Marsi e il Fucino nell'antichità (Milan, 1972).
16
F. Van Wonterghem, 'Le Culte d'Hercule chez les Paeligni: documents anciens et
nouveaux', L'Antiquité classique, 42 (1973), 36 ff.
17
A. La Regina, 'Note sulla formazione dei centri urbani in area sabellica', in Atti
del convegno di studi sulla città etrusco e italica preromana (Bologna, 1970), 191 ff.;
id., 'I territori sabellici e sannitici', DDA 4-5, 1970-1, 443 ff.
18
A. Prosdocimi, 'Il lessico istituzionale italico: tra linguistica e storia', in La
cultura italica (Pisa, 1978), 29 ff.; id., 'La lingua tra storia e cultura', in Sannio
(1984), 59 ff.; id., *I safini delle iscrizioni sudpicene', in PSCS (1985), 35 ff.; id.,
'Sabinità e (pan)italicità linguistica', in DDA 3rd ser., 5 (1987), 53 ff.
19
P. Poccetti, Nuovi documenti italici (Pisa, 1979); id., 'Riflessi di strutture di
fortificazioni nell'epigrafia italica tra il II ed il I secolo a.C.\ Athen, NS 66 (1988),
20
303 ff. P. Zanker (ed.), HIM (Göttingen, 1976).
21
A. La Regina, 'Il Sannio', HIM (1976), 219 ff.
22
J.-P. Morel, 'Le Sanctuaire de Vastogirardi et les influences hellénistiques en Italie
centrale'. HIM (1976), 259 ff..
 Introduction 7
Pentii, particularly in the course of the second to early first centuries
BC. Both scholars made important suggestions about the artistic
relationship between these sanctuaries and Campania and the eastern
Mediterranean. They also drew attention to the presence and activities
of a recognizable élite, whose names recur as magistrates in the
building-inscriptions. Questions were raised about the economy of
the Central Apennines, and, in particular, about how the building
projects were financed: La Regina suggested trade with the Eastern
Mediterranean as a possible source for financing the projects and as
one of the means by which the architecture of the Pentrian sanctuaries
might have been so strongly influenced by Hellenistic models. 23 The
importance now attributed to the material culture of the Central
Apennines, as well as its sheer visual impact, may be illustrated by
the two-volume work of 1978, Culture adriatiche antiche d'Abruzzo e
di Molise, of which one large volume was a catalogue of material
evidence. This work was followed by an exhibition Sannio: Pentri e
Frentani dal VI al I sec, a.C. held in Isernia in 1980, with a
companion volume of conference articles on the theme. Finally, the
most recent exhibition, Samnium: archeologia del Molise, began its
tour in Milano in 1991, 2 4 neatly illustrating the increasing appeal of
Samnite culture for audiences outside Abruzzo and Molise.
The 1970s too saw the first results of the Biferno Valley survey, led
by Graeme Barker, then director of the British School at Rome. This
surface survey took in a large area of Molise, and incorporated a
variety of different landscapes, from the lowland coastal area near
Larinum to the territory of the Pentri in the high Apennines. This
study was important not least for the information it yielded about a
more 'everyday' aspect of Molise in antiquity, outside the monumen­
tal rural sanctuaries of the late third to second centuries BC, and
infrequent settlements with urban features in the pre-Roman period,
such as Monte Vairano and Saepinum. Instead of the flimsy, tempor­
ary housing for shepherds which Salmon imagined the 'typical'
Samnite would have inhabited, Barker's team found evidence of
considerably sturdier structures: houses made out of stone, with tiled
roofs. Material remains were found for the most part on the slopes of
the valley, and this position, coupled with analysis of animal and
23
La Regina, 'Il Sannio', 229.
24
L. Franchi dell*Orto and A. La Regina, Culture adriatiche antiche a"Abruzzo e di
Molise (Rome, 1978) ii; Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche; Sannio (1980), cf. Sannio
(1984); Samnium (1991).
8 Introduction
vegetal remains suggested that, even in the higher parts of the valley,
mixed farming was widely practised.25
Such studies have usefully challenged traditional assumptions
about the backwardness and simplicity of the Central Apennines in
antiquity, and encouraged greater methodological sophistication. The
dramatic discovery' of Molise particularly in the 1970s and 1980s
owes not a little to the prolific work of the archaeological Soprinten­
denti of the Regione at this time: Cianfarani, D'Agostino, and above
all La Regina. It is, however, worth setting this 'discovery' in its
broader historical context. During the 1950s and 1960s, the image of
the poverty and backwardness of the area in antiquity, dominant in
such works as Samnium and the Samnites, was encouraged by its
modern aspect. For historical rather than simple environmental rea­
sons, the Central Apennines was a poor and dependent area of Italy, in
recent times increasingly depopulated as local people went to find
greater prosperity in Switzerland, Germany, and America. In studies
of local society written in the 1950s and 1960s, reconstructions of the
ancient aspect tended to mirror contemporary poverty and margin-
ality.26In 1971, soon after Molise was formally made an autonomous
Regione, it gained its own archaeological Soprintendenza. The chal­
lenging new images of Molise, and particularly of 'Pentria', as upland
Molise was to be called locally, served to encourage Mouse's new
identity. The history of the Samnites, particularly before the Social
War, was characterized by images of local pride, prosperity, auton­
omy, and above all unity. Mouse's fractured and dependent past could
thus be demonstrated to be historically rather than environmentally
determined.
Although the studies of the 1970s and 1980s challenged traditional
views of the material culture of the Central Apennines, some scholars
were careful nevertheless to emphasize the distinctive qualities of
25
G. Barker, J. A. Lloyd, D. Webley, 4A Classical Landscape in Molise', PBSR 46
(1978), 35 ff.; G. Barker, 'The Archaeology of Samnite Settlement in Molise*, Anti-
quity, 51 (1977), 20 ff.; J. A. Lloyd and G. Barker, 'Rural Settlement in Roman Molise:
Problems of Archaeological Survey*, British Archaeological Reports, International
Series 102 (Oxford, 1981), 289 ff.; J. A. Lloyd and D. W. Rathbone, 4A Classical
Landscape in Molise*, Conoscenza, 1 (1984), 216 ff.; J. A. Lloyd, 'Farming the High­
lands: Samnium and Arcadia in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Imperial Periods*, in
G. Barker and J. A. Lloyd (eds.), Roman Landscapes (London, 1991), 180 ff.
26
R. Mai nardi, 'Autonomia amministrativa e disgregazione rurale*, in S. Gattei et al.
(eds.), Molise (Milan, 1980), 5 ff.; S. Gattei, 'Una regione piccola e di pocherisorse*,in
the same volume, 11 ff.; S. Pirovano, 'In margine alla vita del meridione*, in the same
volume, 17 ff.
 Introduction 9
society in the Central Apennines. For example, in his study of
Pentrian sanctuaries, La Regina highlighted an important regional
feature of Samnium as opposed to Tyrrhenian Italy: centres with a
civil and military function in Samnium received nothing like the kind
of attention lavished on the sanctuaries in the late third to early first
centuries BC. 2 7 It is important to insist on the recognition of distinct
regional features. Problems occur when very real regional differences
are overlooked, and models which may be suitable for reconstructing
society in Tyrrhenian Italy are applied to reconstructions of society in
the Central Apennines. The most successful recent accounts of this
area in antiquity acknowledge the existence of features such as
monumental sanctuaries, urban structures, and recognizable élites,
but continue to retain a sense of perspective by using comparative
evidence from other parts of Italy. Thus Lloyd writes of the 'home­
spun' character of much of Samnite material culture, 28 while Patter­
son shows how comparatively late was the arrival in the area of
features associated with a 'Romanized' good-life, such as aqueducts
and bath-buildings, and Morel emphasizes the economic and cultural
marginality of Samnium. 29 The distinctive character of local society
is not obscured, although I will try in Chapter 3 to suggest that
Samnite difference from models of society in Tyrrhenian Italy has a
less negative aspect.
While great advances have thus been made in the interpretation and
discussion of the material culture of the Central Apennines, discus­
sions of the correspondence—or lack of correspondence—between
Greek and Roman literary accounts of local society, on the one
hand, and material culture, on the other, are not always as sophisti­
cated. One example of this is the not infrequent use of a notorious
passage of Livy (9. 13. 7) as a preface to work on Samnite material
culture:
nam Samnites, ea tempestate in montibus vicatim habitantes, campestria et
maritima loca contempto cultorum molliore atque, ut evenit fere, locis simil^/
genere ipsi montani atque agrestes depopulabantur.
For the Samnites, at that time living in villages in the mountains, used to raid
the regions of the plain and coast, despising the softer character of their
27 28
La Regina, *I1 Sannio', 229. Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 184.
29
J. Patterson, 'Settlement, City and Élite in Samnium and Lycia', in J. Rich and
A. Wallace-Hadrill (eds.), City and Country in the Ancient World (London, 1991),
146 ff.; J.-P. Morel, Romanisation (1991), 187 ff.
IO Introduction
cultivators, which, as often happens, was like their country, the Samnites
themselves being uncouth mountain-men.

The question that is then asked is whether Livy is right or wrong when
he talks about the Samnites as montani atque agrestes. This question
is clearly simplistic, and it is important to recognize that the subject of
c
ways of seeing' in ancient literature is too complex to be approached
in this way. Such citations need rather to be considered within their
immediate literary and social contexts, within a long tradition both of
history-writing and of developing ways of considering and framing
information about 'other peoples' in antiquity, and within the
context of relations between the Samnites and the cultures within
which these traditions have developed—Greek and Roman. All these
factors will play a part in the depiction of the Samnites as montani
atque agrestes.

2. GREEKS, ROMANS, AND PEOPLES OF THE CENTRAL

APENNINES

Portrayals of peoples of the Central Apennines that we read in Cato,

or Livy, or Strabo, represent highly developed 'ways of seeing' that
must be considered as culturally specific selection and embellishment
of details within the context of ancient ethnographical traditions.
While, in antiquity, the world was 'mapped' as a reflection of the
preoccupations of the society considering it, the kinds of relationships
experienced with 'other peoples' are closely bound up with the
images made of them, relationships having an effect on images, and
images having an effect on relationships. The importance that rela­
tionships play in the process of image-making is emphasized in
Chapter 1, 'Greek contexts', and in Chapter 2, 'Roman Contexts',
but a brief summary of the different kinds of relationships that are
reflected in ancient literature is given here.
Thinking first of images of Italian peoples in Greek literature, the
earliest examples of localization of myth in Italy, visible already in
Hesiod's location in the west of Odysseus' adventures, and achieving
a more precise form in the apparently sixth century Hesiodic account
of the children of Odysseus and Circe, Latinos and Agrios 'kings of
the Tyrrhenians', seem to seek to link recent experiences of travel and
colonization in the west into the familiar framework of wanderings
 Introduction II
after the Trojan War. Not surprisingly, interest at this early stage is
focused most particularly on peoples closest to the Greek settlements
on the coasts, rather than on the remoter mountainous regions inland.
The impulse to localize myth with some precision continues well
into the Hellenistic world, and is a feature not only of both east and
west Greek writing, but also of 'barbarian' accounts of themselves.
Mythological stories that we are used to thinking of as 'Greek' seem
in fact to be a 'language' shared between different cultures in ancient
Italy from very early times, and serving numerous different purposes.
This subject has been greatly illuminated by recent close studies of
the iconography of Tyrrhenian Italy in particular, which challenge
assumptions that only the Greek version is the 'correct' one, 'native'
versions being poor misunderstandings. While some early uses of
myth seem to tell a story from the angle of one culture in particu­
lar, others dramatize shared input. One of the most interesting exam­
ples of this dramatization of shared input occurs in a story told in a
fragment of the fifth-century writer Hellanicus of Lesbos. This is a
version of the naming of Italy, in which Herakles chases his bull-calf
across the Strait, and Italy becomes the name for all the land travelled
by the bull-calf, after ouitoulos, the 'native' name for this animal,
spoken again and again by the local people with whom Herakles
comes in contact in the course of his search. 31 Early myth-making
seems to reflect close cultural interaction achieved by a variety of
means in the early history of the Greek colonies: for example, through
exchange of goods, close proximity of settlement, marriage, or,
indeed, through conflict.
By the fifth to fourth centuries, the Greek/barbarian polarity,
strengthened through conflict with and victory over Persia, is a major
frame of reference for depicting relationships with 'other peoples'.
Conflict and pressure in the west is set in these terms: Sicilian victory
over the Carthaginians is synchronized with victory over the Persians
at Salamis, 32 while the perceived increased pressure of Oscan-speak-
ing peoples on the Greek cities is depicted in terms of the discourse of
the barbarian.33 This polarity does not, of course, function as a barrier
between a permanent set of Greeks on one side and 'barbarians' on
30
Hesiod Fl 50, 25 ff; 390; cf. Strabo 1. 2. 14 = 23 C. For the dating of the Hesiodic
reference at Works and Days 1011-16 to the children of Odysseus and Circe, see M. L.
West (ed.), Hesiod Theogony (Oxford, 1966), 433 ff.
31 32
D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 35 = Hellanicus FGH 4, F 111. Herod. 7. 166.
33
Cf. Ch. 1, s. 2 (b) below.
12 Introduction
the other. As the terms in which the polarity is defined are cultural,
rather than somatic, it is possible for barbarians to become accepted as
Greeks, and this in fact happens in the case of the southern Italian
town of Petelia in the course of the second century BC.34 The more
common alternative, once a sense of the desirability of Greek culture
has been established, is to continue to 'buy into* it. For the peoples of
Italy, reference is made to Greek culture as the 'language' of prestige
and models of élite behaviour, but using this 'language' by no means
necessarily means becoming Greek. One of the most vivid examples
of this phenomenon is to be found in southern Italian paintings in
which clear iconographical allusions are made to schemes of Greeks
versus barbarians. In these cases, however, those who have taken up
the roles of the Greeks are depicted in the clothing of Italian warriors.
Their enemies are similarly clearly to be identified by their distinctive
clothing: they are not always 'barbarian' figures familiar from Greek
iconography, but may be other Italians, or even Greeks.35
A contrasting aspect of the ideology of the Greek cities of southern
Italy in the fifth to fourth centuries BC relates to the self-definition of
individual cities, and to associated conflict between Greek cities. Such
ideology may reflect more acutely the need for close relationships
with Italian peoples, and forms a frame of reference within which this
may be understood. When conflicts arise between Greek cities, Italian
peoples may become very much more useful, particularly in terms of
the need to entertain friendly relations with neighbouring peoples, and
in terms of manpower. A major example of ideological development
of this kind is the Tarentine post-Pythagorean discourse surrounding
the figure of Archytas.36 Within Tarentine post-Pythagorean dis­
course, images of Sparta are very important, and the austerity asso­
ciated with these images is contrasted with the tryphé ('decadence')
of states like Syracuse. One important aspect of this ideological
development is an 'outward-looking' attitude, whereby Italian peo­
ples are represented as participating in Tarentine Pythagoreanism.
Thus, for example, there are various traditions of individual Italians
34
F. Costabile, Istituzioni e forme costituzionali nelle città del Bruzio in età romana
(Naples, 1984), 67; G. Manganaro, 'Città di Sicilia e santuari panellenici nel HI e II sec.
a.C.\ Hist. 13 (1964), 414 ff., 419 ff.; IG xiv. 637.
33
Cf. A. Rouveret, A. Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria in Lucania e Campania:
puntualizzazioni cronologiche e proposte di lettura*, in Ricerche di pittura ellenistica:
lettura e interpretazione della produzione pittorica dal IV secolo a.C. all'ellenismo,
Quaderni dei dialoghi di archeologia 1 (Rome, 1985), 120-1, and Ch. 1 s. 4 below.
36
Cf. Ch. 1, s. 3 below.
 Introduction 13
associated with Pythagorean leaders, and also becoming Pythagorean
leaders themselves. They are also attributed Spartan nomoi ('cus­
toms'), thereby demonstrating their 'family' relationship with the
Tarentines. Once again, however, while Italian Pythagoreanism is
serving a whole complex of functions within the context of Tarentine
ideology, it can be argued through the study of ancient literature and
iconography that Italian Pythagoreanism was very much a two-way
affair: a feature of Italian self-definition, just as it was a feature of
Tarentine self-definition.
Turning now to Rome, when hints of contemporary ideology
become comparatively clear towards the end of the fourth century
BC, the terms in which she portrays the 'conquest of Italy' are very
much what we would expect of any of the 'Hellenized' powers of
central or southern Italy. Thus, as I shall argue more fully in Chapters
1 and 2, Rome depicts her wars with Italians in the late fourth and
early third centuries BC in terms of the imagery of Athenian and
Macedonian imperialism, as well as in terms of imagery associated
with Italian Pythagoreanism, the ideological 'language' specific to the
cultural conditions of central and southern Italy. It is important to
preface any account of the 'conquest of Italy' with these statements:
the peculiarly comprehensive nature of the Roman conquest, and the
distinctive form it took, in terms of the establishment of a network of
different relationships centred on herself and later set out in the form
of juridical definitions, and her persistent use of the manpower of the
conquered peoples of Italy, foreshadowing their ultimate incorpora­
tion within her citizen body, is something which seems only to have
begun to have been reflected within Roman Italian ideology from
around the mid- to later third century BC.
The distinctive character of the conquest and its aims were, then,
perhaps rather more clearly visible in retrospect. Nevertheless, as the
extent and nature of Roman conquest of the peoples of the Central
Apennines are highly relevant to discussions of their place within
Roman ideology, it is necessary here to give a brief account of
conquest and settlement in the Central Apennines following the
traditional chronology based on Roman narrative sources and the
Fasti Triumphales.37 All ethnic names are given as used by ancient
authors.
37
The account given here follows closely T. J. Cornell, 'The Conquest of Italy*.
CAH{2) vii/2 (Cambridge, 1989), 351 ff., and E. S. Staveley, 'Rome and Italy in the
early third century*, in the same volume, 420 ff. Sources for events after 293 are given
in M. R. Torelli, Rerum Romanarum Fontes (Pisa, 1978).
 14 Introduction
The Samnites' first entry into Roman history happens quietly in
Livy's account when, in 354, they made a treaty with Rome,
impressed with her recent successes against Tarquinii and Tibur.38
His account of the First Samnite War, the historicity of which is open
to debate, is set within a more grandiose framework, and finds
Romans and Samnites competing in 343 for influence between the
Middle Liris and Volturnus Valleys. The Samnites apparently
attacked the Sidicini, who sought aid amongst the Campani. When
the Samnites shifted their focus towards Tifata, above Capua, the
Campanians were accepted by Rome into a relationship of deditio:
thus, traditionally, Romans and Samnites first found themselves at
39
war.
The traditional account places great emphasis on the 'Latin settle­
ment' of 338, which certainly in retrospect seemed to be an important
turning-point in the history of Roman expansion. In 328, the founda­
tion of the Latin colony of Fregellae was interpreted as an act of
aggression against the Samnites. 40 Thus, quite plausibly, the Second
Samnite War began, the Samnite Wars involving in their course most
prominently the Caudini, Hirpini, Pentri, and Caraceni. 41 While a
narrative is given of the Samnite Wars in Livy, precise reconstruction
of campaigns is much impaired both by difficulties in identifying sites
mentioned, and by Livy's occasional topographical vagueness. 42 As
Livy also writes predominantly from a Roman point of view, and
within a scheme whereby the Roman conquest is coherent and
inevitable, it is extremely difficult to trace with any certainty a
i perspective on events from the point of view of other Italian peo­
ples. Fortunately, a precise narrative is not really relevant here: what
is far more important in providing a context within which to under­
stand Roman ideology of the later third to second centuries in
particular is to give an account of individual 'settlements' on the
part of Rome. Events after 250 BC are not treated here, as they are
considered in detail in the course of Chapters 2 and 5.
By 312, pressure on the Samnites was considerable, and this was to
increase over the next few years: to the west, the peoples of Campania
were now largely 'settled' by Rome, the most recent development
being the creation in 318 of two new tribes to contain new Roman
38 39 40
Livy 7. 19. Ibid. 29-31. Ibid. 8. 23. 6.
41
Cf. Ch. 5, s. 5 below.
42
For suggestions about the localization of Samnite hill-forts mentioned in Livy, see
Cornell; 4The Conquest of Italy', 358-9.
 Introduction 15
citizens from Campania. To the south, Roman campaigns in Apulia
and Lucania had ended in treaties of alliance with the Samnites'
powerful neighbours, Arpi, Teanum Apulum, Canusium, Forentum,
and Nerulum. The Latin colony of Luceria had been sent out to
northern Apulia in 314. 4 4 The Romans' subsequent campaigns con­
cerned peoples to the north of the Samnites: in 304, the Aequi were
attacked, with severe consequences, and after this campaign, the
Samnites' neighbours to the north and east, the Marsi, Paeligni,
Marrucini, and Frentani, concluded permanent treaties of alliance
with Rome, followed in 302 by the Vestini. The Latin colonies of
Sora, Alba Fucens, and Carseoli were sent out in the wake of these
treaties.45
It was in the aftermath of the battle of Sentinum in 295 that the
Romans encroached most heavily on the territory of the Samnites, by
sending out the colony of Venusia in 291, and annexing a large
portion of land in the vicinity. The Samnites surrendered in 290. 4 6
During this year, Manius Curius Dentatus campaigned against the
Sabines and Praetuttii, apparently boasting in the senate of the huge
number of men conquered and the vast extent of land seized. The
Sabines and Praetuttii were incorporated as cives sine suffragio, their
land becoming effectively ager Romanus, a considerable proportion
of it being occupied by Roman settlers. 47 With the addition of the
territory of the Picentes excepting the territory of Asculum, in a
particularly poorly documented campaign, Roman territory now
stretched all the way to the Adriatic coast at this point, conquest
being consolidated by the foundation of the colony of Hadria on the
coast, in the early 290s. 4 8 On the chronology most widely accepted
by modern scholars, the so-called 'lowland' Sabines of the territories
nearest Rome were granted the full Roman citizenship in 268, while
the so-called 'upland' Sabines were enfranchised in 241. 4 9
43 44
Livy 9. 20. 5-6. Ibid. 7-10.
43
Ibid. 9. 45. 17-18; Diod. 20. 101. 5; Livy 10. 3. 1.
46
For Venusia, see D.H. Ant. Rom. 17-18. 5. 2; Hor. Sat. 2. 1. 34-9; V.P. 1. 14. 6.
For the Romans* final victory over the Samnites, see Cic. Sen. 55; Cic. Pis. 58; Livy
Per. 11; Val. Max. 4. 3. 5.
47
For the conquest of the Sabines, see e.g. Dio fir. 37. 1; Auct. Vir. ///. 33. 1-3; for
vintane allotment of their land, see e.g. Val. Max. 4. 3. 5.
48
Cornell, 'The Conquest of Italy*, 380-1; Staveley, 'Rome and Italy*, 425 ff.
49
The enfranchisement of 'lowland* Sabines alone in 268, upland Sabines being
enfranchised in 241, is upheld in A. Afzelius, Die römische Eroberung Italiens (Copen­
hagen, 1942), 21 ff., L. R. Taylor, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic: The
 i6 Introduction
After the defeat of Pyrrhus, the appearance of 'Samnite' territory
was made to assume the form it retained until the Social War. The
Romans founded the Latin colonies of Beneventum in 268 and
Aesernia in 263, decisively driving wedges between the Pentri, Hir-
pini, and Caudini. Furthermore, they annexed a sizeable portion of land
to the north of the Samnite areas, with the effect that a band of Roman
territory now lay between the 'Samnites' and the Marsi and Paeligni.50
These consequences of the conquest of Italy came to be highly
relevant to distinctive developments in Roman ideology, besides
j having lasting effects on local self-definition. Within the earliest
visible Roman ideology of conquest, which, I would argue, dates to
j aroundT300 BC, Sabines and Samnites are set within the familiar
i framework of barbarian peoples. The peculiar character of Roman
conquest—the establishment of a network of different relationships
centred on Rome, physical changes to local landscapes, the moving
about of peoples within peninsular Italy, in voluntary and forced
schemes, and above all the incorporation of manpower and, later,
citizens—is reflected much more clearly in images of Italy and
Italians of the second century BC onwards. To an important extent,
the Origines of Cato seem representative of distinctively Roman
ideology, particularlywith""regard to the treatment of Italy as, in
some sense, a collective entity, the foundation stories, geographical
habitats, and nomoi of Italian peoples prefaced by the foundation of
Rome, and concluded with the contemporary history that is to some
extent the common history of Italy and Rome.51 A perhaps more
explicit example is to be found in the 'ideology of incorporation'
first applied to the Sabines, and, for that matter, to the Sabine
territory, and discussed extensively in Chapter 2. Sabines and Sabine
territory function as alternatives to Rome, but they are desirable rather
Thirty-Five Urban and Rural Tribes (Rome, 1960), 459 ff., A. N. Sherwin-White, The
Roman Citizenship (Oxford, 1973), 51, but disputed by P. A. Brunt, 'The Enfranchise­
ment of the Sabines*, in J. Bibauw (éd.) Hommages à M. Renard (3 vols. Brussels,
1969), ii. 121 ff., who considers that all Sabines were enfranchised in 268.
30
Staveley, 'Rome and Italy*, 422.
51
See e.g. M. H. Crawford, 'Origini e sviluppi del sistema provinciale romano*, in
Storia di Roma ii: L'impero mediterraneo: 1, la repubblica imperiale (Turin, 1990), 95,
for Roman ideas of what Italy was, and was not, by the end of the third century BC;
N. Purcell, 'The Creation of Provincial Landscape: The Roman Impact on Cisalpine
Gaul*, in T. Blagg and M. Millett (eds.). The Early Roman Empire in the West (Oxford,
1990), 7 ff. for Roman action in Cisalpine Gaul as a reflection of a peculiarly Roman
conceptualization of conquered land and peoples.
 Introduction 17
than dangerous alternatives, with overtones of moral uprightness
rather than of barbarian primitivism.

3. 'WAYS OF SEEING 1 IN ANTIQUITY

In order to illustrate the value of examining closely ancient literary

sources which depict 'other peoples' in Italy, I have chosen the very
different examples of Cato's Origines\ written in the early second
century BC, and Livy's narrative of the Samnite Wars, written in the
early Augustan period.52 In both cases, I shall point out some of the
'ways of seeing' that are distinctive in ancient writers, and suggest
some of the ways in which the study of each author individually is
valuable as well as being complex.
Cato's Origines have not always received the attention they deserve
in studies of the tradition of geographical and ethnographical writing
in antiquity, where they so clearly and self-consciously belong. The
title itself surely alludes to the Greek tradition of detailing ktiseis,
foundation stories, an important strand of ancient 'travel-literature',
whereby the world was mapped out with particular reference to the
wanderings of mythological heroes.53 Remarkably, while Cato's first
book deals with foundation stories of Rome, his next two books are
concerned with origins, geography, and ethnography of peninsular
Italy. The last four books deal with near-contemporary and contem­
porary events, culminating in substantial examples of the speeches of
Cato himself.
The layout and bare contents of the Origines are already suggestive.
While the space devoted to foundation stories of Rome is substantial,
the degree of emphasis on other Italian peoples is unparalleled in
contemporary literature. The fragmentary nature of the Origines has
encouraged numerous interpretations of Cato's purpose and preoccu­
pations, some of which are more convincing than others. Questions of
Cato's purpose and preoccupations are complicated by later glosses of
the work as a whole, which seem to draw Cato into ways of seeing
Italy and Italians that have far more to do with the social, political,
52
For a balanced discussion of Livy's relationship to the Augustan principate, see
P. Walsh, Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (Cambridge, 1961), ch. 1.
53
For discussions of Cato* s purpose in writing the Origines, see e.g. A. Astin, Cato
the Censor (Oxford, 1978), 211 ff., Crawford, 'Origini e sviluppi del sistema provin­
ciale romano*, 96, E. Badian, 'The Early Historians*, in T. A. Dorey (ed.), Latin
Historians (London, 1966), 1 fF.
i8 Introduction
and ideological conditions of the late Republic and early Empire than
with those of the early second century BC. Certain modern interpreta­
tions of Cato's work seem to be based too heavily on glosses such as
these, and the particular qualities of Cato's outlook seem lost. For
example, Cato has been imagined to privilege 'indigenous* accounts
of Italian origins, and to be concerned particularly with exemplary
Italian moral qualities.54 If, however, one reads together all the
fragments that we have, such interpretations begin to seem unduly
narrow, and misleading.
Cato's interest in origins, lands, peoples, and nomoi ('customs') set
him firmly in the tradition of ancient ethnographical literature, which
has its roots, if not in Homer, then certainly in the geographical
interests of the archaic period.55 The origins of Italian peoples are
frequently linked to the familiar wanderings of heroes after the Trojan
War, alternative 'indigenous* versions given here and there, as is
familiar in traditions of 'barbarian' origins in general.56 There is
interest in setting down 'local' versions, a feature of ancient ethno­
graphical writing that is particularly familiar from Herodotus.57
Beyond these features, however, the arrangement of the work as a
whole needs explanation. Italy is without doubt being viewed as an
entity in some sense (but never, of course, a cultural entity), framed
within two books of the Origines, where, interestingly, details of the
peoples and lands of Cisalpine Gaul are also included.58 The concept
of a particular and peculiar relationship of Rome to Italy, which at this
stage seems to have meant central and southern Italy, had already
begun to be visible in evidence relating to the mid- to later third
century BC. At this point, indications of a concept of Italy in juridical
terms suggest that Rome has begun to move beyond the geographical
and political conceptions of Italy developed in Graeco-Italian con­
texts.59 For Cato, Italia apparently continued to be bounded by the
34
e.g. C. Letta, *I mores dei romani e l'origine dei sabini in Catone*f PSCS (1985),
15 ff.; J. Poucet, *Les Origines mythiques des Sabins à travers l'œuvre de Caton, de Cn.
Gellius, de Varron, d'Hygin et de Strabon*. Études Etrusco-Italiques, Univ. de Louvain,
Recueil de trav. d'hist. et de philol, 4th ser., 31 (1963), 161 ff.
53
O. Murray, 'Omero e l'etnologia', Magna Graecia, 14: 9/10, (1989), 1 ff.,
discusses the relationship of Homer to the ethnographical tradition.
36 37 38
e.g. 2. 21-2 (Chass.). e.g. 3. 4 (Chass.). 2. 1-14 (Chass.).
39
For early concepts of Italy, see e.g. F. Lepore, 'L'Italia nella formazione della
communità romano-italico*, Klearchos, 5 (1963), 89 ff.; S. Mazzarino, Il pensiero storico
classico, (Bari, 1966) ii/1; E. Gabba, *I1 problema dell* "unità" dell'Italia romana', in
La cultura italica (Pisa, 1978). 11 ff.; F. Prontera, 'Imagines Italiae: Sulle più antiche
visualizzazioni e rappresentazioni geografiche dell'Italia*, Athen. 64 (1986), 295 ff.
 Introduction 19
northern Apennines. However, the inclusion of details about Cisal­
pine Gaul, prefacing accounts of Italian peoples, after the invasion of
Hannibal, and Roman campaigns in the far north, is suggestive. The
detail given in descriptions of the extreme north of Italy is striking,61
and Cato's careful 'cataloguing' of lands and places in Italy as a
whole fits well Oswyn Murray's general explanation of dynamic
ethnographical impulses in terms of a desire to depict and 'account
for' a world the horizons of which were newly expanded. 62 Further­
more, Cato apparently applied to the Alps the image of a wall, 'muri
vice': it may be that Hannibal's invasion from the north fostered a
new sense of the Alps as being a geographical boundary of Rome's
sphere of involvement. 63 Cato's Origines might, then, be seen as an
appraisal of a newly perceived geographical entity made up of peoples
closely involved with, or subject to, the Romans.
Livy's narrative of the Samnite Wars in Books 7-10 is framed with
a late Republican/early Imperial interest in the privileged status of
Italy within the Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, the conquest of Italy
by Rome seems inevitable, despite one or two tragic and suspense-
filled episodes such as the defeat at Caudium: hints of Rome's coming
imperial grandeur are given even in Livy's account of early Rome. 64
Individual events are tied neatly into a scheme that looks forward to
the period after the Social War. Within Livy's account of the Middle
Republic, there is considerable interest in the citizenship: the narra­
tive is constructed to emphasize Rome's particular and peculiar means
of expansion through extension of the citizenship. 65 The Samnite
Wars function as an important turning-point: Livy introduces them
with statements about the unprecedented scale of the campaigns and
strength of the enemy, looking forward to the future conflict with
60
T. J. Cornell, JRS 78, (1988), 212; Crawford, 'Origini e sviluppi del sistema
provinciale romano* (1990), 95 n. 15.
61
For examples of counting and cataloguing, see e.g. Orig. 2. 8, 2. 10, 2. 11, 2. 13;
for Cisalpine Gaul as a new and strange place, see Purcell, "The Creation of Provincial
Landscape*, 11.
62
O. Murray, 'Herodotus and Hellenistic Culture*, CQ 22 NS (1972), 200 ff., 201.
63
4. 10 (Chass.) = Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 10. 12: * Alpes quae secundum Catonem et
Livium muri vice tuebantur Itali a m / ("The Alps which, according to Cato and Livy,
protected Italy like a wall.')
64
On Roman destiny to become the caput rerum* see Livy 1. 45. 3 (with R. Ogilvie
(ed.), A Commentary on Livy Books 1-5 (Oxford, 1965) ad he. for Augustan overtones),
and 1. 55. 6.
65
J. Lipovsky, A Historiographical Study of Livy Books 6-10 (New York, 1981),
88-9.
20 Introduction
with statements about the unprecedented scale of the campaigns and
strength of the enemy, looking forward to the future conflict with
Pyrrhus, and represents the Romans and Samnites as fighting over the
hegemony of Italy.66 The sense of the relentless progress of Rome,
and of her particular way of achieving the conquest of Italy are surely
due to hindsight: what hints we have of Middle Republican ideology
suggest that a consciousness of a special relationship^of Italy to Rome
was something that emerged much more clearlyjyjjljinto the third
century BC.
Despite this, Livy's narrative is obviously very far from being a
reflection of the preoccupations of the Late Republican/Augustan age
alone. For one thing, there is the long-recognized fact that Livy's
account of the history of Rome post-390 is of an entirely different
quality in terms of detail from that of his account of early Rome, and
very much more credible in consequence.67 For another thing, Livy's
precise references to older authorities, although infrequent, are a
reflection of the fact that he is clearly conscious of the value of being
seen to use older traditions.68
Furthermore, Livy uses and alludes to long-established 'ways of
seeing' to pattern and interpret events. This phenomenon of 'persis­
tence of vision' is in general of great importance in considering
ancient views of 'other peoples', and, in fact, in considering ancient
views of connection and causation in general. At times he is explicit
about his awareness of the history of the frameworks he uses: thus, for
example, in his first book, Rome's tragic fall down into tyranny under
Tarquinius Superbus is framed with reference to Attic tragedy.69 At
other times, the allusion is not made explicit, but when we read the
debate that leads up to the Campanian deditio in Livy's seventh book,
it is hard to resist the conclusion that Livy at least knows about the
Coreyrean debate in Thucydides.70 For my purposes, the most rele­
vant case of allusion of this kind is precisely Livy's depiction of the
Samnites as montani atque agrestes, in contrast to the 'softer'
66
Livy 7. 29, 8. 23.
67
T. J. Cornell, 'The Recovery of Rome', CAH{2) vii/2 (Cambridge, 1989), 309 ff.,
68
311. On Livy's sources, see Walsh, Livy, ch. 5.
69
Livy 1. 46. 3, 4tulit enim et Romana regia sceleris tragici exemplum' (Tor the
royal house of Rome too produced an example of tragic crime'), cf. Ogilvie, Livy Books
1-5y 186, for discussion of tragic overtones in Livy's telling of tyranny at Rome.
70
Livy 7. 30-1; cf. Thuc. 1. 31 ff.; for the Campanian deditio as plausible within a
Hellenistic context, see M. Frederiksen, Campania, ed. N. Purcell (London, 1984), 190.
71
Livy 9. 13. 7.
 Introduction 21
agricultural plains-people of Arpi. Once again, this patterning of
character according to mountain or plain environment seems to allude
to the final chapter of Herodotus. 72 Or, at the very least, he is clearly
writing within a tradition of explaining character through environ­
ment, which goes back at least to the late fifth century BC. 73
It is at this point that reading Livy becomes particularly difficult. At
first sight, the simplest solution might seem to be to set Livy within a
'Greek' literary tradition of explaining character in environmental
terms, and to see this tradition as entirely irrelevant, to Roman or
Italian contemporary perception of events in the late fourth and early
third centuries BC. In this case, we would be required to imagine Livy
embellishing his bald, 'annalistic' account with more sophisticated
flourishes, thus creating ex novo for Rome a grandiose narrative of her
rise to hegemony, in the manner of fifth-century Athens. This expla­
nation seems, however, to be reductive and over-simple, and in fact
hints at a stereotypical view of both Roman and Greek culture, Middle
Republican Rome on this account being 'obviously' isolated from the
development of Hellenistic ideology. 74
While Livy's depiction of the Samnites works—and is made to
work—perfectly well within its context of his narrative of the Sam-
nite Wars, there is nothing prima facie unlikely about the suggestion
that the Romans of the late fourth and early third centuries BC were in
fact aware of the value of Hellenistic ideology of conquest of, and
relations with, 'other peoples'. I shall argue in Chapters 1 and 2 that
aspects of Livy's portrayal of the Samnite Wars fit remarkably well
into the picture of contemporary Italian ideology that we can recon­
struct from a variety of kinds of evidence.

4. MODERN 'WAYS OF SEEING'

My analysis of perceptions of the peoples of the Central Apennines

owes a great deal to recent work on fifth-century Greece. One
particularly important book is François Hartog's The Mirror of
Herodotus, showing the extent to which Herodotus translates
72 73
Herod. 9. 122. e.g. J. Gould, Herodotus (London, 1989), 96.
74
For an over-sceptical account of the culture of fourth-century Rome, see
R. Wallace, 'Hellenization and Roman Society in the Late Fourth Century BC: A
Methodological Critique', in W. Eder (ed.), Staat und Staatlichheit in der frühen
römischen Republik (Stuttgart, 1990), 278 ff., and the criticism by Torelli that follows
in the same volume.
22 Introduction
on the 'truth' or 'falsity' of Herodotus.75 Another is Edith Hall's
Inventing the Barbarian, which deals with fifth-century Athenian
self-definition and self-promotion through the construction of 'Other­
ness': Persia in this case.76 While such studies use to great effect the
conceptual framework of alterity, applied comparatively recently to
the ancient world, there is a longer history of recognition of the
importance of polarities within Greek thought, and of the construc­
tion of barbarian and past societies as alternatives to a perceived
Greek (or, more usually, Athenian) norm. The importance of the
Greek/barbarian polarity was recognized in scholarship of the
1920s, while in the 1960s G. E. R. Lloyd identified a fundamental
pattern in early Greek thought in his Polarity and Analogy?1 and
Simon Pembroke revealed images of female power in Greek writing
about other societies and prior times to be a construction of an
alternative, working from a norm, rather than the simple description
of reality.78 This theme of self-definition through the construction of
complementary 'others' is obviously important in this book, as is the
development of Greek ideas about other peoples, and the appropria­
tion and reformulation of these ideas by Rome.
In some important respects, however, my approach to the construc­
tion of images of 'other peoples' is necessarily different from studies
such as those of Hartog and Hall, partly as a result of the high level of
interaction between cultures in ancient Italy. The ethnographical
discourse with which I am concerned cannot be fully explained by
reference to 'internal' factors, the concerns and preoccupations of
Greek and Roman society. While, at times, under certain condi­
tions, Greek and Roman images of Italian peoples tend towards
non-specific generalizations, on the whole this discourse is character­
ized by considerable attention to detail. Certainly, detail is selected
out and framed according to persisting patterns of 'ways of seeing',
but these images by and large do not give the impression of being
purely the products of Greek and Roman imagination.
The manner in which one group perceives another, and the forma-
75
F. Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus Eng. trans. (Berkeley, 1988).
76
E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian (Oxford, 1989).
77
J. JUthner, Hellenen und Barbaren (Leipzig, 1923); M. Mühll, Antike Menschen-
heitsidee (Leipzig, 1928); G. E. R. Lloyd, Polarity and Analogy: Two Types of
Argumentation in Early Greek Thought (Cambridge, 1966).
S. Pembroke, *Women in Charge: The Function of Alternatives in Early Greek
Tradition and the Ancient Idea of Matriarchy*, Journal of the Warburg and the
Courtauld Institutes, 30 (1967), 1 ff.
 Introduction 23
tion of ethnic stereotypes, is very complex, particularly when one is
looking at situations in which the racist framework of many societies
in the twentieth century is not in existence. Such stereotypes usually
arise first in a situation of tension or conflict. There might be internal
conflict or tension within group A which leads to the association of
group B with particular values, but there is likely also to be some
history of conflict or tension between group A and group B: this might
take, or have taken, the form of competition over land or resources, or
conflict between two imperial powers, or justification for the subjec­
tion of one group to another. In such situations, the us/them boundary
is most clearly perceived. At this us/them b^undary^jghysiognomic,
behavioural, linguistic, or other perceiv^eòT^iffCTeiices will Deselected
ouTànd interpreted. It is important to realize that one group can have a
series of stereotypes, in which ethnic 'characters' are quite clearly
differentiated. For the English, the French, Spanish, and German
'characters' are not uniformly not-English, and while all these nations
are regularly regarded as 'bad', they are 'bad' in very different ways.
The French are over-fond of food and sex, the Spanish are lecherous,
bloodthirsty, and mustachioed, the Germans are bloodless and author­
itarian. Each of these 'characters' is the result of the observation of one
set of cultural practices through the structures of another, a kind of
amateur anthropology. This perception of peoples through a culturally
specific grid also seems characteristic of ancient ethnography.
Thus it is clear that a reconstruction of local society can be very
helpful in illuminating the complex process of perception. One thing
that a study of local material culture can achieve is to tell us more
about what the Romans, for example, wanted to 'see' in this area by
showing what they failed to 'see', 7 9 such as urban structures. But
sometimes group A picks out as typical of group B as a whole, and
gives meaning to, features which are used—or were once used—to
serve a very different purpose within group B itself. Sometimes
apparently banal items of difference which are picked up may
represent very much more profound and interesting differences in
the individual social structures and history of each group. For the
English, for example, 'French cuisine' and Cordon Bleu cookery
serve as 'empirical' confirmation of what we all 'know' about the
79
Selective 'seeing' is a common phenomenon in the maintenance of stereotypes: cf.
J. Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies (Cambridge, 1983), 17-18; 31, for a fine discussion of
the ability of British Gorgios to 'see' only those features of Gypsies which answer to
their need for an exotic 'Other*.
24 Introduction
French as a whole: they are fussy, decadent, and fond of luxury.
Hence their love of rich sauces which are time-consuming and
complicated to prepare, but which provide the English with a great
treat on their occasional forays into the life of luxury. Within France,
however, such food was not historically typical of the people as a
whole. Cookery of this kind was a mark of the French urban élite,
who, by the nineteenth century, were very much more clearly divided
off from the rural population than were the contemporary English
élite.80
In my second part I try, then, to reconstruct a local context for
aspects of the peoples of the Central Apennines that recur in Greek
and Roman ideology. Certainly, differences were sharpened in Greek
and Roman thought, and, as I have shown above, it is easy enough to
find material that will contradict Greek and Roman images of margin-
ality and poverty. At other times, features upon which Greek and
Roman writers focused might have been manifestations of things
important within local society itself: either to a subgroup or to the
group as a whole. While Marsi were apparently synonymous with
snake-charming at Rome, within Marsic society those with powers
over snakes were apparently a restricted group. While Marsic snake-
charmers seem to dramatize in Roman thought the exotic, or even
sinister aspect of an area on the margins of Roman control, amongst
the Marsi, the cult of Angitia, within which snake-charming was
apparently a feature, was clearly sponsored by the élite.
Similarly, the theme of the austerity of mountain-people is impor­
tant in late Republican and early Imperial historiography, while the
peoples of the Central Apennines were renowned for the quantity and
quality of the troops they provided. In Chapters 1 and 2,1 examine the
development of such images of austerity and the useful provision of
troops within the structures of Greek and Roman thought. It is,
however, necessary to explain why certain peoples were idealized
in this way, and others, such as Etruscans, were not. In Chapter 3, I
explore the possibility that Roman ideology of this kind touched also
on a profound difference in social structures and outlook in the
Central Apennines, and suggest that local society, particularly before
80
M. McDonald, ' We Are Not French!': Language, Culture and Ethnicity in
Brittany (London, 1989), 20 ff., for a discussion of the formation of ethnic stereotypes
and, in particular, for English views of the French.
 Introduction 25
the Social War, was characterized by a thriving free peasantry and
relative social equality in terms of the use of wealth.
Finally, in Chapter 5, I consider notions of identity: in particular, I
question modern explanations of historical action on the part of
peoples of the Central Apennines in terms of supposedly 'objective'
common identity based on their primitive unity, and reflected in their
myths of origin. On this analysis, the composition of the Italian
alliance against Rome in the Social War in particular may be
explained by historians through reference to 'roots': the past explains
the present in a relatively straightforward fashion. Demonstrating the
large variety of myths of origin that may be argued to have been
asserted by peoples of the Central Apennines themselves, I suggest
that changes and fluctuations in questions of identity should be
emphasized. I consider different social, cultural, and historical con­
texts for these expressions of connection and difference, looking at
ways in which various myths of origins might have been used to
explain actions, and to make assertions about common identity.
Notions of identity within the context of cultural exchange in central
and southern Italy are highly complex, and one important theme of
this chapter will be the different perspectives expressed on identity of
selves and others, from the archaic period to the aftermath of the
Social War.
 PART 1
GREEK A N D ROMAN CONTEXTS
 I

Greek Contexts

INTRODUCTION

Roman discourse is imbued with 'Greek' themes, and provides us with

an excellent and comparatively familiar example of the complexity of
relations between cultures in ancient Italy. Roman literature begins
late, and plunges us into a complex cultural world. The earliest Roman
literature presupposes knowledge of 'Greek' themes, and suggests the
great extent to which Greek and Roman thought were linked. There are
examples of clearly self-conscious adoptions and adaptations of a
specifically Greek world-view. Thus, characters in Plautus make
jokes which subvert to humorous effect Greek ethnocentrism which
divided up the world into Greeks and barbarians.1 Or the Romans may
take the place of the Greeks in this dichotomy: while Plautus' Cartha­
ginians in the Poenulus are ultimately sympathetic characters, initially
their portrayal reminds us strongly of the 'Eastern barbarians' of Greek
literature, like Lydians, or, even more strikingly, Persians.2 And
1
See e.g. Cas. 747, where a character expresses a desire for a nice dinner rather than
barbarian (i.e. Roman) rubbish; Tri. 19 for the idea that Plautus translated the play
barbare ('into barbarian tongue', i.e. into Latin).
2
Both Carthaginians in second-century Roman discourse and Lydians/Persians in
fifth-century Greek discourse are particularly reviled for their effeminate dress and
behaviour.
For Carthaginians, see e.g. Poen. e.g. 1311 for mulierosum genus ('womanish
species*) with long tunics; 1317-18 for the comment that the Carthaginian looks like
a cinaedus.
For Lydians/Persians, see e.g. Aristophanes Ach. for remarks made about envoys
apparently returning from the Persian court, and presumably infected by the Persian
life-style, esp. 64 for 'peacocks', presumably a reference to their brightly coloured
clothing; 70 malthakos katakeimenoi ('reclining luxuriantly') as a general summary of
the Persian life-style; 77 for contrasting Greek and Persian ideas of wherein consists
'real manhood'; 117 for reference to envoys as a pair of eunuchs; Herod. 1. 71 for
Sandanis to Croesus on Persia (before the Fall), speaking against the more effeminate
dress-wearing, pudding-eating Lydians, behaviour by which Herodotus implies that
Persia is now contaminated (9. 22). For Persian sexuality as constructed by fifth-
century Athens, see E. Hall, 'Asia Unmanned: Images of Victory in Classical
Athens', in J. Rich and G. Shipley (eds.), War and Society in the Greek World
(London, 1993), 108 ff.
30 Greek Contexts
already in the Elder Cato, Spartans carry a special, moral, weight, as
they have done periodically in Athenian literature.3 But frequently
also, Plautus' characters make shorthand allusion to what are tradi­
tionally thought of as 'Greek' myths: the wanderings of Odysseus, the
Trojan tales, the trials of Hercules, or the deeds of Orestes.4 In short,
Roman consciousness of 'Greek' themes seems to work on more than
one level.
How should we account for and describe this close connection
between Greek and Roman thought? The Roman imagination has
too often been regarded as, at worst, deficient and derivative, and,
at best, pragmatic rather than sophistic.5 This idea has a long history.
By the Late Republic, Romans were themselves hard at work con­
structing the 'true' and ancient Roman character, busy 'doers' perma­
nently involved in military matters, without the time or inclination to
turn to softer, lazier, and altogether more decadent things such as
sitting around and talking or writing books. Such pursuits came later,
in an inferior social and moral climate.6 It is important to stress that
this 'national character' was a construct, as was the 'Greek character'
with which it was contrasted, belonging to a specific historical context
and answering specific needs, and I shall treat this point in detail in
Chapter 2, 'Roman Contexts'. Nevertheless, the idea of the paucity of
Rome's cultural heritage, now perceived in rather less positive terms
than it sometimes was by the Romans themselves, is remarkably
durable in modern scholarship.
The relationship between Greek and Roman thought has generally
been over-simplified in modern accounts, and has not often been
3
See Cato Orig. 2. 22, 4. 7 (Chass.). For comprehensive accounts of uses of the
* Spartan myth*, see E. N. Tigerstedt, The Legend of Sparta in Classical Antiquity (Lund,
1965), i (Uppsala, 1974) ii; for a broader, but shorter, survey, see E. D. Raw s on, The
Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Oxford, 1969).
4
See e.g. Plaut., Ep. 36 for Achilles; Mer. 488 for Hector and Achilles; Mer. 945 cf.
Men. 748 for Catenas; Per. 1 ff.; for adventures of Hercules, Men, 201. Ba. 155, Ep. 179.
3
For summary and criticism of such views, see T. P. Wiseman, 'Roman Legend and
Oral Tradition», JRS 79 (1989), 129 ff.
6
See e.g. S all ust, Bellum Catilinae 1-13, esp. 8 for contrast between Athenian
commemoration of their deeds through history writing, and the Romans' lack of time
for such pursuits in their heyday: 'at populo Romano numquam ea copia fuit, quia
prudentissimus quisque maxime negotiosus erat; ingenium nemo sine corpore exer-
cebat; optimus quisque facere quam dicere, sua ab aliis benefacta laudari quam ipse
aliorum malebat.' ('But the Roman people never had this advantage since their wisest
men were also the busiest; no one exercised his mind without exercising his body; the
best men preferred to take action rather than to talk about it, to have their own good
deeds praised by others, rather than praising the good deeds of others.')
 Greek Contexts 31
considered to be an interesting subject in itself. Much admirable
work has been done on Greek ethnocentnsm, and the imposition of
the Greek world view on other peoples. 7 Ironically, of course, in
focusing attention away from 'native' points of view, this pursuit
might itself be in danger of becoming c Hellenocentric\ especially if
we were to apply the model of fifth-century Athenian ethnocentrism
to the very different political, social, and cultural conditions of
ancient Italy. The subject of Roman ideology provides us with an
excellent counterbalance, showing not only how a non-Greek people
manipulated Greek themes to their own advantage from the begin­
nings of Roman literature, but how also, as Wiseman has convin­
cingly argued, such a society might have had close contact with Greek
ideas about the external world as they were developing in Greek
society itself.8 To concentrate narrowly on Rome, however, is to
obscure a very much broader context of Italian cultural interaction
from the time of the earliest Greek colonies. Tyrrhenian Italy is a
special case in this respect: 9 the peoples in this area had a highly
articulated social organization at the time of the earliest Greek
settlement here, and no doubt the early presence of recognizable
élites 10 is an important factor in explaining the comparatively abun­
dant evidence for the portrayal of myths within the context of prestige
items such as fine-ware, mirrors, tomb-painting, and jewellery.
Nevertheless, it is important not to ignore signs of appropriation of
and even input into myth on the part of other Italian peoples as they
came into direct contact with the Greek settlements of the coasts. The
limited territories of the Greek cities in Italy and the different goods
Greeks and non-Greeks may have had to offer each other meant that
interdependent relations with the native peoples of the hinterland
were an important feature.11 Nor do the early Greek settlers always
seem to have felt that the land in which they had settled was a blank
7
See e.g. E. Bickerman, 'Origines Gentium', CP 47 (1952), 65 ff.; more recently,
Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus, Hall, Inventing the Barbarian.
8
Wiseman, * Roman Legend*.
9
See e.g. A. Momigliano, Alien Wisdom (Cambridge, 1975), 7 for the remarkable
decree of cultural interaction in Etruria and Rome.
See M. Torelli, 'Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica: società e forme del potere', in
Storia di Roma, i. Roma in Italia (Turin, 1988), 53 ff., especially 57 ff.
11
e.g. R. D. Whitehouse and J. B. Wilkins, 'Greeks and Natives in South-East Italy:
Approaches to the Archaeological Evidence', in T. C. Champion (ed.), Centre and
Periphery (London, 1989), 102 ff., 114-15 for the importance of trade even in the deep
south of Italy where useful metals and minerals were not available. The authors suggest
that the natives were exchanging for their prestige goods materials such as wool, and
possibly animals for meat as well.
32 Greek Contexts
seem to have felt that the land in which they had settled was a blank
screen on which they could project their own sense of the world: there
were certainly cases where religious practices and mores ('customs')
of the new colony reflected close interaction between Greeks and
indigenous peoples. These factors should lead us to expect that the
development of Greek discourse in general, reflecting interaction of
this kind, will be complex, and will by no means always be one-sided.
One of my purposes here is to emphasize the elasticity of myth and of
ideological themes in general: one myth or theme may serve a variety
of different purposes, the direction it takes depending on the concerns
and needs of the culture that uses it.

1. MAKING MYTHS

One important strand in Latin literature will be the localization in

Italy of 'Greek' gods and heroes. Perhaps the best known myths in
this context are the wanderings of Herakles and the arrival of Aeneas,
but projected back beyond these civilizing influences are intimations
of a more primitive or exotic past, often in itself represented by
various 'Greek' gods and heroes: Italy is a wild place for Dionysus
and his satyrs to roam, a suitable place for Arcadians, the 'acorn-
eaters' of Greek thought, to colonize, a place of exile for Kronos/
Saturn, his kingdom variously a Utopian paradise or an age character­
ized by the less desirable practices of the uncivilized, such as
cannibalism.12 Odysseus is the father of various eponymous ances­
tors of Italian peoples, and eventually, according to some, of the
Romans themselves, but their mother is Circe, hardly the most
straightforward of mythical women.13 Ideas of primitivism and exoti-
12
Dionysus and his satyrs: Soph. Ant. 1118. Arcadians: J. Bayet, Les Origines de
L'Hercule romain (Paris, 1926), 62. Kronos/Saturn: Ennius Euhemerus 1. 60 ff. for
cannibalism in the reign of Saturn in Italy; Pindar OL 2. 70 for the age of Kronos as a
lost wonderland.
13
Hesiod Theog. 1011-16 for Latinus and Agrios as sons of Odysseus and Circe;
Telegonus (probably interpolated at a late date at Theog. 1014: West (ed.), Hesiod,
Theogony, (ad loc), later thought to be the founder of Tusculum and Praeneste (Hor.
Odes 2. 29. 8; Plutarch, Mor. 316A), featured in the fifth century BC in Aeschylus*
tetralogy which included his satyr-play Circe: T. P. Wiseman, 'Satyrs at Rome? The
Background to Horace's Ars Poetica*, JRS 78 (1988), 1 ff., 6; cf. R. Seaford, Euripides'
Cyclops (Oxford, 1984), 22, 24. By the time of Xenagoras in the early first century BC,
Odysseus and Circe have as their offspring Rhomos, Anteias and Ardeias: Xenagoras
FGH 240 F 29 cf. anon. ap. Plut. Rom. 2. 1 for Romanus.
 Greek Contexts 33
cism will be important in the discussion of the development of Roman
ideology, and may be construed in a positive or a negative sense, with
all sorts of implications for Roman self-representation and for repre­
sentation of other Italian peoples, particularly those of the Central
Apennines. But where does this idea originate, and what is its early
history?

(a) The Greek Discourse of Colonization

Motifs of arduous travels over strange seas and lands inhabited by
alluring or threatening monsters, or by humans with strange powers,
customs, and relationships with the gods, are recurrent even in the
earliest Greek literature such as the Odyssey, and reflected also in
stories surrounding other 'returning heroes' of the Trojan Wars, and
other wandering heroes, such as Jason and the Argonauts, and
Herakles. At a comparatively early date, the wanderings of Odysseus
were localized in the western seas and some of the more unsavoury
creatures he encounters were given homes in Italy and Sicily. Myths
of the wanderings of gods and heroes in the western Mediterranean
are ultimately clustered tightest around areas extensively colonized
from an early date, such as the Tyrrhenian coast, the deep south, and
Sicily. 14 For a long time, scholars have been alert to such coincidence
and have made connections between the localized travels and adven­
tures of Odysseus and other Greek heroes and gods on the one hand
and on the other the experience of historical Greek traders and
colonists.
But did the Greek traders and colonists follow the myth, or was the
myth only localized after the establishment of colonies? More gen­
erally, what is the relationship between, on the one hand, historical
sea-travelling and colonization of the eighth century BC onwards and,
on the other hand, myths of wandering heroes? While the Homeric
poems apparently have their origins in eastern Greece, the fact that the
first written allusion to them, in the form of the inscription on
'Nestor's Cup' around 700 BC, comes from Tyrrhenian Italy is
suggestive, and may have all sorts of consequences for the way in
which we think about influence on the ideology of 'western Greeks'
14
See e.g. Bayet, L'Hercule romain, 48 ff., for the connection between Greek
traffic-routes and legends in Italy; L. Pearson, *Myth and Archaeologia in Italy and
Sicily: Timaeus and his Predecessors', YCS 24 (1975), 171 ff., 185 for suggestion that
stones set in south Italy and Sicily are often of a particularly early date.
34 Greek Contexts
and other peoples of Italy. Scholars once inclined to the view that
sea-travellers of the eighth century BC onwards were following the
myth, consciously re-enacting the last great age of long-haul sea-
voyages during the Mycenaean period, and that the returning heroes
represented a saga, a folk-memory recalling journeys of these pre­
decessors.16 The real problem with this theory, as Ridgway has
pointed out, is that the voyages of Odysseus in the Odyssey display
no precise knowledge of the geography of the western Mediterranean,
where Mycenaean and Euboean travellers alike were particularly
active, and where many of the myths of heroic travellers were to be
localized.17 Modern reconstructions of the voyages of the Homeric
Odysseus, localizing his ports of call in the western seas, particularly
around Sicily, carry no conviction: no detailed reference to this area
ever occurs in the tales of his wanderings, and clashing rocks and
dangerous straits cannot with any confidence be fixed in the Italian
and Sicilian seas without such place-names to help us. It is true that
the names of historical places and peoples crop up, such as Ithaca
itself, Crete and Egypt, but, on the whole, the lack of concern for
geographical precision is striking, and is indicative of the nature of
the Odyssey: no 'charter myth', or even a reflection of the experiences
of colonization, but rather a traveller's tale that seems to be deliber­
ately removed from the sphere of historical experience.18
If eighth-century BC travellers and colonists were believed to be
retracing consciously the footsteps of their Mycenean forebears,
another modern theory concentrated on revealing the geographical
'origins' of historical peoples, both Greek and 'native', according to a
manner of thinking about origins and ethnic identity popular in the
eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. According to this theory, legend­
ary colonizers always stood for the 'real' colonization of Italy by
individual groups represented by the heroes, each hero standing for a
13
For Nestor's cup, see e.g. G. Büchner and C. F. Russo, 4La coppa di Nestore
e un'iscrizione metrica da Pitecusa dell*Vili secolo a. C.\ RAL 10 (1955), 215 ff.;
P. Hansen, 'Pithecusan Humour: The Interpretation of *Nestor*s Cup* Reconsidered*,
dotta 54 (1976), 25 ff.; Wiseman, 'Roman Legend*.
16
For echoes of Mycenaean contacts in the Odyssey, see e.g. T. J. Dunbabin, The
Western Greeks (Oxford, 1948), 1. For attempts to see the Odyssey itself as geographi­
cally precise with regard to the western seas, see W. B. Stanford and J. V. Luce, The
Quest for Ulysses (London, 1974).
17
D. Ridgway, 'The First Western Greeks and their Neighbours, 1935-85*, in J. P.
Descoeudres (ed.), Greek Colonists and Native Populations (Oxford, 1990), 69.
18
Crete: e.g. 3. 191, 3. 291; Egypt: e.g. 3. 300, 4. 351; cf. Murray, 'Omero e
1* etnologia*.
 Greek Contexts 35
specific ethnic group, and the voyages of legendary heroes mapping
out in a straightforward manner the passage of their cult in new
lands.
In 1952, Bickerman championed a very much more sophisticated
framework for the discussion of these mythical wandering heroes, and
this theory has rightly been highly influential in modern discussions of
Greek ideology in general. For Bickerman, myths of far-flung heroes
represented nothing more than the ethnocentrism of historical Greeks.
The Greeks cared nothing, he argued, for what 'native' peoples said
themselves about their origins, but imposed upon them whatever
origins suited their own world-view. This article very impressively
challenged the hitherto prevalent view that myths of colonization by
heroes were somehow 'objective* statements about the ethnicity of
native peoples, the study of whose 'origins' could then be based on
such 'records' of their migration from the Eastern Mediterranean.20
Instead, Bickerman emphasized the value of looking at what these
stories said about the people who told them, rather than about the
people with whom they were ostensibly concerned. The parallel from
modern history which he chose was that of the German scholar Hugo
Grotius, who suggested that the North American Indians were Ger­
mans, the people of the Yucatan were from Ethiopia, and the Per­
uvians were descended from the Chinese. These 'origins' tell us
nothing about native Americans or Peruvians, but a great deal about
the contemporary German view of the world and their place within
it. 21
More recently, detailed work has been done on various phases of
'Hellenocentrism', and, of this, the most relevant to my present
purpose is the study of the Greek 'discourse of colonization'. Scho­
lars have looked closely at Greek myths relating to sea travel and to
colonization, and have found interesting parallels in other, more recent
ages of exploration, 'discovery', and colonization, arguing that this
kind of activity results in similar kinds of perception. 22 Some of these
parallels are very suggestive. Greek myths relating to sea-travel are,
from the Odyssey onwards, full of monsters, strange and exotic lands,
mysterious, beguiling, or downright unfriendly natives with peculiar
habits which run contrary to Greek norms of civilized behaviour, and,
19
Bickerman, 'Origines Gentium', 65 ff.; cf. Banton, Racial Theories, ch. 1.
20
Bickerman, 'Origines Gentium*, 66, on modern attempts to find evidence of real
cults and colonizers from Troy in Italy in order to substantiate the ancient Aeneas-
21 22
traditions. Ibid. See e.g. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 47-50.
36 Greek Contexts
on the more positive side, hopes of gain in the form of more or less
exotic goods. Similar motifs occur in Western literature from the
diaries of Christopher Columbus to those of Captain Cook and
beyond.23 Sea monsters and Eldorados, cannibals and Noble
Savages with exotic names, reflect the perils of sea-voyage, the
hopes and fears of the travellers relating to the territories they are
'discovering' and to the native peoples they encounter. Importantly
too, in these more recent periods of history, when the natives are
more obviously human than monstrous, they are assimilated to the
known, using the frames of reference of the travellers themselves.
Thus, for example, the dark-skinned inhabitants of the Americas are
labelled 'Indians', and the Hindus of the Indian subcontinent were
originally assumed to be especially pious devotees of the Christian
saints, judging from their collections of holy pictures of gods and
goddesses.24
The Odyssey itself seems tò reflect aspirations and experiences of
early Greek travel in a very stylized way that, highly mediated by the
world of myth, perhaps partly reflects the desire to make heroic the
deeds of contemporary travellers. While travel is a key motif of this
epic, colonization is not really a feature. However, once Greek myths
have become localized in Italy, it is possible to see more specific
reflections of the experiences of encounters and colonization. The
earliest mythical ancestry we know of relating to Italian peoples is
the Hesiodic reference to Circe and Odysseus as parents of Latinus
and Agrios, kings of the Tyrrhenians.25 Myth and the names of
historical peoples, as well as the generic Wild Man, who presumably
stands for any other ethnic groups in the area, are nicely combined in
this example. But the choice of myth here is very striking: the Greek
imagination was capable of conjuring up all sorts of ways in which
familiar heroes could contribute to the peopling of far-flung lands:
23
For accounts of travellers in the early modern period, see e.g. A. Gerbi, 4The
Earliest Accounts on the New World', in F. Chiappelli et al.t First Images of America:
The Impact of the New World on the Old (Berkeley, 1976), i. 37 ff.; cf. W. C.
Sturtevant, Tirst Visual Images of America', in the same volume, 417 ff. It is,
however, well worth pointing out the possibility of self-conscious 'recollections' of
images taken from Greek myth: e.g. L. A. de Bougainville, A Voyage Round the World
(1772) on Tahiti, 'one would think himself in the Elysian fields'.
24
'Indians': H. Isaacs, 'Basic Group Identity: The Idols of the Tribe', in N. Glazer
and D. P. Moynihan (eds.), Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Cambridge, Mass.,
1975), 29 ff., 48. Hindus as devout Catholics: Bickerman, 'Origines Gentium', 71.
23
Hesiod Theog. 1011-16; cf. West, Hesiod, Theogonyt 433 ff.
 Greek Contexts 37
they could bring their own women, or marry local women as does
Aeneas, or they could impregnate supernatural women. In the case of
Odysseus, Circe is not the only choice available: in the course of his
travels, Odysseus, as has been well noted, has relationships with
various types of women, some more human than others: Circe,
Calypso, and even Nausikaa. 26 It is tempting to see the Odysseus-
Circe genealogy as, at least in part, a dramatization of the experiences
and perceptions of early Greek colonists: in the Odyssey, Circe is a
beguiling, sinister, threatening being who can also be tamed and
subdued by Odysseus. 27 One might well imagine that all these
aspects were part of the perception of Tyrrhenian Italy experienced
by early Greek traders and colonists: fears of danger and difference,
of a land which might or might not yield up its advantages. The
location of specific episodes of the Odyssey in a 'new' land, Italy,
might also legitimate the actions of historical settlers, 28 and give to
new experiences a ring of familiarity by linking them in to older
stories of travel.
Similarly, there is the genealogy given to Sicilians by Thucydides
onwards: the origins of the earliest inhabitants of Sicily apparently lay
in Cyclopes and Laestrygonians, some of the most outlandish and
uncivilized creatures of the Odyssey}9 Cannibalism, as practised by
Cyclopes in the Odyssey, is widely alleged of foreign peoples, but
actually very rarely attested in any reliable form, 30 and, along with
one-eyed giants, is likely to be a dramatization of fears of difference
and hostility. The pastoral activity of the Cyclopes is also very
interesting, and, within the context of the Odyssey, it certainly looks
as if pastoral activity is already being equated with less civilized
forms of existence, although it is true that, within the work itself,
the contrast is not so much between Greek and non-Greek as between
human and non-human. 31 Perhaps Greek travellers and colonists later
selected local pastoral activity as their way of conceptualizing and
26
For hints of a version of the Nausikaa story in which Odysseus and Nausikaa
27
married, see Homer Od. 6. 276 ff.; 7. 313 ff. 10, esp. 310 ff.
28
For the idea of 'charter myths', see e.g. I. Malkin, Religion and Colonization in
Ancient Greece (Leiden, 1987), 6; Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 48-9; P. Guzzo,
'Myths and Archaeology in South Italy', in Descoeudres, Greek Colonists, 140.
*9 Thuc. 6. 2. 1; cf. Homer Od. 9. 105 ff., 10. 80-132 for general character of
Cyclopes and Laestrygonians.
30
See W. K. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy (Cambridge, 1969), iii. 60-8,
cf. W. Arens, The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy (Oxford, 1979).
31
Murray, 'Omero e l'etnologia'.
38 Greek Contexts
characterizing the difference between themselves and the native
peoples they encountered in Sicily, using the story of the Cyclopes
and placing the local peoples on the side of the non-human.32 As for
the location of Dionysus and his Satyrs in Italy, it is surely significant
that Dionysus is particularly associated with places which were
clearly conceptualized as 'exotic', such as the East:33 Italy, as a
'new land' could be another suitable place for him to roam. Coming
'down to earth' somewhat, there is the Lydian ancestry of the
Etruscans attested in Herodotus, which was, until comparatively
recently, influential amongst modern Etruscologists.34 Far from
being an objective statement about the ethnicity of the Etruscans,
this was surely a device to link up two peoples who were perceived
by the Greeks to be similarly exotic. Perhaps one could even see here
a process which has two stages, an example of the unknown being
assimilated to the known, the Lydians being known to Greeks at an
earlier date than the Etruscans. Another hint about the way in which
Italy was viewed by the Greeks is to be found in the name Hesperia,
the 'land to the west',35 a name which nicely conveys an impression
of Italy being 'out there', rather like our expression 'Far East', which
carries with it implications of our own sense of geographical cen-
trality.

(b) Is That Really Us?

So far, Bickerman's model of Hellenocentrism, and the more recent
variation on the theme, the Greek 'discourse of colonization' have
seemed helpful ways to consider the origins of the collection of myths
32
Cf. B. D'Agostino, *I1 mondo periferico della Magna Grecia', PCIA 2 (Rome,
1974), 217, where he suggests that there is a connection between the Arcadian origins
attributed to the Lucanians and Brutti ans and their pastoral activity, the Arcadians being
conceptualized as pastoralists par excellence.
33
See Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 149 ff. for the Greek location of Dionysus in
foreign parts.
34
Herod. 1. 94; M. Pallottino, A History of Earliest Italy (London, 1991), 28 for
comment on the strange tenacity of this idea in modern scholarship. NB however that
Pallottino's negative attitude towards Lydian origins for the Etruscans should probably
be considered in the context of his own insistence on a kind of pan-Italic cultural unity
in pre-Roman Italy.
•" For Hesperia, see e.g. Agathyllus of Arcadia ap. D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 49; Hesiod
Theog. 215 for Hesperides as daughters of Night who live on an island on the western
edge of the world, and guard a garden with golden apples; cf. Eur. Hipp. 742; cf. D.S. 4.
27; for the specific equation of 4the west' with Italy by the fifth century BC, see the
reference to the western Locrians as vesperioi in IG 9. 334.
 Greek Contexts 39
and legends about Italy in general, at least as seen from a Greek point
of view. The nearest we can come to gaining some idea of the nature
of the use of myth, and self-representation by means of it, is to survey
early representations of mythological subjects in Etruscan art and
vase-painting. As I have suggested above, there is an abundance of
representation of myth within an Etruscan context, most probably
because of the aristocratic nature of Etruscan society. The Etruscans
cannot be assumed to have coveted pretty pictures on Greek vases
while remaining totally ignorant of the myths portrayed on them,
getting these 'wrong' when they attempted to depict them them­
selves, and unaware of any possibilities of appropriating myth for
their own ends. 36 In fact, those who have made a close study of the
iconography of the Etruscans are now arguing that the Etruscans knew
very well what they were doing, even as early as the second half of the
seventh century BC: recent studies of the Tragliatella oinochoe, Pania
pyxis, and Aristonothos crater suggest Etruscan interest in the juxta­
position of mythological scenes and representations of activities in a
manner that suggests that the world of myth—indeed, what we are
accustomed to think of as Greek myth—was of great interest and use
to these societies. 37
Certainly, there seems to be a long background to the fifth century
situation, when mythical heroes are labelled with fully Etruscanized
names, a factor which in itself would seem to suggest long familiar­
ity. 38 But even before this, 'mistakes' can be explained in a way
which is less unfavourable towards the Etruscans: there was no
'orthodox' account of myth, so there is no reason to explain Etruscan
choice of a version that is obscure to us, or even non-existent else­
where, in terms of Etruscan incomprehension of 'Greek' myth. 39
36
N. Spivey and S. Stoddart, Etruscan Italy (London, 1990), 90 ff., esp. 98.
37
For discussions, and illustrations, of 7th-cent. Etruscan uses of myth, see M.
Menichetti, 'Le aristocrazie tirreniche: aspetti iconografici*, Storia di Roma (Turin,
1988), i. 75 ff.; F. Massa Pairault, Iconologia e politica nelVItalia antica (Milan, 1992),
15 ff. For the Tragliatella oinochoe, see M. Menichetti, *L'oinochóe di Tragliatella:
mito e rito tra Grecia ed Etruria', Ostraka, 1. i (1992), 7 ff.; for the Pania pyxis, see M.
Cristofani, 'Per una nuova lettura della pisside della Pania*, St. Etr. 39 (1971), 63 ff.;
for the Aristonothos crater, see M. Guarducci, 'Nuove considerazioni sul cratere di
Aristonothos*, RAL 31 (1976), 145 ff.
38
Spivey and Stoddart, Etruscan Italy-, 101 for e.g. Truile (Troilus), Eivas (Ajax),
Tuntle (Tantalus) and Ercle (Hercules).
39
Ibid. 102-3; for a very different view, see G. Camporeale, 'Saghe greche nell'arte
etnisca arcaica*, PDP 19 (1964), 428 ff.; id., 'Banalizzazioni etnische di miti greci*, in
Studi in onore L. Band (Rome, 1965), 122-3.
40 Greek Contexts
Indeed, at times, it looks as if Etruscan 'deviance* may have a good
ideological explanation, as in the case when, on an early fifth century
vase now in the Louvre, Herakles, rather than Theseus, is portrayed
with the Minotaur.40 'Ad-libbing' may well be the result of easy
familiarity rather than of incomprehension. A growing body of
evidence for symposiac activity on the part of the Etruscans may
suggest a context for the development of 'Greek' myth to suit
Etruscan purpose: wall-paintings at Tarquinii and Chiusi depict
musical entertainment at banquets,41 and it may not be far-fetched
to imagine that banqueters were also entertained by the performance
of lyric songs that might link historical deeds with the world of myth.
It is, then, not idle to enquire about Etruscan taste in myth, and
about Etruscan self-representation in general. According to our ear­
liest Greek notice, the Etruscans were descended from Odysseus and
Circe. 42 Certainly by the time of Herodotus, the communis opinio was
that the Etruscans were descended from Lydian colonists. 43 Accord­
ing to some studies of iconography, the figure of Circe occurs several
times on Etruscan vases in the context of representations of ritual that
make reference to the world of myth, one of a number of examples of
myth being used by the Etruscan for 'internal' purposes, to reflect
ritual and institutions of their own society. However, the Etruscans
display no specific interest in the story of Odysseus and Circe: their
encounter appears on just one vase, a black-figure example which is
described by Beazley as being particularly poorly executed. 44 The
scene looks very conventional: Odysseus holds a sword, Circe has her
arms raised, and a pig-headed man looks on. 45 It is in fact hard to
detect Etruscan concentration on any one myth, despite increasing use
of mythical themes not only in vase-painting but in tomb-painting and
private seals. 46
It is nevertheless interesting that some of the earliest representa­
tions of recognizable myths in Etruscan art, dating from the mid- to
late seventh century BC, not only portray recognizable scenes from the
Odyssey, but also apparently relate these scenes to ritual and historical
40 4l
Spivev and Stoddart, Etruscan Italy, 103. Ibid. 101.
42 43
Cf. n.*25 above. Herod. 1. 94.
44
J. D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase-Painting (Oxford, 1947), 54.
45
For an illustration, see Monumenti inediti publicatì dall'Instituto di Corrispon-
denza (Rome 1849-53), voi. v, pi. 41.
46
See the table of evidence in Spivey and Stoddart Etruscan Italy, 100. Cf. F. Massa
Pairault, Iconologia, 19-20, for a discussion of the possible representation offiguresof
Circe in early Etruscan vase-painting.
 Greek Contexts 41
events of importance within their own society. To take perhaps the
best known example of this phenomenon, one might consider the
Aristonothos crater, dating from about 650 BC, and now at Rome in
the Palazzo dei Conservatori. This crater, signed by a Greek crafts­
man, Aristonothos, and found at Cerveteri (Caere), portrays on one
side the blinding of the Cyclops: Odysseus and four companions are
driving a stake into Polyphemus' eye. On the other side, an apparently
historical sea-battle is portrayed. Whether or not we are to believe,
with some commentators, that the Sicilian location of the Cyclops is
relevant here, and that the sea-battle is to be read as a conflict between
Etruscans and Sicilians, it remains very tempting to suppose that some
sort of identification is being made between the world of myth and the
historical world. 47
Even more familiarly, much later on, and well after Circe and
Odysseus had been identified as the parents of the Etruscans, in the
fourth century BC, historical Etruscans are apparently assimilated to
mythical Greeks of the Trojan cycle. This assimilation becomes very
suggestive within the context of contemporary Etruscan relations with
Rome, the self-proclaimed descendants of Trojans. If the Romans'
war with Pyrrhus could be perceived as a rerun of the Trojan war, so
too might fourth century battles between Etruscans and Romans. 48
Just as in the seventh-century examples mentioned above, the Etrus­
cans are apparently using myth in an opportunistic fashion, to make
assertions about present actions and relationships.
The conclusions which may be drawn from this brief survey of
early Etruscan use and appropriation of myth are that Etruscans were
apparently alive to the possibilities of making myth their own. Such
interest that there is in stories associated with the Odyssey is exhibited
in a form specific to the needs and interests of their own society:
Odysseus is associated with the 'winning side', in this case the
Etruscans. As far as we can tell, within early iconography with a
local context, there is no particular interest in emphasizing the
mythical genealogies that occur in early Greek sources. Later, how­
ever, Tarchon was connected up with the Lydian story, 49 merging
47
Menichetti, *Le aristocrazie tirreniche'; Guarducci, * Nuove considerazioni';
Massa Pairault, Iconologia, 19.
48
Spivey and Stoddart, Etruscan Italy, 102. For conceptualization of the war with
Pyrrhus, see Enn. Ann. 167 (Sk.).
49
T. J. Cornell, * Aeneas and the Twins', PCPS 201 (1975) 2 with n. 7; for a notice of
later Etruscan acceptance of the Lydian story, see Tacitus Ann. 4. 55. Tarchon becomes
the son of Tyrrhenus: Cato Orig. 2. 15 (Chass.); Strabo 5. 2. 2 = 219 C.
42 Greek Contexts
myth of indigenous origins with myth of arrival from elsewhere in a
manner which is reminiscent of Roman genealogies that made Aeneas
the ancestor of Romulus and Remus. Unfortunately, in the case of
Tarchon, the local hero, and the Lydian ancestors, we do not know
whether this connection was ever made by the Etruscans—or some
Etruscans—themselves, let alone whether it originated in Etruscan
quarters.
It is, however, worthwhile at this point to show that prima facie
unpromising mythological material could be picked up and usefully
emphasized by 'natives'. According to one version, Laestrygonians
lived not in Sicily as Thucydides believed, but at Formiae on the
Campanian coast. 50 A recurrent feature of localized myth is that it
tends to jump around the Mediterranean, or particular areas of it, as
the need is felt to link in new areas. Sometimes, mythological figures
seem to move ever further afield, shadowing the movements of Greek
travellers themselves. This seems to be what happens with the Pillars
of Hercules, which move as the margins of the known world them­
selves adjust. By the Roman period, there are Pillars of Hercules in
many parts of the known world. 51 In other cases, native peoples
themselves might conceivably take the initiative in appropriating
for themselves a myth which was first attributed to some other
location. In the case of Formiae, we simply do not know whether or
not Greeks ever localized the land of the Laestrygonians there. It is
hard to imagine why a native people should see any advantage in
portraying themselves as unsavoury monsters before it became parti­
cularly desirable to assert connections with the Greek world at all
costs, and studies of Etruscan artistic representation of myth suggest
that self-identification with figures less dubious than Circe comes
earliest. By at least the early Empire however, the Aelii Lamiae are
asserting their descent from Lamius, King of the Laestrygonians,
whose wife was an ogress of satyr-plays who ate children.52 Their
motive was, presumably, something more than the bookish, aetiolo-
gical entertainment which is too often supposed to have engendered
Italian mythological heritage. A comparison might be made with the
far less dramatic version of connections with the Greek mythical
world which is asserted by the Thesunti Tauriani, according to the
50
Cic. An. 2. 13. 2; Hor. Odes 2. 16. 34; Pliny NH 3. 59; Sil. It. 7. 276. 410; 8. 529.
31
e.g. Strabo 3. 5. 5 = 169 C-3. 5. 6 = 172 C.
52
Cf. n. 50, above, and Wiseman, 'Satyrs at Rome?', 12.
 Greek Contexts 43
Elder Cato. At their river Pecoli, the story went, one could still see up
a tree a sword which Orestes left behind when he came here to purify
himself after killing his mother. 53 Such relics and tourist attractions
are plentiful in later Republican Italy. By no means every noble
family could claim descent from Venus and not every people could
credibly claim descent from Aeneas. 54 The stranger examples dis­
cussed above might suggest that the 'currency value' of Greek myth
has increased dramatically. I would suggest that this increased
'currency value' has to do with developments from the fifth century
BC onwards in the ideology of Greek superiority to barbarians, which I
shall discuss in more detail below.
Some mythical characters have a more immediately adaptable
appearance than others. We have, for example, seen that, certainly
by the fifth century BC, Dionysus and his Satyrs are roaming Italy. 55
Satyrs are traditionally found in wild, sylvan settings: in literature and
art, they are set in a landscape of mountains, trees, and caves,
uninhabited by human beings. 56 Dionysus is a god readily associated
with exotic, foreign origins. 57 It is, then, tempting to suppose that
Italy first came to be identified as a landscape roamed by Satyrs and
Dionysus because of the wild, exotic, faraway aura it had first acquired
in earlier times of colonization, and which it seems to some extent to
have retained well into the classical period. But scenes of Dionysus
and his Satyrs are also enormously popular in south Italian pottery,
some of it found in a 'native' setting. 58 How are we to read such
scenes? The most probable explanation is that local Italian élites
found Dionysus and his Satyrs in wild abandon suitable symbols of
aristocratic entertainment, as Greek élites clearly also did. 59 There is
53
Cato Orig. 3. 4, 'eo Orestem cum Iphigenia atque Pylade dicunt maternam necem
expiatum venisse, et non longinqua memoria est, cum in arbore ensem viderint, quern
Orestes abiens reliquisse dicitur.* (*There they say Orestes came with Iphigenia and
Pylades to expiate the murder of his mother, and within recent memory they could see in
a tree the sword which Orestes is said to have left when he went away.*)
54
For a fascinating discussion of uses of mythical family-trees by Italian local élites,
see T. P. Wiseman, 'Domi Nobiles and the Roman Cultural Élite*, in Bourgeoisies
53
(1983), 299 ff. Cf. n. 12 above.
56
See e.g. Hor. AP 244; Vitruvius Arch. 5. 6. 9, 7. 2. 5; Ovid Fasti 1. 401-4;
37
2. 315 ff., 3. 295-8; Plut. Sulla 27. 2; Numa 15. 3. Cf. n. 33 above.
38
See e.g. A. Pontrandolfo Greco, / Lucani (Milan, 1982), 102 for the presence
together of locally produced and modest Attic vases in the native necropolis of Sala
Consilina in the Vallo di Diano around 470 BC.
39
For Dionysus and Ariadne in the context of Greek drinking-parties, see Xenophon,
Symp. 9. 2-7, where dancers represent them. For symposia in the context of élite society
in archaic and classical Greece, see O. Murray, Early Greece (Glasgow, 1980), 80,
197-203.
44 Greek Contexts
obviously no need here to suppose that they were advertising their
peculiar exoticism and un-Greek wildness!
So far, I have been discussing how a particular myth could be taken
up subsequently by the native people on whom it was originally
projected in what appears to have been initially a one-way process.
At times, however, there are hints of the collaboration of both Greeks
and non-Greeks in the actual process of myth-making, or, to be more
cautious, at least the 'natives' are attributed some sort of 'say* in the
process. A striking example of this phenomenon is the story attributed
by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to thefifth-centurywriter Hellanicus of
Lesbos, which I have already outlined in the introduction. The local
name for Herakles* bull-calf, ouitoulos, after which ouitoulia will take
its name,60 certainly works in 'Italic* languages such as Latin and
Oscan. The implications of this notice are exciting: the etymology of a
name of a geographical area is woven from a story that makes sense
within Greek traditions of the wanderings of Herakles, and which uses
a plausible 'Italic' word, dramatizing cultural interaction. This ver­
sion is also interesting because various other explanations were
eventually given for the etymology of the name. For Timaeus, Italia
derives rather from italos, which is, he claims, an ancient Greek word
for 'bull'.61 Here, apparently, is a more 'Bickermanesque' Greek at
work, eager at all costs to impose Greek origins and etymologies. It is
not clear when Hellanicus' version originated, or even whether it
originated in a Greek, native, or 'mixed' environment. The fact that
Hellanicus apparently referred to it at all suggests that Greeks were
not always and in all contexts 'Bickermanesque'. It is the possibility
that attitudes towards non-Greeks shifted at various times that I want
to consider next.

2. GREEKS AND BARBARIANS

Iurarunt inter se barbaros necare omnes medicina, et hoc ipsum mercede

faciunt ut fides is sit et facile disperdant, nos quoque dictitant barbaros et
spurcius nos quam alios Opicon appellatone foedant.62
60
D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 35 = Hellanicus FGH 4, F i l l .
61
Timaeus FGH 566, F 42b = Varro RR 2. 5. 3; cf. Timaeus FGH 566 F 42a =
Gellius NA 2. 1.1.
62
Pliny NH 29. 14, quoting Cato*s advice about Greeks to his son Marcus.
 Greek Contexts 45
They have sworn amongst themselves to kill all barbarians with their
medicine, and they do this for money so that people are taken in, and they
may do away with them easily. They also call us barbarians, and sling more
mud on us than on others by calling us Opikoi.

The theme of Greeks versus barbarians is of great importance in the

later Roman Republic. As Rome's influence in peninsular Italy and
well beyond is extended through victory over Pyrrhus, annexation of
Sabine and Vestine territory, victory in the Hannibalic war, and, most
recently, imperialistic ventures in 'old' Greece, she increasingly
promotes herself as a Greek city, with epic narratives to proclaim
her remote and recent history, and extensive rebuilding to transform
her physical aspect as well. Her self-proclamation, not always favour­
ably received by the Greeks, 63 has consequences for Roman ideolo­
gical treatment of other Italian peoples: they become the barbarians in
the Roman scheme. For example, as we shall see, Livy's Samnites are
relatively complex barbarians: as montani atque agrestes, they fall
short of the ideal of civilization without decadence, and elsewhere, in
their gold and silver armour, they highlight by contrast the manliness
and austerity of Roman soldiers. 64 This Roman discourse is built on
the earlier Greek discourse of barbarian Italians, and it is the devel­
opment of this theme that I shall trace here.
Recent studies have shown admirably that the Greek/barbarian
polarity has a specific social and historical context, and, in its
developed and most marked form, is to be related to the aftermath
of the Persian wars of the early fifth century BC. The sharpness of the
polarity during the century after Marathon has its origins in the out-
and-out enmity of the Persian wars, and, in the century after Mara­
thon, is developed in the course of Athenian political self-definition
and self-advertisement. 65 In the western Greek world, appeal could be
made to the Greek/barbarian dichotomy, particularly at times when
the Greek cities felt themselves to be under pressure from Oscan-
speakers or Romans. At best, the Greeks could laugh at the ridiculous
dress and stumbling Greek of barbarians;66 at worst, they would
complain of bad faith and the loss of language and customs. As the
63
See e.g. Dionysius* apologia for Rome, Ant. Rom. 1. 4; cf. Badian, "The Early
Historians*, 2-7 for Fabius Pictor's audience.
64
Livy 9. 13. 7 for pre-civilized Samnites; Livy 10. 38. 5 ff.; 10. 39. 16 for flashy
65
Samnites. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, esp. ch. 2.
66
For the Tarentines* reaction to Postumius' embassy in 282 BC, see Appian, Samn.
7; D.H. Ant. Rom. 19. 5. 1-5; Val. Max. 2. 2. 5.
46 Greek Contexts
concept of Greek superiority over barbarians was developed, it was
taken over by the 'barbarians' themselves: this is illustrated by the
fact that non-Greeks chose to proclaim themselves as Greek, whether
by being formally recognized as a Greek city as was Bruttian Petelia
during the second century BC,67 or by emphasizing 'proofs' of Greek
origins as did the Thesunti Tauriani.68 The prestige associated with
belonging to the Greek world was surely increased. At this point, even
the less favourable of localized Greek myths are likely to have
increased in value, as non-Greeks chose to promote their Greekness.
In some cases philhellene credentials made political sense amongst
barbarian peoples. Greeks themselves could play up the philhellene
credentials of barbarians, attributing to them Greek origins and
customs. The Greek/barbarian dichotomy conveniently did not
exclude the possibility that Greekness could be given when it made
good sense to make friends with barbarian powers. The existence of
this possibility neatly illustrates the nature of ancient ethnocentrism,
in which the conceptual boundaries were cultural. In this respect,
ancient ethnocentrism is very different from the modern phenomenon
of racism, in which belief in the existence of permanent, inherited,
pseudo-biological categories means that it is very much more difficult
to change category.69

(a) Early Contacts

By the time of Herodotus, Greek interest in the idea of pahhellenism
is clearly displayed. Herodotus has, of course, an impressively com­
plex notion of cultural identity: his discussion of Spartan customs
suggests a considerable degree of diversity within the Greek city
states, while non-Greek nations, like the Egyptians, share elements
of Greek religion, despite their idiosyncrasies.70 Nevertheless, Athens
67
For Petelia as originally a Bruttian city, see Livy 23. 20; for unmistakably Oscan
names for the two magistrates in the third to second centuries, and for that of the
theo rodo kos, as well as the two gymnasiarchs attested for the second century BC, see Po.
201; Costabile, Istituzioni, 67; Manganaro, 'Città di Sicilia', 419 ff.; IG 14. 637.
68
Cato, Orig. 3, 4 (Chass.). If Cato*s Thesunti Tauriani can be identified with the
stamp taurianoum (Po. 191), then we have an Oscan-speaking people heavily influenced
by Greek models for the formation of the place-name: see P. Poccetti, Per un'identità
culturale dei Brettii (Naples, 1988), 119-20 for a discussion of this point.
69
For a discussion of the differences between racism and ethnocentrism, see
L. Thompson, Romans and Blacks (London, 1989), 12-20.
70
Herod. 6. 56-60 for the remarkable rights of Spartan kings, and practices of
Spartans in general; Book 2, passim, for Egyptians.
 Greek Contexts Al
ultimately is made to portray herself as the saviour of the *Greek'
way of life when she refuses Mardonius' offer of an alliance with
Persia: she will not betray the 'Greek nation—the community of
blood and language, temples and ritual; our common way of life'. 71
Herodotus' perception of the westward expansion of the Persian
Empire in terms of a common threat to Greek city-states makes a
convincing background for the earliest assertion of Greek 'nation­
alism', and we should be very wary of reading this notion of Greek
'national identity' back into the eighth- to sixth-century western
colonies. 72
Nevertheless, concrete links between individual mother-cities and
colonies were clearly perceived to be important in this earlier period,
and some similarities between Greek states in the expression of this
relationship may be observed. For example, we find occasional
reference (particularly regarding Athenian colonies) to the transferrai
of sacred fire from the public hearth of the mother-city to the colony,
suggesting that the colony was, to some extent, to be considered a
continuation of the mother-city. 73 Other elements might be trans­
ferred, such as the mother-city's calendar or tribal names. 74 A sense
of common ancestry might also be celebrated in the rituals and
institutions of sister-colonies: Hermocrates' speech to the Sicilian
delegates, set by Thucydides in 424, implies that, at least by this
time, communities might well be induced to act on being either
'Ionian' or 'Dorian'. 75 Over and above this, there does seem to
have been some consciousness of shared religious practices, particu­
larly centred around Delphi. For example, according to Thucydides, at
the sanctuary of Apollo Archegetes at Naxos on Sicily, visitors to the
Greek games first sacrificed when leaving Sicily, presumably an
acknowledgement on the part of all Greeks in Sicily of the position
of Naxos as the first Sicilian colony. 76 Delphic motifs are also
common in the coinage of the western Greeks, suggesting that
71
Herod. 8. 144.
72
Malkin, Religion and Colonization, 2, uses the Herodotus passage in the context of
a discussion of 4religious practices common to all Greeks when founding colonies'. The
distinction between the existence of practices which might be 'objectively' observed to
be common to all Greeks, and Greek consciousness of 'national identity- should be
more carefully drawn.
73
Evidence collected and discussed by Malkin, ibid. 115 ff.
74
e.g. phratriai of Neapolis continue names of gods or heroes of Euboea and
75
environs: Frederiksen, Campania, 54, 93. Thuc. 4. 61. 4.
48 Greek Contexts
expression of the connection with Delphi continued to be impor­
tant.77
The expression of identity in the western Greek colonies was not,
however, limited to expression of links with 'Old Greece'. For
example, the person of the founder himself might serve as a focus
for the colony. After all, in some cases, colonists, like the members of
the abortive expedition led by Dorieus, had apparently set out, or been
sent out, following social and political troubles within the mother-
city.78 In such cases the founder-cult might have served to forge an
identity for the colony which was separable from that of the mother-
city. Even if the colony had not left home in such vexed circum­
stances, the founder-cult could unite colonists from different Greek
cities as well as non-Greek elements: the indigenous peoples who
were incorporated within, or who married into, the foreign commu­
nity. And lastly, but not to be neglected, there are the non-Greek
elements adopted into the ritual of the new community. For example,
Polybius, in his discussion of the versions of Aristotle and Timaeus on
the early history of Locri, has the Locrians somewhat desperately
having to adopt various native Sicilian rites, apparently still obser­
vable in contemporary ritual, 'because they had no inherited ritual'.79
One might well wonder whether the colonists felt this to be such a
counsel of despair, or whether it was felt to be a good idea to
incorporate the worship of the gods of the local peoples, rather than
to antagonize them by neglecting the rituals which they had come to
expect.80 While, as we have seen, parallels with more recent colonial
ventures are sometimes suggestive in discussions of how colonists see
native peoples and their lands, it is important also to emphasize that
early Greek colonists were not Christians. The ability of the Greek
colonists to incorporate new religious elements means that very much

77
Malkin, Religion and Colonization, 24. If Plut. Arist. 20. 4-5 is historical, Delphi
had an important role to play after the victory at Platea in 479 BC, in the strengthening of
panhellenic consciousness through religious ritual. The Delphic oracle instructed
Greeks to set up an altar to Zeus Soter. Before sacrifices could be made on it, all fires
throughout the land which had been polluted by barbarians were to be relit with fire
*fresh and pure from the common hearth at Delphi*.
78
A point well made in Malkin, Religion and Colonization, esp. 13.
79
12. 5.
80
cf. Aeneas* pious respect for the genium . . . loci on his arrival in Italy: Virgil
Aen. 7. 136.
 Greek Contexts 49
more flexible relationships between colonists and native peoples were
possible.
Evidence of very varied relations between Greeks and natives at
this early period should prevent us from trying to impose a schematic
clash between Greeks and barbarians. Certainly, there are examples of
a native people held in a subject position by the Greek newcomers:
Syracuse, for example, has in historical times a slave-group called by
Herodotus the Cyllyrii; 82 the name seems to suggest an ethnic group,
perhaps conquered and held in subjection in the early history of the
Greek colony. In other cases, however, the presumption of any kind of
clash at all would not seem to be a helpful starting-point. For
example, early tombs at Pithecusae suggest that these early settlers
took local wives, and displayed no alarm at all at the supposedly
obvious 'vulgarity' of local taste in vase-painting and in luxury
goods. 83 Elsewhere, settlers and locals seem to have coexisted,
apparently peaceably, rather than cohabited. For example, excavation
of a cemetery at Francavilla Marittima, on the edge of the plain of the
ancient site of Sybaris, suggests that locals continued to live (and die)
close to the Greek site right into the sixth century, their grave goods
becoming gradually less and less easy to distinguish from Greek
ones. 84 Presumably, they acquired these goods through exchanging
perishable goods such as animal products. 85
It is surely reciprocal relations of these latter kinds that are the
81
For the particular effect of missionizing Christian colonists, see e.g. G. H.
Anderson, 'The Philippines: Reluctant Beneficiary of the Missionary Impulse in
Europe', in Chiappelli et al., First Images of America, i. 400. The author highlights
the one-way process of Christianizing the locals by drawing attention to two perennial
problems of the Catholic Church in the Philippines: nominal membership and the
persistence of pre-Christian elements on the one hand, and the difficulty of finding
local clergy on the other. For a more general account of Christianizing colonists, see,
L. Hanke, 'The Theological Significance of the Discovery of America*, in the same
82
volume, 363 ff. Herod. 7. 155.
83
See G. Büchner, 'Early Orientalizing: Aspects of the Euboean Connection*, in
D. Ridgway and F. R. Ridgway (eds.), Italy before the Romans (London, 1979), esp.
133 for ornate Etruscan goods in tombs of males buried entirely Greek-style in
Pithecusae and Cumae; for the idea of mixed marriages, see 135, 'most, if not all, of
the colonists* women were not Greeks but natives*. For a traditional view of Etruscan
taste, see J. Board man, The Greeks Overseas (London, 1980), 199.
84
See J. Heurgon, The Rise of Rome to 264 BC (London, 1973), 90; cf. Pontrandolfo
Greco, / Lucani, 93 ff. for a survey of relations between the Greek cities of the coast and
the native settlements inland during the fifth century BC, which she sees as a time of
profound (but non-violent) change for the native peoples; cf. Whitehouse and Wilkins,
'Greeks and Natives', for a methodologically excellent assessment of culture change.
85
Cf. n. 11 above.
50 Greek Contexts
background to some of the varieties of myth-making which we have
observed above. The particularly close relationships between Greeks
and non-Greeks at Pithecusae make a good background for the keen
interest in localizing myth and in making use of it in local contexts
that is a feature of central Tyrrhenian Italy. In the case of the
Etruscans, despite their interest in myth, it seems that Greeks were
content to impose upon them their own ideas about their origins, and
it is surprising and striking that the Etruscans were apparently still
something of a mystery to the Greeks by the fifth century BC. But
Greeks did not always remain so ignorant of the locals. The Hellani-
cus story about Herakles and the etymology of Italy suggests a two-
way process in the localization of myth, while the story of the Locrian
ritual implies that some more profound exchange of ideas was a
possibility. How exactly Greeks and non-Greeks might have con­
versed is an interesting question, and hard to determine. Complaints
about damage done to the Greek language through barbarian influence
belong to a later era, and are related to the cities which were
'Oscanized' from the fifth century.86 But some native peoples appar­
ently spoke Greek: the Bruttians were bilingues according to second-
century BC Latin authors, implying, presumably, that they spoke both
Greek and Oscan.87

(Jb) The Arrival of the Barbarians

We have seen how Herodotus makes panhellenic sentiments come to
the fore against the background of the Persian wars. It is worth noting
also that the abstract concept of the development of 'national' identity
through a sense of a common enemy (the barbarian) was understood
in antiquity; Polybius links together in a sequence the traditions of
Persians in Greece, Gauls in Delphi and his own account of the Gallic
wars in Italy, in which Romans are cast in the role of the protectors of
Hellenism.88 It is interesting quite how quickly and how extensively
this notion of common Greek identity seems to have spread. If links
86
e.g. Aristoxenusfir.124 Wehrli(2) = Athenaeus 14. 632a; Wilamowitz* deletion of
e Rhomaiois is not decisive, as Turrenois is surely no odder here; cf. Strabo 5. 4. 7 = 246
C on finding 'Campanian' names in the Neapolitan demarch-lists, but contrast state­
ments in the same chapter about the persistence of Greek institutions in the city in the
Roman period, as well as a highly respectable four-yearly festival rivalling others in the
Greek world.
87
Enn., Ann. All (Sk.) = Festus p. 31 L.; Lucilius 1124 M.
88
Polybius 2. 35, with F. W. Walbank, A Historical Commentary on Polybius
(Oxford, 1957), i, ad loc.
 Greek Contexts 51
between fnother-city and colony, and indeed, links between the
various colonies and Delphi, were preserved in the rituals and institu­
tions of the colony as well as in the tales of the colony's foundation,
such links could also come in handy for those left behind in 'old'
Greece. For example, Greek envoys are apparently received by Gelon
of Syracuse before the battle of Salamis. 89 Whatever one might think
of the dramatic interchange attributed by Herodotus to this occasion,
it remains very interesting that, at least by the time when he was
writing his history, there was a 'Sicilian' tradition which synchro­
nized the battle of Salamis with the victory of Gelon and Theron at
Himera over Hamilcar of Carthage. 90
It is a small step from the synchronization of battles to a sense of
'common cause', and, indeed of a common enemy: it seems fair to see
here the roots of the generalized Greek/barbarian dichotomy in its
developed form. We can, in fact, trace this tradition back to Pindar's
celebration of Hieron's victory in the chariot-race at Delphi in 470. 9 1
This occasional poem is a reminder of another way in which a sense
of panhellenism might be increasingly encouraged: games and a
festival in which representatives from distant Greek states partici­
pated might serve to emphasize things in common, such as language
and common cult-centres (that of Apollo at Delphi, for example), now
underlined by the beginnings of a sense of common history. Close
links between Greece and Sicily are further emphasized around this
time by a piece of pseudo-science later dressed up in a mythological
wrapping: from Pindar we learn too that the river Alpheios re-emerges
in Syracusan Ortygia, having run under the sea from the Péloponnèse.
Timaeus' version is similar, if slightly more colourful: his 'proof of
the theory that Syracusan Arethusa has as its source the Alpheios is
the emergence in the Arethusa of dung from Olympian sacrificial
beasts, and even a golden bowl, after heavy rains at Olympia. 92
Once the sense of a common identity has begun to be developed,
individual incidents involving a Greek city and a non-Greek people
may become portrayed in a more schematic way. It is obviously
important nevertheless not to overdo this schematism: rivalries and
friction between Greek states continued, and non-Greek forces could
be useful to one or both states in the ensuing struggle. For example,
'barbarian' forces, such as the Mamertitii employed by Syracuse,
89 91
Herod. 7. 153 ff. *° Herod. 7. 166. Pindar Pyth. 1. 72 ff.
92
Pindar Nem. 1, cf. Timaeus FGH 566, F 41b = Polyb. 12. 4d.
52 Greek Contexts
were extensively called upon in Sicily.93 However, by the mid-fourth
century BC, anxiety about the loss of 'Greek' identity through 'con­
tamination' by foreign elements is apparent in a variety of sources,
not least because recent history has seen the actual political take-over
of a Greek city like Posidonia by Oscan-speaking people: the per­
ceived threat from the foreigner opposed on every front to the Greek
has become realized in action. In the Platonic Epistle 8, the salvation
of Sicily's Greekness—represented in particular by the language—is
a matter of desperate concern for all Greeks: the risk is that it will be
taken over by Phoenicians or Opikoi.94 The importance of Greek
independence has more immediate meaning when actual foreign
take-overs can be seen.
At the end of the fourth century, Aristoxenos of Tarentum is
expressing concern about the barbarism of Paestum: he has a sad
story of Greeks meeting here once a year for a festival, to recall
their glorious past, their language and customs now changed by the
arrival of 'Tyrrhenians or Romans'. The confusion here is interesting,
and particularly so if the phrase 'or Romans' is not an interpolation:
this fragment predates the Latin colony by around a century.95 While
early Etruscan presence around Salerno is well documented, it is, in
fact, hard to see how 'Etruscans' in any strict sense should have been
the objects of especial concern at the end of the fourth century BC,
when Samnite presence would surely have been the most remarkable.
I would suggest rather that this fragment of Aristoxenos reflects a lack
of concern in distinguishing accurately between different varieties of
Italian barbarians, an attitude which is a familiar feature of modern
western ethnocentrism as well.96 Greek writers certainly had a variety
of names at their disposal to describe different Italian peoples by the
fourth century, and the question of whether or not Italian peoples ever
called themselves by any of these names is not strictly relevant here.97
At one level, it looks as if Oscan-speaking peoples were looming large
93
Polyb. 1. 7, cf. 4. 3. 2, with Walbank, Polybius, i, ad loc.; cf. Frederiksen,
Campania, 144.
94
Ep. 8. 353e; questions about whether or not this is an authentic letter of Plato
himself are not really relevant here.
95
fr. 124 Wehrli(2) = Athenaeus 14. 632a; for a discussion of some of the problems
raised by this passage, see F. Sartori, 'Le città italiote dopo la conquista romana', La
Magna Grecia nell'età romana (atti del quindicesimo convegno di studi sulla Magna
Grecia, Taranto, 5-10 ottobre 1975 (Naples, 1976), 86.
96
See e.g. M. Banton, Racial Consciousness (London, 1988), 3.
97
See Ch. 5 below.
 Greek Contexts 53
in Greek imaginations by the latter part of the fifth century BC:
Thucydides imagines that a vast area of southern Italy was occupied
by Opikoi in prehistoric times, and that these people succeeded in
pushing the Siculian people over the Strait to Sicily. 98 Given the
variety of different ethnic names which could be attributed to the
peoples of prehistoric southern Italy, and given that Opikoi was used
by Greeks to describe—in a decidedly unflattering manner—historical
Italian peoples," it is tempting to suppose that Thucydides is project­
ing back into prehistory contemporary pressure on the Greek cities
from Oscan-speaking peoples. But 'Tyrrhenians' had undoubtedly
figured more prominently and for longer in the Greek imagination
than had any other Italian peoples, and Aristoxenos may be resorting
to an ethnocentric 'part for the whole' allocation. 100

3. MAKING A VIRTUE OUT OF NECESSITY:

THE TARENTINE VERSION

From the time of Cato onwards, there is visible Roman interest in an

idealized Sparta, to which Rome may favourably be compared, and
which, most importantly, may also be located outside Rome, amongst
the Sabines or 'Sabelli'. In Cato, the first observable signs of the
highly important Roman discourse of Italian austerity may be seen. 101
The idea of eastern Italians as Spartan colonists is considerably older,
however, and must be traced back to the relations between Tarentum
and Samnium in the latter part of the fourth century BC. Strabo has the
fullest account, and the biggest clue about the origin of this tradition:
Some say, moreover, that a colony of Laconians joined the Samnites, and that
for this reason the Samnites actually became philhellenes, and that some of
them were even called 'Pitanates'. But it is thought that the Tarentines simply
fabricated this, to flatter, and at the same time to win the friendship of, a
powerful people on their borders; because once upon a time, the Samnites
used to send out an army of as many as eighty thousand infantry and eight
thousand cavalry.102
The most likely background for such an 'invention' is the friendly
relations between Tarentum and the Samnites in the 330-320s BC: 1 ^ 3
98 10
6. 2. " e.g. Pliny NH 29. 14. ° Cf. n. 95 above.
101 102
Cf. Ch. 2, s. 4 below. 5. 4. 12 = p. 250 C.
103
For discussion of the date of the Tarantine turnaround, see Frederiksen, Campa-
nia, 208.
54 Greek Contexts
it is hard to see what the Tarentines would have stood to gain from
such an 'invention' at any other time. To some extent, the fiction of
Spartan ancestry for the 'Samnites' may be explained by the desire to
express kinship between two Spartan colonies, Tarentum and the
Samnites, as a background to combined action. 104 On another level,
however, the development of the Greek/barbarian dichotomy, and
anxiety about the 'barbarization' of Greek cities such as Posidonia/
Paestum surely increased the need to portray foreign friends as 'real'
Greeks.
Additionally, there are in the sources traces of an ideological
competition between Samnium and Rome at precisely this time, the
issue being who had the better philhellenic credentials. The issue
comes to a head over Naples in 327 BC. Frederiksen argued convin­
cingly that the scene at Naples described by Dionysius of Halicarnas-
sus originated in a Greek source, contemporary or nearly
contemporary with the events related. 105 In this scene, there takes
place a debate before the Neapolitans in which the Romans and the
Samnites give reasons for making an alliance with them. Certainly the
method employed by the Samnites in order to get themselves an
audience directly with the public assembly is rather dubious: when
most of the ^apifioraroi ('most enlightened') are in favour of making
an alliance with Rome, they bribe the boule ('council') to let the
demos ('people') decide on the policy of Neapolis. What they say
they have to offer the Neapolitans remains interesting, however, and
suggests that the Greek source for this debate was by no means
entirely pro-Roman and anti-Samnite. If Rome has suggested to the
Neapolitans that an alliance with the Samnites does not befit them as
Greeks, the Samnites might be understood to offer better protection of
Greekness than Rome at this point. They promise manpower to the
Neapolitans, and assure them that Cumae will be restored to Greek
hands, along with some of the land presently held by Campanians.
These offers are contrasted with the depiction of Rome as faithless
and treacherous.
I see no reason to doubt that, by the later part of the fourth century
BC, the Samnites had as much of an idea of Greek public opinion as
did the Romans, and were no more disingenuous than the Romans in
104
For recent assertion of close links of Taras with Sparta around the time of
Archidamus* expedition, see P. Wuilleumier, Tarente (Paris, 1939), 78-9.
103
D.H. Ant. Rom. 15. 5 ff.; cf. Frederiksen, Campania, 201 ff.
 Greek Contexts 55
their desire to exploit this knowledge. By this time, direct contacts
between the Samnites and the Greek cities of the south may be seen to
have had a military context in particular. The statue of Athena found
at Roccaspromonte near Boiano in Samnium, possibly a copy of a
fifth-century Attic statue, with an Oscan dedicatory inscription tran­
scribed when the statue was discovered, but now unfortunately lost, is
generally interpreted as war-booty, because there is nothing that
compares closely with it in the area. 106 At the Samnite cult-centre
of Pietrabbondante, a collection of helmets of Tarentine production
was found, dating from the late fifth to the first half of the fourth
centuries BC. This collection is probably best interpreted as spolia
hostium, suggesting relations between Tarentum and the Samnites
which are not reported in the literary sources. 107
The evidence discussed so far might suggest hostility rather than
friendship, but other evidence seems to tell a different story. A helmet
of unknown provenance was dedicated in a Graeco-Lucanian alpha­
bet, 'spedis mamerekies saipins anafaket', 'Spedis Mamerekies of
Saepinum dedicated this'. 108 The Saepinate dedicator was presum­
ably active in the south of Italy: this would be the most straightfor­
ward inference to draw from the alphabet of the inscription. 109 The
dedicator was most probably a mercenary, perhaps working on an
individual basis. The use of Samnite mercenaries by the Greek cities
of southern Italy might provide a context for dealings of a very
positive kind between Greeks and Samnites: such dealings might
well be the background to the incident at Neapolis in 327 BC. Positive
relations of this kind provide a counterbalance to the Mamertini,
whose actions were clearly notorious by the second century BC. These
Mamertini, whose ethnicity is not entirely clear, but who were either
Samnites or Campanians, were mercenaries enlisted by Agathocles.
On his death, in the 280s BC, they seized Messana. 110
This was not the whole story, however. What is very interesting is
that a favourable version of the mission of the Mamertini to Sicily was
also in circulation. According to Alfius, who is cited by Festus, the
106
Salmon, Samnium, 128; Ve. 158.
107
D'Agostino, Sannio (1980), 130 ff.; cf. A. La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali nel
108
mondo sannitico', in Sannio (1984), 11 ff. Ve. 190.
109
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali', 23.
110
Polyb. 1. 7. 3 ff.; for Polybius, these mercenaries of Agathocles were, like
Decius' band at Rhegium, Campanoiy while for Alfius (Festus 105 L.) the Mamertini
apparently originated in Samnium. Polybius may be drawing too close parallels between
the situation of the Mamertini and that of Decius' Campanians at Rhegium.
56 Greek Contexts
Mamertini were not only invited in by the Messanians, in return for
the help they had given to the Messanians in a war, but also came to
Sicily in the first place as a result of a ver sacrum ordered by
Apollo. 111 Very little is known about Alfius, author of a work on
'The Carthaginian War', but his Oscan name may be significant, and
may help to explain this very favourable version of the actions of the
Mamertini. 112 Costabile suggests that Apollo's guidance of the
Mamertini (instead of Mars, the god traditionally associated with
Sacred Springs, and on whose name that of the Mamertini is expli­
citly said to be based) may be closely influenced by a version of the
foundation story of Rhegium, in which famine-stricken Chalcidians
are guided by Apollo to the site of Rhegium. 113 Whether or not this is
the case, the substitution of Apollo for Mars remains interesting: the
Mamertine take-over would be sanctioned by Apollo, increasingly to
be identified as the protector of Hellenism, as well as being, in the
form of Apollo Archegetes, the god to whom sacrifice must be made
at this altar at Naxos by those claiming to be a Greek community in
Sicily. 114 The commitment of the Mamertini to Apollo is illustrated
elsewhere: an Oscan building-inscription at Messana has the meddices
(Oscan magistrates), together with the touto Mamertino ('Mamertine
people') overseeing the construction or the reconstruction of a temple
to Apollo. Furthermore, new issues of coinage of the Mamertini
around 220 BC also display images of Apollo, featuring not least the
tripod and omphalos which are connected with his Delphic role. 115
Evidence of this kind is very suggestive, in that it shows that the
Romans were by no means the only Italian people capable of attempt­
ing to manipulate Greek sentiment. It is perfectly possible that ideo­
logical weapons had a role on both sides in the conflict between Rome
and the Samnites, and that Tarentine and Samnite interests could have
coincided in the invention of a Spartan ancestry for the Samnites.
So far, I have concentrated on expressions of kinship in the
Tarentine fiction: the Samnites as Spartan colonists like the Taren-
tines, or the Samnites as true Greeks rather than barbarians. But it is
very probable that, in addition, the Tarentine fiction had a moral
dimension. Idealized Sparta has a long history in Greek thought.
According to Tigerstedt, the roots of idealized Sparta are to be found
111 112
Festus 150 L. Salmon, Samnium, 124 with n. 4.
113 114
Costabile, Istituzioni, 57. Thuc. 6. 3. 1.
115
Ve. 196; Costabile, Istituzioni, 53.
 Greek Contexts 57
in a Spartan context, addressed by Tyrtaeus to the Spartans them­
selves. This ideology was arguably increasingly directed towards
other states of the Peloponnesus as Sparta gained the upper hand in
the course of the sixth century. 116 During the Persian Wars, the
promotion of Spartan austerity, orderliness and internal political
tranquillity, of a naivety which is connected with getting down to
business without making a fuss, is surely to be tied up with Spartan
bids for the leadership of other Greek states on land and on sea. 117
During the course of the fifth century, the ideological polarity
between Sparta and Athens is emphasized by the outbreak of the
Peloponhesian War, and Sparta becomes increasingly an anti-
Athens, with political and moral dimensions. 118 Anxiety about the
political, social, and moral consequences of empire increases amongst
the Athenian élite during the Peloponnesian War, and such anxiety
seems justified by Spartan victory. 119 By the mid-fourth century,
Isocrates can observe that Sparta too has met with her come-uppance
at Leuctra, and can observe that imperialist ventures have exposed
Sparta to the same dangers as Athens. The austerity, orderliness and
self-discipline for which the Spartans had been famous had now been
replaced by greed, lawlessness, and licentiousness. 120 A now dead
Sparta continues to be praised none the less, appearing increasingly in
philosophical treatises. 121
Thus Sparta has such moral weight by the late fourth century that it
is hard to imagine that the Tarentine fiction of Spartan involvement in
the origins of the Samnites was without a moral dimension. Certainly,
later authors attributed to Samnites and Lucanians various ethno­
graphic details which are reminiscent of idealized Sparta. For
Strabo, the Samnite marriage-custom whereby the aristoi ('best')
youths are paired up with the aristai girls is one conducive to areté
(*virtue'),122 while for Justin the Lucanians have followed admirable
Spartan principles in educating their young. 1 2 3 It is also interesting
that Aristotle attributes to the Oenotri, the supposed prehistoric
ancestors of southern Italians, the institution of syssitia, the Spartan
mess-system much praised by ancient authors for its moral worth. 124
116 l17
Tigerstedt, Legend of Sparta, i. 44 ff. Ibid. 79 ff.
118 ll9
Ibid. 113 ff. Ibid. 156 ff.
120
Areopagiticus 7, cf. Tigerstedt, Legend of Sparta, i. 185 ff.
121 122
Tigerstedt, Legend of Sparta, i. 228 ff. 5. 4. 12 = p. 250 C.
123
Pomp. Trog. ep. Just. 23. 1. 3-7.
124
Ar. Pol. 7. 10. 1329b; cf. Xen. Lac. Pol. 5. 4-7 for the moral and social worth of
syssiti a.
58 Greek Contexts
Sabines too are attributed 'Spartan' features such as a warlike char­
acter, austerity, and disciplina.125 The Lucanians (and their supposed
ancestors, the Oenotri) are no surprise here: I shall argue below that
they actually classed themselves, and could thus be legitimately
classed, as 'Samnites ' in the fourth century.126 The Sabines are rather
more problematic, but it is possible that they were included in the
Tarentine package as the Samnites' ancestors:127 in the context of
fourth-century confrontation with Rome, the more peoples that could
conveniently be linked in by tales of kinship to Tarentum, the better.
In addition, D'Agostino and Mele have drawn some interesting
conclusions about the moral symbolism of a strange story which
appears in Cicero's De Senectute.12* Cicero makes Cato claim to
have got from his Tarentine host Nearchus the story of an encounter
in the presence of Plato between the Pythagorean Archytas of Tar­
entum and the Caudine Pontius Herennius, described as father of the
general Gaius Pontius Telesinus, who led the Samnites against Rome
at the battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BO On this occasion,
apparently, Archytas was discussing the role of voluptates ('plea­
sures') in detracting from virtus and temperantia, and as the cause
of the fall of states as well as private ruin.129 Archytas was apparently
famous for such speeches: in Aristoxenos of Tarentum's biography of
Archytas as related by Athenaeus, Archytas is again denouncing
pleasure, but this time he has an opponent, Polyarchus, who is
defending pleasure. There is clearly a political dimension to this
version of the dialogue, and, on one level at least, we have a
moderate, reasonable Tarentum versus a hedonistic, tryphé ('deca-
125
e.g. Serv. Auct. ad Verg. Aen. 8, 638; D.H. Ant. Rom. 2. 49. 5.
126
Ch. 5, s. 5 below.
127
Cf. Strabo 5. 4. 12 = p. 250 C for the supposed Sabine origins of the Samnites.
128
Cic. De Senectute 41, *haec cum C. Pontio Samnite, patre eius, a quo Caudino
proelio Sp. Postumius T. Veturius consules superati sunt, locutum Archytam Nearchus
Tarentinus hospes noster, qui in amicitia populi Romani permanserat, se a maioribus
natu accepisse dicebat, cum quidem ei sermoni interfuisset Plato Atheniensis, quern
Tarentum venisse L. Camillo Ap. Claudio consulibus reperto. ' ('Nearchus of Tarentum,
our host, who had remained in the friendship of the Roman people, said that he had
heard from older people that Archytas discussed these matters with Gaius Pontius the
Samnite, the father of the man by whom the consuls S purius Postumius and Titus
Veturius were beaten at the Battle of Caudium, when Plato the Athenian was also
present at the debate: Plato, I find, came to Tarentum when L. Camillus and Appius
Claudius were consuls.*) cf. B. D'Agostino, 'Voluptas et Virtus: il mito politico della
"ingenuità italica" \ AION(Arch.) 3 (1981), 117 ff.; A. Mele, '11 pitagorismo e le
popolazioni anelleniche d'Italia1, AION(Arch.) 3 (1981), 61 ff.
T29
De Senectute 39^1.
 Greek Contexts 59
dence')-ridden Syracuse. An opposition of this kind can hardly be
imagined between Cicero's characters, although it is possible, in view
of interest elsewhere in the work in the moral opposition of Athens
and Sparta, that Plato's Athenian quality is in some way significant,
juxtaposed with the Tarentine/Spartan Archytas. 131
The version which appears in Cicero is certainly strange, and has
led some modern scholars to suppose that this is an example of
Cicero's own handiwork. 132 This will have to remain a possibility,
but I shall try to show that there are good reasons to suppose that this
story might have arisen in a Tarentine context. Giving a date to the
meeting between Archytas, Plato and Pontius Herennius has its
difficulties, 133 and some commentators have in addition been un­
necessarily embarrassed by the appearance of a Samnite in any
context which implies positive relations with any Greeks. 134 How­
ever, it is for my purpose quite irrelevant whether or not this meeting
and debate actually took place. What is interesting is that such a story
could be told, and the relevant question here is what might have been
the context of such a story. Once again, I would suggest Tarentum in
the 320s, when the Tarentines had good reason to want to present the
Samnites in a favourable light: how better than to represent such a
meeting of a Samnite leader with a great Italiot statesman and an
Athenian philosopher? 135
To return to the position of Pontius Herennius within the encounter
described in the De Senectute, it is worth noting that, elsewhere in the
work, M \ Curius and Tiberius Coruncanius are attributed the desire
that the Samnites and Pyrrhus would be converted to the side of
Epicurus, the Athenian sapiens and advocate of voluptas: in that
case, they could be easily beaten by the Romans. 136 The fact that
the Samnites and Pyrrhus are such threats to Rome is therefore
130
Aristoxenos fr. 50 Wehrli(2) = Athenaeus 12. 545a.
131
This is the suggestion of D'Agostino, 'Voluptas et Virtus\ 125.
132
For criticism of this view, see ibid. 122.
133
For problems in dating the meeting, see Salmon, Samnium, 121 n. 3.
134
Salmon, Samnium, 121 is not altogether comfortable with the idea, but gets
around his anxiety by pointing out that Pontius is a Caudine: Tontius was an aristocrat
of the Caudini, living close to Hellenic influences. Such a person might have acquired
some taste for literature, but it by no means follows that his ruder fellows, the Samnites
135
in general, had done so.' Cf. ibid. 121; D'Agostino, 'Voluptas et Virtus*.
43; the story told at De Senectute 55-6 of M \ Curius Dentatus' continentia and
disciplina when offered gold by the Samnites belongs to an alternative tradition
according to which the Samnites are not good examples of frugality: see Ch. 2 s. 6
below.
6o Greek Contexts
presumably to be attributed to their lack of indulgence in voluptates,
to the virtus and temperantia that are the antithesis of voluptates. It is,
then, reasonable to attribute also to the figure of Pontius Herennius
such overtones. Pontius Herennius crops up again in Livy*s account of
discussions of the Caudine Peace, giving wise counsel at an advanced
age. There is a vivid account of his arrival on the battlefield in his
plaustrum ('cart'), and Livy alludes to an older tradition concerning
this episode.137 The episode of the Caudine Forks is centred around
Roman hybris, and is unavoidably favourable to the Samnites. Both
these aspects work perfectly well in the context of a Roman source,
but it remains tempting to take seriously Livy's allusion to an older
tradition. Although it must be admitted that it is impossible to put a
definite date to either of these stories, D'Agostino and Mele make the
interesting suggestion that the figure of Pontius Herennius in the De
Senectute and in Livy's narrative of the Samnite Wars symbolizes
Italic virtus as constructed by Tarentine Pythagoreans. In particular,
the Tarentines' use of Samnite manpower could be portrayed, as Mele
suggests, in terms of Tarentine Spartans and their Samnite peripoloi
('special guard'), rather than in terms of the dependence on foreign
mercenaries that was felt to be characteristic of tryphé}3*
There are indeed other stories of an outward-looking attitude
displayed by the western Greeks towards non-Greeks, and these are
particularly associated with Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. Cer­
tainly, Tarentine and other Pythagoreans seem to have had no abiding
principle of being friendly and welcoming towards barbarians, and
were at times clearly on very bad terms with neighbouring peoples,139
but there is some evidence to suggest that Pythagoreans were felt to be
particularly able to make a virtue out of necessity when the need arose
in the latter part of the fourth century. The role of Aristoxenos during
this period is interesting in this context. Although he is attributed the
account of the regrettable barbarization of Paestum,140 he is elsewhere
137
Livy 9. 1—15; 9. 3. 9 for dicitur with reference to Pontius Herennius* arrival in his
l38
cart. D'Agostino, 'Voluptas et Virtus*.
139
e.g. Wuilleumier, Tarente, 67 ff., for evidence of varying relationships between
Tarentum and non-Greek peoples in the course of the fourth century; A. Adam,
'Remarques sur une série de bronze ou Tarente et les Barbares dans la deuxième
moitié du IV s. av. J.-C.\ MEFRA 94 (1982), 7 ff.. for contemporary Tarentine
ideology of Greeks against barbarians, cf. C. M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek
Coins (Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1976), 193 for the possibility that coins contemporary
with Archytas depicting Herakles wrestling with the Ne mean lion represent the struggle
of civilized Greeks against barbarians.
140
fr. 124 Wehrli(2) = Athenaeus 14. 632a.
 Greek Contexts 61

represented as claiming the extensive influence of Pythagoras not only

over the Italiot and Siceliot cities, but also over Italian peoples:
Lucani, Messapi, Peucetii, and Romans came to him according to
Aristoxenos, we are told. 141 This is something of a turnaround, but
understandable in the context of Tarentum's difficult position in the
last decades of the fourth century. Aristoxenos' portrayal of Pytha­
goras' friendly relations with native peoples might reflect a desire to
find in the past respectable precedents for present relations with
Tarentum's neighbours.

4. TAKING IT UP

The Greek/barbarian dichotomy was constructed in a particular

historical context. Under pressure, Greeks asserted their own super­
iority, but could also admit the Greekness of local peoples when this
suited them. What did local peoples make of this Greek discourse? In
my discussion of local uses of myth, I showed that early non-Greek
assertion of connections with gods and heroes was regularly directed
entirely towards a local situation. Adaptations of myth could be used
to enhance the power and prestige of the local élite, or to ennoble
local institutions. At this early stage, there is nothing to suggest that
the world of myth is perceived as belonging to a foreign culture, and
that appropriation of mythical motifs is therefore an assertion of
relations with a foreign culture. At an early stage, we tend to see
'mainstream' myths of heroic deeds appropriated, along with prac­
tices that we would associate with Greek élites such as banqueting,
horse-riding, and hunting. At most, we might suppose that participat­
ing in these activities, along with celebrating these activities through
the world of myth, is part of the 'language' in which élites were
expressing themselves. As the prestige of being specifically Greek,
rather than being identified as a barbarian, was enhanced, there is
apparently increasing appropriation by non-Greek communities of
myths less favourable to themselves, but ones which nevertheless
141
Porph. VP 22 (cf. Diog. Laert. VP 8. 14, Cic. Tusc. Disc. 4. 1 for Pythagoras*
meeting with barbarians without mention of their source); A. Mele, *La Megale Hellas:
aspetti politici, economici e sociali*, Mégale Hellas: Nome e immagine (Atti del 20e
convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia, Taranto 2-5 ott. 1981) (Taranto, 1983), 33 ff.,
argues interestingly that Megale Hellas itself is a Pythagorean concept. For other
explanations of the name, see Heurgon, Rise of Rome, 81-2.
62 Greek Contexts
assert their own particular connection with a common Greek world.
This common Greek world now asserts its Greek quality specifically,
while this quality is coveted and esteemed by other communities.
Sometimes, assertions of connections with the Greek world are
actually directed towards the Greek world: if barbarians want to
make friends with Greek cities, it is in their best interests to present
themselves as good philhellenes. For example, we have already seen
how both the Samnites and the Romans apparently exploit the anxiety
of the people of Neapolis in 327, each proclaiming themselves to
be worthier protectors of precious Greekness. It is interesting too
that, according to the Elder Pliny, the Romans put up statues of
Pythagoras and Alcibiades in the comitium ('assembly') on instruc­
tions from the Delphic oracle bello Samniti ('in the Samnite War')
to put up statues of the 'wisest and bravest of the Greeks'. This
notice, which must be related to an early phase of the conflict
between Romans and Samnites, baffled Pliny, indicating the dis­
tance between his 'thought-world' and that of the late fourth
century BC. It is a precious indication of Roman concerns before
Alexander dominated the consciousness of the known world, and
reveals the integration of Rome within the broader ideology of
central and southern Italy.
The choice of Pythagoras is particularly interesting in view of the
association of the philosopher and his Pythagorean followers with a
more outward-looking attitude towards non-Greek peoples which, I
have argued above, was happening in a Greek context in the late
fourth century BC. It may be that the Romans felt that, at this time,
this association meant that Pythagoras was a particularly good 'way
in* to the Greek world for non-Greek peoples.142 Alcibiades surely
owes his place to traditions favourable to him, particularly regarding
his pivotal position with regard to the Sicilian expedition. His Athe­
nian character is surely important, both from the point of view of
providing a counterbalance to the Spartan ideology surrounding the
Tarentines and their allies, and with regard to Roman self-definition at
this time by appeal to the imperial image of Athens.143
142
NH 34. 26. A. Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins (Ann Arbor, 1965), 346.
suggests that the Roman erection of the statue of Pythagoras is a gesture directed
towards Magna Graecia; cf. Mele, 'Il pitagorismo*.
143
For the significance of Alcibiades, see esp. F. Zevi,4Considerazioni sull'elogio di
Scipione Barbato', St. Misc. 15 (1970), 65 ff.
 Greek Contexts 63
As for the Samnites themselves in the later fourth century, it may
be significant that it was clearly thought to be credible that the
Samnite leader Pontius Herennius should be found in discussion
with Archytas of Tarentum. A late fourth-century BC oboi from the
Calvi Risorta hoard, of Tarentine type, with the legend Peripolon
Pitanatan ('of the Pitanate guard') might just be relevant to the issue
of the extent to which the Samnites were party to the 'invention' of
their Spartan origins. Unfortunately, very little can be known about
this issue: who coined it, and for whom was it coined? One possi­
bility, however, is that it was coined by the Tarentines to pay their
Samnite friends. If this were the case, it might provide further
evidence that the Samnites were party to the Tarentine 'invention'. 144
The assertion of connections with the Greek world is undoubtedly
felt to confer prestige on non-Greek peoples, and the 'snob-value' of
Greek culture outlasts by far the imperial prestige of Athens or
Macedon. Greek cities continued to assert to the outside world the
value of Greekness by, for example, controlling admission to their
festivals. 145 Nor was the prestige of Greek culture inhibited by Roman
superiority in terms of power. From a Greek point of view, the debates
of Naples and Heraclea in 89 BC over whether or not to accept the
Roman citizenship surely reflected not only anxiety about heavier
burdens, but also concern that their prestigious Greekness could be
compromised in the eyes of other Greeks by such a visible loss of
independence. 146 From a Roman point of view, Cicero goes on
sprinkling his letters with self-conscious bons mots and collecting
Greek objets d'art for his library whilst remarking that the Sicilians
are not really up to Latinitas, let alone the Roman citizenship: 147
Greek remains very much the cultural language used to assert mem­
bership of the Mediterranean élite. Particularly during the 'boom' of
the later second century BC, public and private buildings clearly

144
See M. H. Crawford, Coinage and Money under the Roman Republic (London,
1985), 28, with Appendix 4, 282. For the argument that the legend Peripolon Pitanatan
refers to the Samnites, see B. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford, 1911). Wuilleumier,
Tarente, 81, makes the strange suggestion that these Pitanates were survivors of
Archidamus' forces.
145
See M.-F. Basiez, L'Étranger dans la Grèce antique (Paris, 1984), 284-5.
146
Pro Balbo 21; for the idea that Greeks were worried about burdens that Roman
citizenship would involve for them, see Lepore, *Le città italiote*, 91.
147
Sicilians: Ad Att. 14. 12.
64 Greek Contexts
inspired by Hellenistic models sprang up all over Italy: in urbanised
Pompeii, private housing with elaborate entrance-ways;148 in the
remoter, poorer Central Apennines, impressive cult-centres with
which members of the élite were closely associated. Such association
with the Greek world was expensive and announced prestige, collec­
tive, or individual.149
It is, nevertheless, important to emphasize that appropriation of
Greek culture is by no means uniform, and that cataloguing Greek
influence is meaningless without considering it within the contexts of
individual societies. A variety of responses to Greek culture can be
observed amongst Italian peoples. As we have seen, Bruttian Petelia
becomes a Greek city, and is recognized officially as such at Del­
phi.150 The cases of 'Oscanized' Campania and Paestum are very
different. Above all, one might think of 'Return of the Warrior'
scenes popular in Campanian and Paestan tomb-painting and vase-
painting particularly of the fourth to early third centuries BC, a vivid
indication of the preoccupations and self-definition and self-assertion
of non-Greek élites of central Italy. The iconography and the dating of
different types of scene has now been analysed very effectively by
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo,151 while the cultural contexts had
already been discussed with typical insight by Frederiksen,152 in an
article which remains formative for the understanding of culture and
society in ancient Italy.
A 'Return of the Warrior* scene within Paestan or Campanian
iconography will include the figure of a warrior on horseback,
greeted by a woman (presumably the lady of the house), and will
148
e.g. the Casa di Epidio Rufo built right on the Via dell'Abbondanza, with an
extremely imposing façade. L. Richardson, Pompeii (Baltimore, 1988), 112 suggests
that it was built precisely as a showpiece. Cf. the suggestion of P. Gros, Architecture et
société (Brussels, 1978), 26 that certain features of the secondary atrium of the Casa del
Fauno are paralleled only in the public building of the Hellenistic world, or in the
palace-complexes of Hellenistic monarchs.
149
See esp. La Regina, 'Il Sannio'; for the recurrence of the gens Staia in association
with second-century monumental building in Samnium, at Pietrabbondante, Campo-
l5
chiaro, and Vastogirardi, see Po. 13-16; 19; 30; 33; 73. ° Cf. n. 67.
151
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria*; A. Pontrandolfo Greco and
A. Rouveret, ideologia funeraria e società a Poseidonia nel IV sec. a.C.\ in G. Gnoli
and J. P. Vernanl (eds.), La Mort: les morts dans les sociétés anciennes (Cambridge,
1982), 299 ff.; cf. A. D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and
Sicily (Oxford, 1967), 398-9; for particularly fine examples, see New York GR 998
(ibid., pi. 158, 1) and Louvre K 276 (ibid., pi. 160, 1).
152
M. W. Frederiksen, 'Campanian Cavalry: A Question of Origins', DDA 2. i
(1968), 3 ff.
 Greek Contexts 65
quite regularly display features alluding to the defeated enemy, either
in the form of a figure of a prisoner, or in the form of captured
clothing and arms carried by the horseman. Within the context of
painted tombs, the 'Return of the Warrior' is a favourite theme, and
will form one panel in a complex of scenes from the life of the dead
individual, plus scenes referring to the funerary ritual, funerary games
for example.
The iconography of 'Return of the Warrior' scenes, and the ideol­
ogy of the warrior represented within them, illustrates the cultural
complexity of these societies, and the composition of the scene itself
surely owes something to Apulian representations of young warriors
in distinctively non-Greek clothes with their horses, while a woman
pours a libation. The earliest known Apulian examples are those of
the Sisyphus painter, two bell-craters showing non-Greek warriors.
These scenes in turn seem to owe something to Beazley's 'Warrior
Leaving Home' scenes on Attic Red-Figure vases, although in these
latter cases, the horse is not a feature. 153
The centrality of the warrior on horseback in Paestan/Campanian
iconography is surely further indication of close cultural interaction in
southern Italy. The actual organization of the 'Campanian cavalry'
probably owes much to Chalcidian influence while the Campanian/
Paestan horseman also surely partakes in the prestige of equestrian
activity which by now belongs to the common ideological language of
Greek and non-Greek élites in central and southern Italy. 154 The
occasional presence of Nike in some later paintings, with or without
her chariot, is an indication of how the Macedonian ideology of
victory was widely appropriated. 155 Occasionally, the warrior him­
self is portrayed in Greek clothing, or at least in clothing which is not
distinctively 'Italic'. What is all important, however, is that the
prestige of belonging to an élite world, within which the shared
ideological language is very much Greek, is associated with self-
assertion within culturally specific ways. The warrior's clothing is
usually distinctively 'local', while the woman's clothing is always
153
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria* (1985), 96; cf. J. D.
Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (2nd edn., Oxford, 1963), 595/69, 599/6,
631/3, 798/148, 1045/5, 1124/1.
154
Frederiksen, 'Campanian Cavalry', esp. 2 1 - 2 , 15.
155
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria', 109, S. Weinstock, 'Victor
and Invictus*. Harvard Theological Review, 50 (1957), 211 ff.; S. Oakley, 'The Roman
Conquest of Italy*, in J. Rich and G. Shipley (eds.), War and Society in the Roman
World (London, 1993), 9 ff., 30.
66 Greek Contexts
'local'. Particular interest in the spoils of the defeated enemy may find
parallels in stories of early Rome,156 and is not a feature of Greek
representations. In the tombs, the paintings work as part of a whole
complex of the assertion of values and connections important to that
society specifically.
One of the most eloquent expressions of the complexity of the issue
of self-definition through iconography influenced by a number of
different cultures is found in one of the paintings from a Paestan
tomb discovered in the nineteenth century, and known now only
through drawings made at the time. Paintings on the walls of the
tomb, to be dated to the late fourth to early third centuries BC, show
scenes of the life of the dead man, with emphasis on his status as a
horseman and warrior, in a manner familiar in Paestan and Campanian
painting in general. On the two long walls, the horseman is shown in
full Paestan panoply, fighting an Amazon in one scene, and a Greek in
a Phrygian-type helmet in another. The helmet may be interpreted as a
Macedonian helmet which was adopted by the Tarentines in the late
fourth century BC. That we are meant to draw parallels between the
two scenes seems clear, and the motif of the Amazon indicates both a
real comprehension of Greek symbolism and the ability to redeploy it
to great effect.157 Through this comprehension and redeployment of
both Greek political iconography and the cultural language of Helle­
nistic élites, the Paestan warrior is represented as subduing a Greek,
who has taken on the barbarian role.
The non-Greek inhabitants of Paestum were apparently very closely
in touch with Greek culture, but did not require to be represented as
Greeks. These paintings act as a reminder that each society makes
unique use of the prestige of Greek culture in its self-definition.
The very different examples of Petelia and Paestum offer us
tantalizing clues about the different uses of Greek culture within
each society. But when a society is using not only art and institutions
to define itself, but also literature, the opportunities for the manipula­
tion of Greek discourse available to the user multiply, as do the
opportuntities now available to the interpreter. It is time to turn to
Rome.
136
Frederiksen, 'Campanian Cavalry', 5; cf. C. Nicolet, *Les Equités campani et
leurs representationsfigurées*,MEFRA 74 (1962), 463 ff.
137
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria', 120-1; for the theme of
Greeks and barbarians as it appears in fourth-century southern Italian iconography, see
Adam, 'Tarente et les Barbares*.
 2

Roman Contexts

INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPED IMAGES

Not from such parents as these were born the youth who fouled the sea with
Punic blood, and brought low Pyrrhus, and Antiochus the Great, and terrible
Hannibal, but the manly offspring of country soldiers were they, taught to turn
the clods of earth with Sabellian hoes, and to carry home hewn logs to please
their strict mother . . .1
By the Late Republic, it was common for ancient authors to locate
moral excellence both in the past and outside the city of Rome. In
Horace's poem, from which I quote above, contemporary Rome is
characterized by sexual and political dissipation, infected by foreign
luxury, almost brought to her knees by recent foreign campaigns, her
decadence summed up, significantly, by the image of an adulterous
matura virgo ('grown-up girl'). 2 Images of a contrasting, rustic,
pristine, masculine Italy abound in literature of the Late Republic
and Early Empire, highlighting the immorality of the city. They occur
in the context of the ideology of novitas, as innocents duped by
calculating Romans, and as staunch upholders of old-fashioned ideals
long-forgotten in the decadent days of the Julio-Claudians.3 As
exemplars of moral excellence, peoples of the Central Apennines

1
Hor. Odes 3. 6 3 3 - 4 1 .
2
Odes 3. 6. 2 1 - 4 . For Augustan emphasis on female behaviour as a focus of moral
renewal, see e.g. Suet. Aug. 6 4 - 5 ; S. Dixon, The Roman Mother (London, 1988), 71 ff.
3
e.g. Sail. BJ 85 for Marius on the nobiles\ T. P. Wiseman, New Men in the Roman
Senate 139 BC-AD 14 (Oxford, 1971), 113 for the attribution to the novi homines of 4all
the ancient virtues of the central-Italian hill people'; Livy 1. 45 for the Sabine duped by
the Roman in the sacrifice of a cow to Diana: the state of the sacrìfìcer would be caput
rerum; Tac. Ann. 3. 55. 8 ff. for the effect on the morality of the Roman élite of the
entry of austere Italians into the Senate under Vespasian; cf. 16. 5 for municipals at
Nero*s performances.
68 Roman Contexts
are predominant, characterized frequently as Herodotean 'rough
peoples from rough lands', as austere and manly soldiers.4
These stirring images were the starting-point of Salmon's recon­
struction of Samnite society, and he attempted to match the known
archaeological and epigraphic record up with developed Roman
ideology of this kind.5 In Part Two, 1 discuss the specific features
of society in the Central Apennines that helped to make this area a
convincing moral and social antithesis to Rome: not all Italian peoples
succeeded in becoming figures of austerity for Rome, Etruscans being
the most obvious exceptions. In the present chapter, however, I
concentrate on Roman ideology, and my purpose is to show that
representation of peoples of the Central Apennines changed dramati­
cally over time in Roman literature, reflecting not only the changing
relationships between Rome and these peoples, but also changing
needs at Rome. Rome's practice of incorporating other peoples into
her citizen body was accompanied by a distinct ideological develop­
ment which drew on Athenian images of barbarians, country-people
and Spartans, but which resulted in a figure peculiar to Rome: the
incorporated outsider who embodied Rome's morally upright past.

1. R O M E A N D T H E G R E E K C I T I E S

I have already remarked on the importance of Rome's self-promotion

as a friend to the Greek cities of Italy in the course of the Samnite
wars, exemplified by the debate at Neapolis in 327, and by the setting
up of statues of Pythagoras and Alcibiades in the comitium ('assem­
bly').6 There is, in fact, a fair body of evidence to suggest that the
third century BC in particular was an important time for Roman self-
4
e.g. Strabo 5. 4. 2 = 241 C for bravery of Vestini, Marsi, Paeligni, Marnici ni, and
Frentani; Virg. Georg. 2, 167 ff. for Italy's excellent manpower, her 'genus acre virunT
*keen stock of men', a list of those peoples who were once Rome's greatest Italian
enemies, headed by 'Marsos pubemque Sabellam' *Marsi and the Sabellian youth*;
Pliny NH 3. 106 for the idea that the regio quarta is made up of fortissimae gentes\
Appian BC 1. 46 for the warlike aspect of the Marsi ; for some less desirable wild men in
a wild landscape, see e.g. Livy 9. 13. 7; for 'rough peoples, rough lands*, cf. e.g. Herod.
9. 122. 3.
3
e.g. Salmon, Satnnium, 59, 'Horace, who as a native from Venusia was in a position
to know, implies that a Samnite wife enjoyed respect and exercised authority in the
household: it was she who trained the children and she had a reputation for doing so
with strictness.' This statement is based entirely on Hor. Odes 3. 6. 33-41, in which the
staunch mother in the 'Sabellian' landscape features as the antithesis of the Roman
6
matura virgo at 1. 22. See Ch. 1, s. 3 above.
 Roman Contexts 69
promotion directed not only towards the Greek cities of Italy, but also
towards the Hellenistic world as a whole. During the third century,
particularly by means of the ending of the Samnite Wars, the war with
Pyrrhus, and the outbreak of the First Punic War, Rome was brought
very much more directly onto the 'map' of important powers within
the Hellenistic world, and it is thus no surprise to see her during this
period deliberately reaching out to the Greek world, and promoting
her credentials as a friend to Greek cities.
As Rome appeared on this 'map', and as her power became more
obvious, she met with a variety of responses from the Greek world.
On the negative side, in the First Punic War, Rome had presumably
been felt to be so despicable that another 'barbarian' power, Carthage,
could be hotly preferred by Philinus of Syracuse. 7 One leitmotif of
this period is Roman greed. In the 190s, T. Flamininus defended
Rome's actions in a letter to the Thessalian Chyretienses, claiming
that Rome never wished to take action for the sake of gain: this
defence suggests strongly the kind of accusations that needed to be
answered.8 Later on in the century, Metrodorus of Scepsis was
apparently complaining that Rome's sack of Volsinii in 264 BC had
been motivated by the booty of two thousand statues.9 At times,
Greeks would focus on the barbarian origins of Rome to explain
her present suspicious character: Rome's claim of kinship with the
Greek world through descent from Trojan Aeneas could be countered
by the insistence that Aeneas had never left Troy, and Greeks could
dwell on the less respectable aspects of Rome's alternative, 'indi­
genous' myth of origins, the Romulus-story. 10
Elsewhere, the Romans were perceived in a more positive light by
the Greek cities: after going over to Rome, the city of Locri issued
coinage depicting Pistis crowning Roma. 11 Rome herself can be seen
actively propagating positive images of herself at this time. For
example, at times, Rome and her defenders made use of the Greek/
barbarian polarity in a relatively straightforward way, setting her in
the role of civilized Greek against the barbarian. One coin-type issued
7
Polyb. 1. 14. 3 = FGH 174 F 2; for possible reasons for Philinus1 attitude, see F. W.
Walbank, 'Polybius, Philinus and the First Punic War*, CQ 39 (1945), 11 ff.
8 9
RDGE 33. 1. 12 = 5/G(3) 593. Pliny NH 34. 34.
10
For claims that Aeneas never left Troy, see J. Bremmer and N. Horsfall (eds.),
Roman Myth and Mythography (BICS Suppl. 52, London, 1987), 12. For unsavoury
aspects of the Romulus story, see e.g. apologistic tendencies of Plutarch and Dionysius
in telling the story of the Rape of the Sabine women: Plut. Rom. 14. 6; D.H. Ant. Rom.
3. 30 for the revealing idea that such a rape is 'an ancient Greek tradition*.
11
Crawford, Coinage and Money, (1985), 33.
70 Roman Contexts
by Rome either during or immediately after the expedition of Pyrrhus
portrays Apollo, surely alluding to the Greek association with him of
the victory of civilization over barbarians, as a result of the Greek
defeat of Gauls in 279 at Delphi, a victory that was much vaunted for
political and ideological ends by Greek states. The Romans too could
claim to have kept the barbarian Gauls at bay as a result of their
triumph at the Battle of Sentinum in 295.12 For the sake of compar­
ison, a few decades later, in the eastern Mediterranean, Attalos F s
claims of victory over Gauls in the 230s to 220s, and his monumental
use of images of defeated Gauls at Pergamon and at Athens are striking
illustrations of another case when thefigurativelanguage of the Greek
world is used to strengthen claims of membership of that world.13
Within literature, Timaeus found 'proof of Rome's Trojan ancestry
in the 'survival' of Trojan ritual in contemporary Rome.14 Early
Roman literature itself, with its strong interest in telling of Rome's
origins, located Rome firmly within the contemporary 'civilized'
Hellenistic world. When history-writing began at Rome with Fabius
Pic tor, Trojan tales and the story of Romulus alike were full of
Hellenistic wonders and etymological games: the justice of Rome's
contemporary conflict with Carthage was a reflection of her honour­
able, non-barbarous origins.15 Ennius' Annales too related tales of
Rome's origins, framed within a self-conscious, Callimachean re­
creation of Homer. Rome's own epic account of herself was set
firmly within the tradition of sophisticated Hellenistic poetry.16
12
G. Nachtergael, Les Galates en Grèce et les Sôtéria de Delphes (Brussels, 1977),
esp. 175 ff., and 295 ff. for the institution and celebration of the Soteria; for the Roman
coinage, see M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge, 1974), no. 15;
cf. Crawford, Coinage and Money, 30 ff.
13
J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (Cambridge, 1986), 79 ff.
14
Polyb. 12. 4b = FGH 566 F 36; for possible motivation of Timaeus, see A.
Momigliano, 4Atene nel IH secolo a.C. e la scoperta di Roma nelle storie di Timeo
di Tauromenio', Riv. stor. ital. 11 (1959), 529 ff.
13
e.g. the miraculous white sow, fr. 4 P.; for discussion of Fabius Pictor's audience,
see Badian, T h e Early Historians*, 2-7; cf. suggestion of Ogilvie, Livy Books 7-5, 53,
that the first extended Roman account of the rescue of the Twins, occurring in Fabius
Pictor fr. 5b P. may have been directly influenced by Sophocles* Tyro; NB S. West,
'Lycophron Italicised*, JHS 104 (1984), 127 ff., 146 for the comparatively late date
(between 168 and the late first century BC; it is hard to be more precise) of Lycophron
Alex. 1226-31, rendering discussion of these lines irrelevant here.
16
For Ennius* Callimachean dreams of Homer, see Ann. 2 - 3 , with Sk. p. 148 on
Callimacheanism; A. S. Gratwick, 'Ennius* Annales\ in E. J. Kenney and W. V.
Clausen (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, ii: Latin Literature
(Cambridge, 1982), 60, cf. 66 ff. on the importance of Ennius' role in Hellenizing
the form of the Latin epic.
 Roman Contexts 71
Rome's use of the Greek/barbarian polarity was not, however,
always as simple as this. Rome did not always promote herself
straightforwardly as a Greek city, but can also be seen exploiting
her ambiguous position of both sharing in the Greek world and having
an identity separate from this. At other times, she actually exploited
her 'barbarian' status. Polybius describes the appeal of the Mamertini
at Messana to Rome in 270 BC, on the grounds of homophylia ('being
kin'). 17 In what sense exactly could the Oscan-speaking Mamertini 18
consider themselves to be homophyloi to Rome? One explanation
might be that the Mamertini had absorbed, and were exploiting in a
novel way, the Greek dichotomy of Greeks/barbarians. Certainly, it is
clear from Plautus that, in the early second century BC, Romans could
find it amusing to hear themselves portrayed as barbarians,19 while
being scandalized by Greek references to themselves as Opikoi, the
supposed prehistoric ancestors of Oscan-speaking peoples. 20 The
Mamertini could, then, appeal to the Romans as fellow barbarians,
non-Greekness being the principle of kinship.
Elsewhere, Rome's ambiguous position is exploited through myth.
On a coin-type of the post-Pyrrhan period, Hercules is portrayed,
along with the She-Wolf and Twins. 21 This is an interesting combina­
tion: the assertion of connection with Herakles was very popular in
Italy with Greeks and non-Greeks alike, 22 perhaps not only because of
the myths of his travels, but also because he was a supremely
adaptable figure. For Rome, Hercules carried with him none of the
problems that might be associated with Trojan Aeneas, enemy of
Greeks, and perhaps this consideration was subsequently to lead
Fabius Pictor to choose Hercules as the Romans' ultimate ances­
tor.23 But on this coin-type, the portrayal also of the She-Wolf and
Twins marked out the uniqueness of Rome: by setting herself apart to
this extent, Rome reserved the possibility that she would not just be an
17
Polyb. 1. 50.
18
Ve. 196 for an Oscan building-inscription, in which meddices (Oscan magistrates)
together with the touto Mamertino (Mamertine people) oversee the construction or
19
reconstruction of a temple to Apollo. e.g. Cas. 747; Tri. 19.
20
Pliny NH 29. 14.
21
Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, no. 20 (269-266 BC).
22
e.g. Bayet, l'Hercule romain, for the spread of Herakles in Italy from the age of
Greek colonization onwards; cf. for Herakles amongst the Paeligni, Van Wonterghem,
4
Le Culte d'Hercule*, 36 ff.; for the Pentri and Frentani, see A. Di Niro, // culto
d'Ercole tra i Sanniti pentri e frentani: nuove testimonianze (Rome, 1977).
23
Taormina inscription, SEG 36. 1123.
72 Roman Contexts
equal partner in the Greek world. This ambiguity is perhaps more
clearly exemplified in Ennius' later depiction of the war with Pyrrhus.
The Trojan war was fought again, with Pyrrhus as Aeacidas, and with
clear emphasis on the Greekness of Pyrrhus' side.24 The outcome of
this Trojan war, however, was obviously a reversal of the mythical
conflict: this time the Trojans won.

2. ROME AND THE BARBARIANS

(a) Carthaginians
While thefirstRoman attempt at national history was written in Greek
and directed outwards towards the Greek world, consciousness of
Rome's new position in the world was soon to be reflected at home,
in the transformation of her physical aspect and in the creation of a
Greek-style epic for the Greek city. As Rome promoted herself as a
Greek city, she cast others in the role of barbarians. In thefirsthalf of
the second century BC, there are, not surprisingly, abundant references
to Carthaginians in Roman literature, and there is emphasis on
Carthaginian foreignness, effeminacy, and cruelty: Carthaginians
are descended from a woman,25 wear women's clothes,26 can be
referred to as Gugga27 (presumably a Carthaginian word used in a
derogatory way), sacrifice children,28 and bury their enemies waist
deep before lighting a fire around them.29 These portraits are remi­
niscent offifth-centuryBC Athenian representations of Persians in, for
example, Aeschylus' Persae and Aristophanes' Acharnians.30 It is
surely altogether likely that Rome's images of Carthage were actu­
ally informed by this Athenian discourse. This is not to suggest that
Rome's construction of Carthage was any less dynamic, but pre­
existing stereotypes commonly inform the way in which an indivi­
dual or group is perceived, and, in particular, the kind of features upon
24
Ann. 167 (Sk.) for Pyrrhus as Aeacidas cf. 197 (Sk.).
25
From Dido: Enn. Ann. 297 (Sk.).
26
Plaut. Poen. 1303 for mulierosum genus ('womanish species*); cf. 1304 for hanc
amatricem Africam ('this African sweetheart': the feminine is surely significant); cf.
27
Sk.'s note on Enn. Ann. 297. Plaut. Poen. 977.
28
Enn. Ann. 214 (Sk.), 'Poeni soliti suos sacrificare puellos* (*Carthaginians accus­
tomed to sacrifice their own little children*). For 'dispassionate* language such as is
found in this line as a distancing technique in ethnography, see Hartog, The Mirror of
29 30
Herodotus, 256. Cato ORF(4) no. 8, 193. cf. Ch. 1, n. 2 above.
 Roman Contexts 73
which attention is focused. 31 In these portraits of Persians/Carthagi­
nians, there seems to be a striking combination of fear and bravado:
foreignness and effeminacy may be ridiculed as inferior and therefore
unthreatening, but the discourse of womanish enemies has an added
edge. In ancient thought, women are not only weak, but also
uncontrollable and animal-like. Womanish enemies may likewise be
both weak and beyond male control at the same time: when
womanishness is juxtaposed with the cruelty supposedly typical of
barbarians, the mixture is potent. 32

(b) Italian barbarians

As long-standing and dangerous opponents of Rome, Carthaginians
must have seemed particularly well suited in Roman eyes to play the
barbarian foil to Greek Rome. However, Carthaginians are not the
only people who are cast in the role of barbarians by Rome in early
Latin literature: Italians too became barbarians. Dionysius of Hali-
carnassus was later to present this idea in its clearest form when he
mused on the question of how the Romans could have remained so
civilized when they received into their city so many barbarian (i.e.
non-Greek) peoples; 33 despite all assertions of Greek ancestry on the
part of numerous other Italian peoples, for him Rome remained the
only Greek city. This idea surely goes back to the Middle Republic,
when Rome was promoting her Greekness not only with an eye to
Greek opinion, but also in order to assert her own superiority oyer the
rest of Italy. Certainly in the early third century BC, Rome was clearly
expressing her role as conqueror in terms familiar both from Macedon
and from Athens: in these years, the emphasis on Nike/Victoria in
31
Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 102 ff. for stereotypes in ancient thought; cf.
McDonald, 'We Are Not French!', 20-1 for the selection of, and meaning given to,
actual differences on the boundary between 4us and them*, providing 'empirical
confirmation* of the constructed identity. Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies, 17-8 and 31
for the selective features perceived in gypsies by non-gypsies.
32
For both aspects of women, see e.g. Livy 34. 1-8 on the repeal of the Oppian law;
for depiction of a dangerous woman in power in the Middle Republic, see Polyb. 2. 8 for
Queen Teuta. The danger associated in ancient thought with women in influential
positions is not brought out in M. Lefkowitz, 'Influential Women', in A. Cameron
and A. Kuhrt (eds.), Images of Women in Antiquity (London, 1983), 49 ff.
For the representation of enemies/subjects as animals, in which the double aspect of
weakness/danger is also apparent, see e.g. Dio 57. 10. 5 for Tiberius' sentiments about
provincial government as shearing rather than flaying sheep; V.P. 2. 1. 29 for the snake­
33
like Maroboduus of the Marcomanni. Ant. Rom. I. 89.
74 Roman Contexts
monuments reported to have been set up in Rome is strong,34 while
Roma was modelled closely on Athena in the iconography of Roman
coins.35 We should not, of course, forget that images of victory inspired
by Macedon were popular in contemporary central and southern Italy,
as was the adaptable theme of Greeks versus barbarians.36 The only
real difference in the case of Rome was that such themes became
enshrined in the literature and iconography of the winning side.
The use of Praenestines within Plautus' plays is a particularly
interesting illustration of Roman portrayal of Italian peoples as
barbarians. At several points, jokes are made about Praenestine
Latin. The most interesting example occurs in the Truculentus.
Here, the rustic slave Truculentus is made to speak in non-Roman
Latin, using the form rabonem instead of the Standard' form arrabo-
nem (*pledge'). When Astaphium comments on this form as a beluam
('monstrosity'), Truculentus replies that he is using this shortened
form on the analogy of Praenestine conia for ciconia ('stork').37
Representations of foreign dialects and languages in Athenian and
Roman comedy frequently play on the idea that other languages and
dialects are not merely foreign from the point of view of the language
used by playwright and audience, but actually deficient by virtue of
their unintelligibility and indicative of stupidity on the part of their
speakers.38 In the Truculentus, it is surely significant that it is an
uncouth rustic slave39 who refers to the Praenestine example on which
he has coined his beluam, a description which is a comic exaggera­
tion, but which nevertheless plays on the ancient idea that foreigners
are subhuman.40 Here is an early example of the assertion of Rome as
the only city in Italy, rusticity beginning outside her walls. The town/
country polarity occurred in Athenian ideology with reference to
Attica,41 but the Roman version is very different. When Romans
34
Weinstock, * Victor and Invictus*; Oakley, 'The Roman Conquest of Italy*.
35
A. Burnett, iconography of Roman Coin Types, 3rd Century BC\ NC 146 (1986),
3Ó
67 ff. Cf. eh. 1, s. 4 above.
37
Truc. 687 ff. For real differences in Praenestine Latin, see R. Coleman, 'Dialectal
Variation in Republican Latin, with Special Reference to Praenestine*, PCPS 216
(1990), 1 ff.
38
Cf. e.g. Aristophanes* Scythian Archer in Thesmo. 1001 ff., and Hall, Inventing
the Barbarian, 19, 122.
39
See e.g. Astaphium*s comment on Truculentus* behaviour at True. 252 ff.: 'item
ut de frumento anseres, clamore absterret abigit; I ita est agrestis.* ('He frightens us and
drives us away, like geese from the corn; he is such a bumpkin.*)
40
Cf. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 51 ff.
41
See K. J. Dover, Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle
(Oxford, 1974), 12-14 for a useful collection of references and comments.
 Roman Contexts 75
represented other Italian peoples as rustici, they asserted their own
superiority and centrality at the expense of cities and tribes of Italy
which remained politically independent, and which maintained inde­
pendent cultural links with the Greek world and other communities. 42
Praeneste recurs in other humorous contexts in Plautus. In a
fragment of the Bacchides, there is a reference to Praenestine boast-
fulness, 43 while Praeneste also appears in the list of barbaricas urbes
('barbarian cities') by which Ergasilus swears his oaths in Plautus'
Captivi.44 This second joke surely works on the recognition that this
list of Latin cities includes very considerable, ancient cities which
were too close to Rome for her to be able to ignore with any comfort.
These cities were surely scarcely more 'barbarian' than Rome was
herself in the early second century BC. But in these Plautine contexts,
jokes about Praeneste being rustic or barbarian hit directly at the sort
of reasons for which she might quite reasonably be 'boastful'.
Although the remains of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at
Praeneste visible today are probably to be dated to the last decade
of the second BC at the latest, 45 there are indications in the literary
sources of a sanctuary at Praeneste which was certainly famous in the
first half of the second century BC. For example, Livy introduces his
story of L. Postumius Albinus' insistence in 173 BC that the Praenes-
tines should send a magistrate to meet him and provide lodging for
him at public expense (a hitherto unheard-of request) with a 'flash­
back' that gives a motive for this behaviour. Apparently, at some time
previously, when Postumius was travelling as aprivatus to sacrifice at
the temple of Fortuna, his visit was marked by no show of honour,
public or private. 46 Besides giving an example of the kind of high­
handed Roman behaviour which might have been associated with
Roman insistence that other cities in Latium were 'barbarian', this
episode also suggests the importance of the sanctuary of Praeneste in
the early second century BC, in that it attracted a high-ranking Roman.
Further indication of this is provided by another episode in Livy, in
which Prusias, King of Bithynia, offers sacrifice at the sanctuary in
167 BC. 4 7 Cicero, in the De Divinatione, also has Carneades remarking
on the temple of Fortuna in 154 BC. 48
42
The urbani tasfrustici tas polarity is important in Cicero, and the dismissal of non-
Roman Latin orators at De Or. 3. 42-6 on the grounds of their rusticitas well
exemplifies the ease with which Romans could ignore the fact that there were other
43 M
cities in Italy. 1. 12 (Lindsay). 879 ff.
45 46 47
Gros, Architecture, 50-3. Livy 42. 1. Livy 45. 44. 8.
48
Cic. De Div. 2. 87.
76 Roman Contexts
In the decades immediately following the time when Plautus joked
about the rusticity and barbarism of Praeneste, then, the sanctuary of
Fortuna was certainly associated with wide fame. Although this wide
fame cannot be proved to be contemporary with Plautus' remarks, it
might reasonably be supposed that Praeneste at the turn of the second
century BC was hardly to be associated literally with 'rusticity', or
even with 'barbarism' as usually understood in the ancient world. I
would suggest that these jokes about Praeneste reflect real anxiety
about a potential cultural and political threat to Rome, and seek to 'cut
her down to size' in a manner that is comparable with the jokes about
Carthage. The Roman Greek/barbarian discourse was adapted to make
assertions about superiority and centrality with regard not only to
peoples 'out there', but also over Italian peoples with whom Rome
had long had close cultural and political links, some of whom, even at
this stage, had a share in her citizenship.
While humour is an effective way of promoting a sense of ethnic
solidarity and superiority amongst members of the audience,49 there
are other devices for bringing a similar reaction. An ethnographical
approach can be very useful, as chosen images of other, foreign
societies may be used to assert the normality, centrality, and super­
iority of one's own society.50 It is significant that, in Ennius' Annales,
all 'ethnographical' details included were apparently concentrated on
the 'wrong' side: enemies of Rome. So Carthaginians are, as we have
seen, the 'tunicata iuventus' ('young men in shifts'), descended from
Dido, who sacrifice their little children.51 Italians do not seem to have
been associated by Ennius with quite such heinous crimes. Never­
theless, within Italy, it is those who have been recent enemies of
Rome who have alien institutions and habits. Under this heading
comes the Bruttace bilingui.52 Given the Bruttians' geographical
position, there is no reason to doubt that the Bruttians were actually
in some sense bilingual, and of course their knowledge of Greek is
another indication of the penetration of Greek influences beyond the
Greek cities and their immediate territories, a phenomenon which
archaeological evidence has made familiar.53 However, Skutsch has
49
See M. L. Apte, Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach (Ithaca,
1985), 119-120; Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 17-18.
50
Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus, 212 ff., for the ways in which, through
comparison and contrast, Greeks are the measure of other peoples in Herodotus.
31
Ann. 297; 214 (Sk.).
52
Porph. Ad Hor. Sat. 1. 10. 30 = Lucilius fr. 1124 M., Enn. Ann. 477 (Sk.).
53
For a good summary of evidence of Greek influences in inland Calabria (Brut-
tium), see Poccetti, Per un * identità culturale dei Brettii, 11 ff.
 Roman Contexts 11
shown that, in early Latin literature, bilingualism frequently also had
dubious moral associations, implying that the speaker was fallax and
captiosus ('deceitful' and 'fallacious'). For example, in the Poenulus,
Hanno's ability to speak both Carthaginian and Latin is seen as a sign
of his dubious moral character: being bilingual is explicitly linked
with trickery. 54 Given that this association does occur in early second
century Latin literature, and given the Bruttians' extensive support of
Hannibal against Rome and her allies during the Second Punic War, it
seems very likely that the Bruttians' bilingualism was linked at Rome,
and by Ennius, not only with the overtones of ethnic impurity and
inferiority associated with the Greek term diglossos, but also with
treachery and two-facedness.
Most strikingly, it is surely the siege of Capua which is being
described when the meddices (Oscan magistrates) are mentioned, 55
a distinctive, foreign institution in a treacherous city. It is also
virtually certain that Ennius is again referring to events at Capua in
the fragment 'de mûris rem gerit Opscus' ('the Opscus is waging war
from the walls'). The form Opscus is interesting. Skutsch suggests
that such a pronunciation would not have been current at Rome at the
time when Ennius was writing: the form Oscus would have been more
normal. If this is so, one needs to ask why Ennius prefers the form
Opscus here. Skutsch argues that this has to do with Ennius being a
native speaker of Oscan, an idea which must derive from the 'saying
of Ennius' about his 'three hearts'. 56 But Ennius' preference for the
form Opscus might be explained in a way which would suggest usage
more considered than a temporary lapse into Ennius' native language.
In using a form that was obsolete in Rome at the time, Ennius might
be emphasizing the foreignness and primitivism of the treacherous
Capua. These aspects might further be underlined by the fact that, in
the early part of the second century BC, Opikos, the Greek form of the
'ethnic', was apparently being used as a term of abuse to describe the
worst variety of Italian barbarian in existence. 57
Ennius' depiction of treacherous Capua might be seen within a
developing tradition of 'Oscan' inferiority. In Chapter 1, I suggested
that it was possible to see an 'ideological battle' going on between
Romans and Samnites around 327 BC, when both were competing over
54
Sk/s note on Enn. Ann. 477; cf. Plaut. Pers. 299; True. 781; Poen. 1032; Virg.
55
Aen. 1, 661. Enn. Ann. 289 (Sk.), with note.
56
Ibid. 291 (Sk.) with note. Operis incerti fragmenta annalibus fonasse tribuenda fr.
51
1 (Sk.) for Ennius* 'three hearts*. Pliny NH 29. 14.
78 Roman Contexts
Greek cities such as Neapolis. While Romans were playing up their
own philhellenic credentials, it would have made sense for them to
play down similar credentials asserted by the Samnites, and to exploit
Greek anxiety about Samnite pressure on their cities. 58 Anxiety of this
kind might be inferred at a comparatively early date from Thucydides*
depiction of Opikoi occupying a vast area of southern Italy in
prehistory, contemporary anxiety perhaps retrojected onto an ima­
gined amorphous tribe at this early period. 59 Considerably later, in
the early second century BC, Cato'S mention of Greek jibes about
Opikoi suggest the significance of Oscan-speakers in Greek imagina­
tion, as well as Roman desires to dissociate themselves from these
peoples. 60 In view of Samnite pressure on the Greek cities of the
south, it might well be supposed that Opikoi had derogatory associa­
tions at the time when Thucydides was writing as well.
Against this background, the massacre of citizens of Rhegium by
Decius' Campani during the early part of the third century BC becomes
very interesting. The story appears in its fullest versions in Polybius
and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. In both accounts, the citizens of
Rhegium appeal to Rome for protection, fearing attack from Pyrrhus
and the Carthaginians (according to Polybius) and from the Lucanians
and Bruttians (according to Dionysius). 61 The Romans give them a
garrison of Campani under the command of Decius. Decius begins to
envy the prosperity of the Rhegians and begins to plot a take-over. 62
According to Dionysius, Decius manages to persuade Rhegian tri­
bunes and stratiotai (Soldiers') to massacre the leading Rhegians by
claiming that these leading Rhegians are preparing to go over to
Pyrrhus. At this point, Dionysius' narrative becomes particularly
interesting: the real impetus for the massacre comes when Decius
receives a letter informing him of the intention of the Rhegians.
According to some sources, says Dionysius, Decius sent this letter
to himself, pretending that it was written by some personal friend.
According to other sources, he says, it was sent to him by the Roman
consul Fabricius, instructing Decius to massacre the Rhegians in order
to forestall their desertion to Pyrrhus.63 Dionysius himself expresses
uncertainty with regard to this matter: both versions are equally
possible, in his opinion. 64 It looks, then, as if doubts remained in
58 59
60
Cf. ch. 1, s. 3 above. 6. 2. 4.
Pliny, NH 29. 14, quoting Cato. For61citation and translation of the passage in
question, see Ch. 1, s. 2 above. Polyb. 1. 7. 6; D.H. Ant. Rom. 20. 4. 2.
62 63
Polyb. 1. 7. 8; D.H. Ant. Rom. 20. 4. 3. Ant. Rom. 20. 5-6.
64 4
Ant. Rom. 20. 6: £*et 6è Xóyov diupoxepa ( both are reasonable*).
 Roman Contexts 79
Greek minds: were Decius and his Campani acting under Roman
orders? In Polybius' account too, there is a hint of unease surround-
\n° the incident: after the massacre, the Romans do not intervene
immediately, as they are kept busy with warfare, but of course, as
soon as they have time, they punish the Campani, restoring, 'as far as
possible', their reputation for pistis ('good faith') amongst their
allies. 65 Polybius seems to be making apologies for the Romans,
and is perhaps seeking to deal with a tradition according to which
the action of Decius and his Campani was at least initially condoned
by the Romans, if not actually performed on Roman instructions. The
whole incident is very suspicious. The possibility certainly remains
that Romans were capitalizing on anti-'Oscan' feeling amongst the
Greek cities, in using the Campani to do a necessary, but embarras­
sing, job in preventing the Rhegians from going over to Pyrrhus.66
The theme of primitivism, thought to be a stock feature of a major
'type' of barbarian, in fact recurs with some frequency in early
Roman literary portrayals of Italians. In order to play her role as a
Greek city effectively, Rome concentrated not only on presenting her
current activities in an attractive light, but also on playing up the
civilized aspects of her very origins. While hostile Greeks apparently
dwelt on the hoarier aspects of tradition about Rome's remote past,
early Roman writers traced Roman descent from respectable Greek—
or, at the very least, Trojan—ancestors, and emphasized the miracu­
lous aspects of the city-that-was-to-be-Rome.
Meanwhile, images of primitivism such as we have found applied
to Italy as a whole in Greek discourse remained in Roman literature,
but were pushed outside the city of Rome, and before the arrival of
Aeneas. Such primitivism came eventually to have positive overtones:
Virgil's Latins are the descendants of the Age of Saturn, living
frugally in harmony with the gods, and without war, their peace
disturbed by the arrival of Aeneas and the Trojans. 67 But primitivism
65
Polyb. 1. 7.9-10.
66
For suspicious aspects of the Rhegium story, see F. Cassola, / gruppi politici
romani nel III secolo a.C. (Trieste, 1962), 171 —8; A. J. Toynbee Hannibal's Legacy
(Oxford, 1965), i. 101-2; Frederiksen, Campania, 222-3.
67
Virg. Aen. 7. 202 ff.: 'ne fugite hospitium, neve ignorate Latinos I Saturni gentem
haud vinclo nee legibus aequam, I sponte sua veterisque dei se more tenentem.' 'neither
flee our hospitality, nor let it escape you that we are Latins, descendants of Saturn, our
sense of justice not enforced by chain or laws, but of our own accord keeping within the
customs of the old god.* Cf. 9. 598 ff. for Rutulian Remulus on the contrast between the
hardy native way of life and Trojan effeminacy.
8o Roman Contexts
in ancient thought could have either positive or negative associations.
Primitive peoples could thus be Noble Savages like Virgil's Latins,
living in a state of desirable simplicity, and uncorrupted by the evils
of modern society; or they could be simply Savages, brutish and
unpredictable.68 In the works of writers of the early second century
Be such as Ennius and Naevius, primitivism seems to have had very
negative connotations. For Ennius, the reign of Saturn in Latium is
characterized by cannibalism.69 In Naevius the original inhabitants of
the site of Rome live in the woods and are not warlike, an attribute
which is surely not intended to be a compliment in imperialistic Rome
of the late third century BC,70 a world far removed from the anxiety
that followed the Civil Wars of the end of the Republic.

3. IMPERIAL ANXIETIES

Against this background of Roman self-assertion, within the first few

decades of the second century BC, some more sombre notes were
sounded. The acquisition of empire was thought to bring moral and
social problems, and to lead to decline. This was very much a feature
of Greek theories about imperialism,71 and was applied to Rome by
Polybius. It is surely no accident that Polybius, at the beginning of
Book 6, chose the Roman defeat at the battle of Cannae in 216 as the
time to review the Roman constitution at its peak before the con­
temporary period of violent change. The turning-point, in his opinion,
was the Roman acquisition of unrivalled power in the Mediterranean,
and the influx of wealth, an event which he times at the fall of the
Macedonian kingdom in 168 BC.72 In Polybius' account, what happens
to Rome at this time mirrors what happens to individual power-
systems when those in power grow complacent: violence, and divi-
68
Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 149 for the contradictory nature of Greek views
(taken as a whole) on barbarians, who can represent a Utopian primitivism or simple
69
inferiority. Enn. Euhemerus 60 ff.
70
Macrob. Sat. 6. 5. 9 {AdAen. 10. 551: silvicolae Fauni) = Naevius fr. 11 Strzelecki
(= fr. 21, Morel): 'silvicolae homines bellique inertes' ('men dwelling in the woods and
unskilled in warfare'). W. V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327—70
BC (Oxford, 1979), 9 ff. for Roman attitudes towards war in.the late third to early second
centuries BC.
71
e.g. Ar. Pol. 7. 1334°; Plato Laws 3. 698b-c; Harris, War and Imperialism, 127.
72
31. 25; cf. 6. 2. 3.
73
31. 25, 6. 57; cf. 6. 7. 6-7, 6. 8. 4-5, 6. 9. 5-7.
 Roman Contexts 81
sive behaviour on the part of the wealthier members of society.
Polybius, moreover, was not just imposing on Rome Greek ideas
about imperialism. In 167 BC, Cato the Elder portrayed in the Pro
Rhodiensibus the people of Rhodes perceiving Rome poised on the
brink of being the unchallenged world power, awaiting only the
elimination of Perses, a position which brought its own dangers:
Sed enim id metuere, si nemo esset homo, quern vereremur, quidquid luberet,
faceremus, ne sub solo imperio nostro in Servitute nostra essent.
But they feared that, if there was no one whom we feared, we would do
whatever we pleased, and they would be under our sway alone, in slavery to
us. 74
Just as in Thucydides' account of the Athenian debates concerning
Mytilene, acquisition of empire on the part of the Romans brought
with it the danger of hybristic behaviour towards other peoples. But
there is plenty in Cato too to parallel the bad behaviour on the part of
the Roman élite which is described by Polybius. For Polybius, the
'leaders' of the people acquire the lion's share of the new wealth and
use it to pursue a life-style which is directed towards 'courting the
people', and which is at the same time invidious to the people. This
behaviour is also problematic within the context of the élite, as the
pressure to compete in conspicuous consumption is increased.75 The
'people' who matter at this stage are surely primarily the army, and in
Cato's speech regarding his conduct in Spain, he claims that he gave
to his soldiers a pound of silver each, on the grounds that it was better
for many to go home with silver than for a few to go home with
gold. 7 6 This kind of statement surely represents acknowledgement of
the people's consciousness that, if they have fought in a campaign,
they deserve their fair share of the material benefits of that campaign.
Increased interest in the means by which the wealth of office-holders
was acquired and in the way in which it was used during the early part
of the second century may also reflect some degree of acknowledge­
ment of the consciousness of the 4 people'. 77
74
Gell. 6. 3. 16 = ORF(4) no. 8. 164 = Orig. 5. 3b (Chass.). cf. Gell. 6. 3. 14 =
ORF(4) no. 8, 163 = Orig. 5. 3a (Chass.) for the danger of luxuria and superbia
75
accompanying success. 6. 57. 5.
76
Plut. Cat. Mai. 10. 3 = ORF{4) no. 8, 54.
77
F. Millar, 'The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic\ JRS 74
(1984), 1 ff.; id., 'Politics, Persuasion and the People before the Social War (150-90
B C ) \ JRS 16 (1986), 1 ff., for democratic tendencies in Roman politics of the second
century BC.
82 Roman Contexts
At this stage, it is appropriate to wonder how much is new in the
second century BC. By the Late Republic, there was disagreement as to
when exactly to set the turning-point for the advent of moral, social
and political corruption, but there was considerable agreement on the
idea that the second century BC was the place to look for this turning-
point.78 Is there any reality in images of poverty and simplicity in the
Middle Republic, as retailed within the ideology of the Late Republic
and Early Empire? I shall argue below that it is possible to see signs
of the importance of the promotion of an ideology of austerity on the
part of Roman generals at the end of the fourth century and the
beginning of the third century BC. This ideology of austerity has
rather different overtones, however, from that promoted in the early
second century BC: in particular, austerity of Roman individuals
around 300 BC seems to be contrasted with the tryphé ('decadence')
of Italian enemies, rather than with luxury within the Roman state. It
is, then, possible that austerity was promoted as a positive value at
one point during the Middle Republic. Such an ideology of austerity
should not, however, be confused with actual poverty, or cultural
backwardness: after all, austerity was also being promoted in the
later fourth century by Tarentine Pythagoreans, and fourth-century
Tarentum is hardly noteworthy for poverty and cultural isolation.79
The sharp polarity between 'then' and 'now' within the ideology of
early second century BC Rome is a construct. It is clear that Rome in
the third century was culturally sophisticated, and one can see
evidence of individual self-advertisement on a grand scale in the
course of the third century, reflected in, for example, the attention
devoted to the tombs and elogia of the Scipiones,80 and the aims of
the Lex Oppia to curtail women's display.81
78
A. Lintott, 'Imperial Expansion and Moral Decline in the Roman Republic*, Hist.
21 (1972), 626 ff. for the various turning-points preferred in the later Republic. His
conclusion (638) that 'Gracchan propaganda' is behind the explanation of the political
failure of the Republic in terms of moral corruption resulting from wealth and foreign
conquest is, however, unacceptable. Polybius and Cato both conceptualize decline in
precisely these terms. If Polybius cannot strictly be called pre-Cracchan, there is no
79
doubt about Cato. Cf. Ch. 2, s. 6 below.
80
CIL i 2nd edn., 2. 6. 7 = ILS 1 = ILLRP 309; cf. Zevi, 'L'elogio di Scipione
Barbato' for ideological aspects of the elogium.
81
Livy 34. 1. 3: 4ne qua mulier plus semunciam auri haberet neu vestimento
versicolori uteretur neu iuncto vehiculo in urbe oppidove aut proprius inde mille passus
nisi sacrorum publicorum causa venere tur.' ('that no woman should have more than a
half-ounce of gold, nor wear multi-coloured clothing, nor ride in a horse-drawn vehicle
in city or town, or within a mile of one unless on public religious business.*)
 Roman Contexts 83
If images of poverty and simplicity in the Middle Republic are not
matched by the material record, it is worth thinking of other reasons
for the setting up of a rigid turning-point in the first half of the second
century BC. It is interesting and suggestive that Polybius chooses the
image of the disastrous battle of Cannae during the Hannibalic War
against which to set his account of Rome at her peak.82 While
Polybius reckons that Rome's three constituent political parts can
hope not to overbalance in peace time, it is in the face of common
danger from outside that he imagines these parts sticking most closely
together.83 Rome is at her most united, and at her social and political
peak, when her back is against the wall. It is in this sort of situation
that the exemplary actions of Horatius C o d e s and Brutus are per­
formed: personal sacrifice undertaken for the good of the state as a
whole. 84 For Ennius too, Roman virtues and Roman unity are appar­
ently admirably displayed during 'last-ditch' effort in warfare.85
While new levels of wealth and power were clearly perceived by
contemporary commentators to bring problems at Rome during the
second century BC, it is interesting that the image of 'backs against the
wall', pitched against the foreign enemy, symbolized for Polybius the
antithesis of contemporary corruption. It is possible that the percep­
tion of contemporary problems owed something to a post-war feeling,
images from the Hannibalic War being selected to emphasize the
supposed equalizing effect of war.
Against this background of perceived problematic behaviour
amongst the élite, members of the élite began to assert their avoid­
ance of corrupt environments. Polybius describes the exemplary
behaviour of Scipio Aemilianus as a young man: he goes out hunting
in the countryside, and thus avoids the contemporary evil tendency of
young and well-born Romans to stay in the city and indulge them­
selves in conspicuous consumption and the associated behaviour of
'courting the people'. 8 6 The city, where, presumably, conspicuous
consumption would be most effective, was becoming increasingly
problematized. Cato, in the Preface of the De Agri Cultura, addresses
his audience, wealthy individuals who might be expected to be able to
afford to buy the hundred-Zwgera farm which he recommends as the
ideal size. 87 Farming is certainly recommended as a good and safe
82 83 M
Polyb. 6. 11. Ibid. 6. 18. 6. 34-5.
85
Ann. 559 (Sk.), 4fortis Romani sunt quamquam caelus profundus' (*The Romans
are as brave as the heavens are high'); 562 (Sk.), 'nee metus ulla tenet, freti virtute
quiescunt' ('nor does any fear take hold of them: trusting to their valour they are calm*).
86 87
Polyb. 31. 25. For the hundred-iwgera farm, see De Agri Cultura 1. 7.
84 Roman Contexts
business, unlike trading, an alternative business rejected on the
grounds of its riskiness. But there are also important moral overtones
associated with farming, and these moral overtones are an important
part of the work as a whole:
at ex agricolis et viri fortissimi et milites strenuissimi gignuntur, maximeque
pius quaestus stabilissimusque consequitur minimeque invidiosus, minimeque
male cogitantes sunt qui in eo studio occupati sunt.
But from the stock of farmers come the bravest men and the most energetic
soldiers, and farming produces the most honourable and most secure income,
and the least invidious, and those who are engaged in it are the least
dissaffected.88
The chosen means of making money should not only be secure, but
should also avoid bringing ill repute to its practitioners. Usury and
money-lending, activities which are both rejected on moral grounds,89
might well be considered to be forms of abuse by the wealthy of the
less well-off, perhaps instances of the 'grasping' behaviour of the élite
and the subsequent resentment of the people which Polybius men­
tions. 90 What is, however, particularly interesting here is the connec­
tion between farming and soldiering. Although Cato's farmer is to be
an absentee landlord,91 his life-style is assimilated to that of the
peasant-farmer, and even the physical exertion associated with the
latter becomes his. This Preface is surely not 'tacked on' to the rest of
the work: there is throughout an emphasis on the master doing things
with his own hands, 92 and the morally laden language of physical
exertion is important in the work of Cato as a whole. 93 This imagery
88
For the hundred-iwgcra farm, see De Agri Cultura 1. 7., Preface, 4.
89
Ibid. 1. *> Polyb. 6. 57. 7 for pleonexia ('greed').
91
De Agri Cultura 2. 1, 'pater fami li as ubi ad villani venit, ubi larem familiärem
salutavit, fundum eodem die, si potest, circumeat . . . * 'When the paterfamilias comes
to the country-house, when he has greeted the household gods, let him make a tour of
the farm that day, if he can . . . *
92
For e.g. the paterfamilias making sacrificial cakes and helping with the manuring,
see De Agri Cultura 74-82. 5. Astin, Cato, 190 regards the Preface as irreconcilable
with the rest of the work: *it makes explicit reference to the type of the colonus, the
peasant farmer working his own farm, whereas the book itself is not directed at all to
this form of farming'; cf. 200-1.
93
Cf. e.g. Orig. 3. 8 (Chass.), *haut eos eo postremum scribo, quin populi et boni et
strenui sient* (*I utterly refuse to write about people unless they are good and exert
themselves*); ORF(4) no. 8, 18, 'maiores seorsum atque divorsum pretium paravere
bonis atque strenuis, decurionatus, optionatus, hastas donaticas, aliosque honores* Cour
ancestors gave a separate and different reward to those who were good and exerted
themselves: cavalry commands, adjutancies, honorific spears, and other honours').
There is nothing in Cato himself to justify the belief of Wiseman, New Men, 111, that
Cato's use of energetic vocabulary is to be related to his self-representation as a novus.
 Roman Contexts «s
of non-demeaning physical labour is highly important within the
discourse of decline associated with empire: moral rectitude is asso­
ciated with physical labour on the part of individuals and entire states
alike. Physical labour is a feature also of the images of equalizing
'last-ditch' effort in warfare which we have observed above, and
Cato's image of farmer-soldiers may represent an attempt to replace
the supposed equality of such battles with activity that can be carried
out in peacetime as well: members of the élite should be farmer-
soldiers just like the majority of their troops.

4. SABINE WORTHINESS

Cato in ea, quam scribsit de suis virtutibus contra Thermum: ego iam a
principio in parsimonia atque in duritia atque industria omnem adulescentiam
meam abstinui agro colendo, saxis Sabinis, silicibus repastinandis atque
conserendis
Cato, in the speech which he wrote 'about his virtues, against Thermus':
'From my earliest days I kept myself away for the whole of my youth in
frugality, hardship and hard work, by tending the land, the Sabine rocks,
digging up the flints and planting'.94
With Cato, a non-Roman landscape took on new overtones. For the
first time, as far as we can tell, there was interest in the austerity of
Sabines, or at least of their environment. Cato is here most probably
drawing a contrast between his own exemplary youth and subsequent
life, and the failings of Thermus. It is important to emphasize that,
although Cato was later to be made an early member of the family tree
of novi homines, it is surely not legitimate to read 'novus-ideology9
back to the early second century BC, and to interpret evidence such as
this fragment of Cato as an early example of the claim of a novus to
have superior moral credentials. 95 Claims to pursue a physically
energetic life-style while avoiding corruption are likely to have
been associated with model élite behaviour in the earlier second
century BC without reference to the novus/nobilis polarity which is
familiar from the pages of Cicero and Sallust. 96 It is important to
94
Festus p. 350 L. = ORF(4) no. 8, 128.
95
For Cato as a 'spiritual predecessor* of first-century BC self-proclaimed novi
homines, see Wiseman, New Men, 107-10. It should remain an open question whether
the ideology of novitas existed before the first century BC. Wiseman (111) is cautious
about applying it to Marius himself. e.g. BJ 85 for Marius' conti0.
86 Roman Contexts
emphasize the full force of the unusual use of abstinui here: the
implication must surely be that Cato kept his adulescentiam away
from something by his back-breaking activity on the land. The closest
parallel here (albeit a very Greek-style one) is surely Polybius' Scipio
Aemilianus avoiding the corrupt atmosphere of the city by going
hunting. 97 In both the Cato fragment and the anecdote about Scipio
Aemilianus, a non-urban environment is selected, along with a
physically strenuous activity. Here, however, the rugged, non-corrupt
environment has a name.
How much weight does saxis Sabinis carry in this passage? Plu­
tarch has the tradition that Cato's family came originally from
Tusculum but that Marcus himself was brought up on the family's
Sabine estate. 98 The family, as well-to-do cavalrymen, conceivably
had a variety of estates scattered around Rome. Certainly, by the time
of the composition of the De Agri Cultura, Cato had intimate knowl­
edge of the towns of southern Latium and northern Campania,?9 but
there is obviously no way of knowing exactly when he came to
acquire this kind of information. Cato may or may not, then, have
been deliberately selecting the Sabine landscape from a number of
alternatives. Even if he was not, however, this image of the rocky,
non-urban landscape of Sabinum is striking, and it is worth looking
for other clues about Sabinum as a special environment for Cato.
Certainly, Servius thought that Cato traced Sabine austerity inherited
by the Romans to the Sabines' supposed Lacedaemonian ancestry:

Cato autem et Gellius a Sabo Lacedaemonio trahere eos originem referunt.

Porro Lacedaemonios durissimos fuisse omni s lectio docet. Sabinorum etiam
mores populum Romanum secutum idem Cato dicit: merito ergo 'sevens', qui
et a duris parentibus orti sunt, et quorum disciplinam victores Romani in
multis secuti sunt.

However, Cato and Gellius say that they derive their origins from Sabus the
Lacedaemonian. Indeed, everything we read tells us that the Lacedaemonians
were very tough. Cato also says that the Roman people followed the customs
of the Sabines: so they truly deserve to be called 'austere', they who are both
the offspring of tough parents, and whose disciplined life-style the Romans,
their conquerors, have followed in many respects.100
97 98
Polyb. 31. 29. Cat. Mai.
1.1.
99
For Cato's 'shopping-list*, see De
Agri Cultura 135.
100
Serv. Auct. Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 638: *Romulidis Tatioque seni Curibusque sevens'
('between the sons of Romulus, and aged Tatius and austere Cures').
 Roman Contexts 87
I have discussed above the Tarentine 'fiction' of Spartan ancestry for
the Samnites during the latter part of the fourth century BC. 1 0 1 It is
possible that the Sabines, as the Samnites' mythical ancestors in the
Sacred Spring, were attributed Spartan ancestry in the same 'package'
as the Samnites. But objections have sometimes been made to
Servius' idea that Spartan Sabines appeared in Cato's work. In
particular, Dionysius of Halicamassus, in his account of versions of
Sabine ancestries, might be understood to be saying that there are two
distinct versions of Sabine ancestry: one, Cato's, in which the Sabines
are descended from Sabinus, son of Sancus, and another, one of the
'local versions', in which a Spartan colony is involved in the early
history of Sabinum. 102 Certainly, the Servius passage and the 'local
version' in Dionysius do not square exactly: the Servius passage talks
about an eponymous Spartan founder, Sabus, who does not appear at
all in Dionysius' 'local version'. It nevertheless remains possible, and
even probable, that Cato made some kind of reference to the Spartan
colony story. It is possible that he himself quoted 'local versions', as
he does with regard to other Italian peoples in the Origines}03 He is
also obviously interested in pre-decadent, classical Spartans as mod­
els for Rome: he apparently used the Leonidas story elsewhere in a
very positive context. 104 Objections to the Sabine-Spartan colonists
story on the grounds that Cato wanted to assert the indigenous
character of Italian peoples are misguided. 105
Whether or not Cato explicitly made the link between Sabines and
Sparta, what is interesting in the saxis Sabinis speech is that this
Sabine environment was expected to conjure up one image, and one
image only: austerity and a non-corrupt environment. Yet alternative
images of Sabinum certainly existed in antiquity. For example,
Dionysius of Halicamassus has a version of the story of Tarpeia,
101 102
See Ch. 1, s. 3 above. Ant. Rom. 2. 49. 2 = Orig. 2. 21 (Chass.).
103
e.g. Orig. 3. 4 (Chass.) for the version of the Thesunti Tauri ani; 2. 1 (Chass.) for a
thwarted attempt at an interview, 4sed ipsi unde oriundi sunt exacta memoria, in literati
mendacesque sunt et vera minus meminere.' (4But they themselves have lost the
memory of where they come from, are illiterate and liars, and scarcely ever tell the
104
truth.') Gell. 3. 7. 1-19 = Orig. 4. 7 (Chass.).
105 4
For this curious view, see Letta, I mores dei romani*. Cato in the Orig. in fact
frequently mentions the Greek origins of Italian peoples: 2. 18 (Chass. numbering
throughout): 'Intus coloniae Falisca Argis orta' ('inland are the Faliscan colonies
founded by the Argives'). 2. 15: Greek-speaking Teutanes at Pisa. 2. 22: Lacedaemo­
nian Sabines. 2. 24: Polites and the foundation of Politorium. 2. 26: Tibur founded by
Catillus, prefect of Evander*s fleet. 3. 2: Once a Lucanian Thebes. 3. 3; Petelia's wall
built by Philoctetes.
92 Roman Contexts
answers the need for a figure of Nature in which to locate values
supposedly vanishing in the Industrial era. His appearance as a
positive figure in British ideology follows also the brutal suppression
of the uprising of 1745, when this primitivism and independence are
no longer sensed as threats to British cohesion. His distinctive
'traditional' kilt, a recent invention, which was banned in the mid-
eighteenth century, was subsequently appropriated, adapted, and
made the official uniform of the Highland Regiments of the British
o . ™ „ 120
army.
While it is certainly likely that Varro was able to detect dialectal
difference in contemporary Sabine speech, it is very much more
doubtful that he was able to detect accurately all Sabine cultural
contributions to Rome in the Regal period. Although there is no
evidence to suggest that distinctive Sabine culture was suppressed
by the Romans in any way that might be compared with the Highland
Clearances of the mid-eighteenth century, it is doubtful that much
remained of Sabine culture that could be recognized as such by
Romans of the early second century BC, let alone by Romans of
Varro's day. The myth of Sabine ethnic distinctness, however, was
increasingly important in this era, enshrined by Rome.
This idea of 'special' Sabines seems to be turned on its head in a
fragment of Lucilius. In this fragment, Albucius is rebuked by
Scaevola for preferring to be addressed in Greek:
Graecum te, Albuci, quam Romanum atque Sabinum
municipem Ponti, Tritani, centurionum,
praeclarorum hominum ac primorum signiferumque,
maluisti dici.
You preferred to be called a Greek, Albucius, rather than a Roman and a
Sabine, a fellow-townsman of Pontius and Tritanus, centurions, famous men
and distinguished standard-bearers.121
Certainly, 'going Greek' is being ridiculed here, and this kind of
absurd and pretentious self-advertisement is frequently mocked in
Lucilius as a 'sign of the times'. But the joke is surely more
complicated here. In particular, it seems unlikely that sharing the
120
For a fascinating account of this process, see M. Chapman, The Gaelic Vision in
Scottish Culture (London, 1978), 13-23,210; Trevor-Roper, 'The Highland Tradition of
Scotland'; cf. McDonald, We Are Not French!, 2, for the need to establish national
integrity before alternative identities within the nation become acceptable and even
121
desirable. 88-91 M.
 Roman Contexts 93
origins of two individuals otherwise unknown to us, and of centur­
ions and signiferi (ranks which are surely to be distinguished from
hi^h-ranking military commanders, 122 would be something of which
Albucius could seriously have been expected to be proud. For the idea
that he would rather be considered to be Greek surely suggests that he
harboured pretensions of associating himself with the kind of indivi­
duals who, our sources suggest, were most involved in 'going Greek':
the Roman élite. 123 The joke has an added edge if being a Sabine was
already loaded with a kind of moral specialness and was associated
with the avoidance of exactly the kind of contemporary corruption of
the élite at Rome of which 'going Greek' was held to be a symptom.
The formula Romanum atque Sabinum is in itself interesting: perhaps
it hints at a special pride in holding the Roman citizenship on the part
of Sabines, a pride which could in turn be mocked as an indication of
their parvenu status. If this is so, there would be a neat inversion here
of the idea of special Sabines and their environment: Sabines are not
worthy avoiders of corruption, but nobodies.
Such an inversion of more positive associations of Sabines might
also have had a particularly up-to-date flavour in the last decades of
the second century BC. If moral virtue had begun to be located outside
the city of Rome by Cato, then a new ideology was available to
wealthy and prominent 'outsiders' when they made their bids for
office. If it were possible to be sure that Sallustian New Man Ideol­
ogy originated with Marius himself, then he would be an excellent
exemplar of the potential success of the ideology of the moral virtue
of 'outsiders'. 124 It is important to remember also that, in the last few
decades of the second century BC, there were increased moves to give
the Latins the Roman citizenship. These increased opportunities may
have encouraged resentment of 'outsiders' who were already enfran­
chised, such as Sabines and some Latins. There is direct evidence of
anti-Latin feeling being whipped up by Gaius Fannius amongst the
122
Cf. e.g. Persius Sat. 3. 77-87 for centurions as anti-intellectual boors interested
only in square meals; Hor. Sat. 1. 6. 73 for sons of centurions as bigfishin a small pond.
For 'going Greek* as letting down one's hair expensively, see e.g. Polyb. 31. 25;
Plaut. Most. 22-4: 'dies noctesque bibite, pergraecamini, arnicas emite, liberate: pascile
parasitos: opsonate pollucibiliter/ ('Drink your days and nights away, go Greek, buy
girlfriends, set them free: feed your parasites: spend a fortune on delicacies*), cf. Plaut.
Poen. 600-3.
124
For uncertainty about the authenticity of Sal lust's Marius as a self-proclaimed
novus homo, see D. C. Earl The Political Thought of Sallust (Cambridge, 1961), 28-40;
Wiseman, New Men, 110-11.
94 Roman Contexts
125
Roman people, but it would seem likely too that the older Roman
élite might have sensed a threat to their ascendency, particularly in
view of the connection between 'outsider' status and moral virtue. It
is interesting that, again in Lucilius, for the first time imitation and
derision of a 'rustic' accent occurs within the context of office-
holding: 'Cecilius pretor ne rusticus fiat' ('Let Cecilius not be rustic
pretor').126
Part of the joke here probably has to do with the cognomen of the
Caecilius generally identified here, C. Caecilius Metellus Caprarius:
Goatherd will be a praetor rusticus rather than a praetor urbanus}21
But the joke might also have played on interest in differentiating
between an urban Roman accent, and other Latin accents, which
could have been particularly acute when the influx into Roman
politics of new, Latin competition was on the horizon. With varia­
tions in accent, there would be a real difference which could be a
focus of attention and distinction, the urban Roman accent being,
predictably, the 'better' one. In this context, it may be significant
that Cicero later complains of the affected 'rustic' accent of one L.
Cotta.128 The ideology of morally virtuous 'outsiders' came to be
politically advantageous to some, and was resented by others.

5. INDIGENOUS ITALIANS

By the last few decades of the second century BC, new evils were
perceived, relating particularly to slavery. It was once a modern
orthodoxy to work into a wide-ranging economic model the testi­
mony of Plutarch and Appian regarding the Gracchan reforms. These
authors explain the motives of Tiberius Gracchus in terms of his
desire to alleviate the distress caused by the replacement of free
men by slaves on the land.129 Within the hitherto popular modern
125 126
lui. Vict. 6. 4 = ORF{A) 32. 3. 1130 M.
127
Cf. the joke about the praetor's rostrum (a snout like a goat's?) at 210-11 M.
128
De Or. 3. 42: 'rustica vox et agrestis quosdam delectat, quo magis antiquitatem, si
ita sonet, eorum sermo retinere videatur* ('Some like to adopt a country fied, unpolished
accent, with the object that their speech, if it sounds like this, may have a more old-
fashioned ring to it*). Superior morality might be advertised in the Late Republic not
only by means of such a 'rustic* accent, but also by a name. Wiseman, New Men, 257-8
comments that the cognomen Sabinus is sometimes used even by individuals who are
demonstrably not from the Sabine region: 'with its connotations of ancient virtue, the
name could be a moral as well as a geographical description*.
129
Plut. TG 8. 3; cf. 8, 7; Appian BC 1. 7-9, 26-37.
 Roman Contexts 95
model, the slave/free peasant polarity which is undeniably important
in these accounts was felt to be crucial to the understanding of actual
changes in land-use in the course of the second century BC. Signs of
interest amongst the Roman élite in 'big business', whether agricul­
tural or pastoral, such as we find in Cato, Varro, and Columella, were
particularly noted. 130 Interest in 'big business' on the part of the
Roman élite was seen in the context of the growth of capital follow­
ing on from Roman imperial conquests. 131 It was noticed that the
agricultural writers presume that much of the work on the farms in
question is to be done by slaves. 132 This modern model was further
encouraged by the moralizing complaints of Pliny the Elder and
Seneca about latifundia. These latifundia were supposed to be a
more precise term than the sources really suggest, were imagined to
be a widespread phenomenon, and were retrojected into the second to
first centuries B C . 1 3 3 Here, at first sight, was a comprehensible back­
ground for the reforms of Tiberius Gracchus: the expansion of the
estates of the Roman élite, and their reliance on slave labour, had
pushed out small farmers, who had migrated in large numbers to the
towns of Italy, and to the city of Rome itself.
Serious doubts are now being raised about this hitherto popular
modern scheme. In particular, archaeological evidence questions
assumptions that the interests of the owners of large estates were
necessarily opposed to the interests of the owners of small plots. 134
130
e.g. K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge, 1978), 48 ff.; Toynbee,
Hannibal's Legacy, ii, esp. 286-312.
131
e.g. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, 48: 'The profits of empire, were the single
most important factor in gradually building up the wealth of the Roman elite. A large
portion of the profits taken out of the provinces was invested in land, especially in
Italian land. Since the Roman upper classes got most of their regular income from land,
a general increase in their wealth was necessarily accompanied by the formation of
large estates/
Ibid. 55; Toynbee, Hannibal's Legacy, ii. 296-7 for an extraordinary passage in
which an imaginary 'literate Italian peasant' is reading Cato*s De Agri Cultura, and
'vvould have started either laughing or grinding his teeth at the first line of Chapter 1,
and so he would have continued to the end if he had not thrown the book down, half
read, in a rage.' These emotions would apparently have been induced by his reading
about the slaves on the farms described in Cato* s work.
133
For careful discussion of ancient use of the term latifundia, see K. D. White,
'Latifundia*, BICS 14 (1967), 62 ff.
134
See e.g. M. W. Frederiksen, 'The Contribution of Archaeology to the Agrarian
Problem in the Gracchan Period*, DDA 4-5 (1970/1), 330 ff., D. B. Nagle, 'The
Etruscan Journey of Tiberius Gracchus', Hist. 25 (1976), 48 ff., D. W. Rathbone,
'The Development of Agriculture in the Ager Cosanus during the Roman Republic:
Problems of Evidence and Interpretation*, JRS 71 (1981), 11 ff.
88 Roman Contexts
which he claims to have got from Fabius and Cincius, in which
Tarpeia betrayed Rome because she was interested in the Sabines'
bracelets and rings. These bejewelled Sabines occasion a comment
from Dionysius:
XpvooQópoi yàp r\aav o\ Zaßivoi TOTE KŒÎ Tvppr\vœv oi>x îjrrov aßpooiaiToi
For the Sabines were wearers of gold at that time, and no less effete than the
Tyrrhenians.106
He apparently realizes the contradiction between these ornamented
Sabines and more conventionally austere Sabines of Roman ideology,
and attempts to explain this contradiction by suggesting that the
Sabines have changed: the implication is that the Sabines were effete
at that time, but are different now. The Etruscans, on the other hand,
are apparently imagined to be a by-word for decadence for all time.107
Images of Sabines not compatible with the later Roman stereotype of
austerity are found elsewhere in Latin literature. According to another
fragment of Fabius Pictor, the Romans first perceived wealth from the
Sabines:108 there is clearly no way of knowing whether he was
referring to the 'Regal' period or to the more recent, third-century,
Roman conquest. Titus Tatius is supposed by Ennius in the Annales to
have been a tyrant, an institution more easily associated with deca­
dence and immorality than with moral excellence.109 Sabines were
106
Ant. Rom. 2. 38. 3 = Fabius Pictor fr. 8 P., Cincius fr. 5 P.
107
The static nature of Roman ideology relating to the Etruscans is striking, as if the
Romans simply projected back in time their historical perception of Etruscan society.
One should certainly be wary of reading back 'culture shock* to the Regal period, as
does L. Bonfante Warren, *The Women of Etruria\ in J. Peradotto and J. P. Sullivan,
Women in the Ancient World: The 'Arethusa' Papers (Albany, NY, 1984). 229 ff.
108
Strabo 5. 3. 1 = 228 C = Fabius Pictor, fr. 90 P.: <pncrt 5o ovyypcupevç Qaßioc
Pcofialovç alaOèaOai TOO KXOVXOÖ TÒTE xpœxov ore xov èOvovç xoùxov ìtaxèornaccv Kvpwi
(The writer Fabius says that the Romans first became aware of wealth when they
became masters of this people'). This fragment, if taken alone, is ambiguous (I am
grateful to Dr. Tim Cornell for pointing this out to me): it is not clear whether the
Romans became aware of their own wealth, or that of the Sabines. The latter is more
likely, once this fragment is compared with fr. 8 P. concerning the effeteness of the
Sabines in the Regal period.
109
Ann. 104 (Sk.). For tyranny as a decadent form of government, see e.g. Ar. Pol. 4.
1295a 17 ff. for the 'third type* of tyranny, cf. 5. 1315b 11 ff.; Polyb. 6. 7. 8 for tyranny
as a corrupt form of monarchy. For exemplary bad behaviour on the part of tyrants, see
e.g. Herod. 5. 92 for Sosicles of Corinth on tyranny, and esp. on Periander, who was
advised in graphic form on government by Thrasybulus of Miletus, and subsequently
killed and banished all influential peoples in Corinth, crowning his despotic behaviour
by stripping the women of Corinth to provide clothes for his dead wife Melissa, with
whose body he had previously performed necrophilia.
 Roman Contexts 89
evidently not always associated with frugality and disciplina, the kind
of imagery which is clearly, and consistently, associated with them in
Roman literature by the time of the Late Republic.110
Images of Sabine jewellery, wealth, and tyranny find close parallels
infifth-centuryAthenian images of Persia: wealthy, decadent, but also
with a dangerous edge.111 I would suggest that this is the kind of
imagery by means of which enmity and subsequent conquest were
explained, and, perhaps, justified. The problems associated with
establishing a date for this ideological trend are considerable. Some
modern scholars would prefer a date in the Regal period to a date
around M \ Curius Dentatus' conquest of the Sabines, on the grounds
first that the stories are focused on Cures, while Curius' activity is
focused on the area of Sabinum further to the east of Rome. Secondly,
the argument runs, the conquest in 290 was apparently not associated
with an extensive degree of bad relations with the Sabines.112 Indeed,
it does seem improbable that such stories about the Sabines in the
remote past should have been created from scratch in the Middle
Republic. But equally it seems wrong to reject the possibility that
such stories about the Sabines seemed to be of especial relevance in
the early third century, inviting retelling and embellishment. The
powerful tale of M'. Curius Dentatus' boast of the scale of his
conquest of Sabines and their land certainly seems to indicate a
Roman sense that the conquest was a crucial moment,113 and one
that might well be expected to be accompanied by interest in the
explanation of defeat, and the character of the defeated. In fact,
images of opulence and tyranny seem, in view of contemporary
interest in Italy in the Greek/barbarian polarity, much more likely
to be an early third-century BC frame through which events were seen,
rather than one that relates to the Regal period.114
110
Livy 1. 18. 4 for Numa's character as proof of his Sabine rather than Greek
origin: 'suopte igitur ingenio temperatum ani mum virtutibus fuisse opinor magis
instructumque non tarn peregrinis artibus quam disciplina tetrica ac tristi veterum
Sabinorum, quo genere nullum quondam incormptius fuit.' ('So I think his mind was
moderated by his own innate spirit and virtues, and that he was influenced not so much
by foreign knowledge, but rather by the austere and sober life-style of the ancient
y
Sabines, no people being less uncorrupted than they once were.*)
111
For the 'invention* of the Persian character in fifth-century Athens, see Hall,
Inventing the Barbarian, 56 ff.
112
Brunt, 'The Enfranchisement of the Sabines'; J. Poucet, Recherches sur la
légende sabine des origines de Rome (Louvain, 1967), 415 ff.
113
Torelli, Rerum Romanarum Fontes, 52—4 for sources.
114
Cf. Ch. 1, s. 4 above.
90 Roman Contexts
How was it possible to turn wealthy, decadent Sabinum into
austere, pre-corrupt Sabinum? One might begin by considering the
'rough lands, rough people' stereotype which is important in ancient
thought as early as Herodotus. 115 The image of scraping away at the
rough, rocky soil of the Sabine hills might well give one fine
credentials of toughness and uprightness according to this stereo­
type. And yet, Roman Sabinum had a complex and varied geogra­
phy, with a similarly divided earlier history. Modern attempts to
connect the two very different images of Sabinum which occur in
Roman ideology with lowland Sabinum on the one hand, as repre­
sentative of decadence, and upland Sabinum on the other, as repre­
sentative of austerity, are not successful either. Geographically and
culturally, Sabinum does not split so easily into two halves, 116 and
this argument fails also to explain how, with Cato and subsequent
Roman authors, one image alone, that of austere Sabinum, takes over.
One example of this phenomenon, taken from Aeneid 8, is the
depiction on the shield of Aeneas of war breaking out between
Romulus' side and Titus Tatius Curibus sevens:
subi toque novum consurgere bellum
Romulidis Tatioque seni Curibusque severis.
and suddenly a new war was arising between the sons of Romulus, and aged
Tatius and austere Cures.117
It may or may not be merely for reasons of metrical convenience that
Tatius has become neutrally a senex here, rather than being styled a
tyrant. What is, however, remarkable here is that Cures, in the heart of
what would, on the analysis above, count for 'lowland' Sabinum, has
become severi.
I suggest that the environment of first half of the second century is
the place to look for the development of images of Sabine austerity.
113
Cf. n. 4, above.
116
D. Musti, 'I due volti della Sabina*, PSCS (1985), 75 ff., attempts to explain the
two sides of Roman ideological construction of Sabinum in geographical and historical
terms: thus wealthy Sabinum is lowland Sabinum known to the Romans before the third
century, while austere Sabinum is upland Sabinum known more recently. This explana­
tion is over-simple. For one thing, it fails to explain why the image of austere Sabinum
comes to predominate. For another thing, it does not take into account the complexity of
the Sabine environment, increasingly revealed through archaeology (e.g. M. Cristofani
Martelli, 'Per una definizione archeologica della Sabina: la situazione storico-culturale
di Poggio Sommavilla in età arcaica*, in CASVT (1977), iii. 11 ff.): the cultural
geography (and, for that matter, the physical geography) of Sabinum cannot be reduced
ll7
so easily into two constituent parts. 637-8.
 Roman Contexts 91
At this point, Sabinum could become such an effective anti-Rome,
when an anti-Rome was first required in the early second century BC,
partly because Sabinum had relatively recently been conquered and
incorporated into the Roman citizenship. It is interesting that, along­
side Sabine austerity and uprightness in Roman thought, images of
Sabine distinctness remain. For example, there are the 'Sabinisms'
catalogued by Varro, hints of a past in which the Sabines were
imagined to be a culturally distinct entity, but also part of Rome's
heritage, now imperfectly remembered. 118 Romans focused also on
strange, mystical aspects of Sabine religion, such as prophetic dream­
ing and augury. 119 In the earliest Roman depictions of Sabines, such
as those of Fabius Pictor and Ennius, there is a threatening and
dangerous edge to Sabine foreignness, just as there is in depictions
of various other Italian peoples in early Roman literature. After
incorporation, hints of Sabine foreignness no longer seem threatening
to Rome, however: there is no hint of the 'double-edged* aspect that
Praeneste, for example, both rustic and boastful, apparently continued
to have for Rome. The fact that Sabinum was safely incorporated
means that Romans could now both accept and idealize this sense of
foreignness. Sabine distinctness comes to embody all the positive
aspects of being outside the corrupt city of Rome, seat of empire.
An interesting parallel to this ideological process is found in the
development of British images of the Gaelic Highlander. For us today,
he is a familiar figure with his kilt, bagpipes, and caber, emblems of
his distinct cultural identity. With his wild aspect, he is a figure of
admirable toughness, primitivism, and independence. This ideological
construct goes back to the latter part of the eighteenth century, and
118
It is not obvious that Varro had any clear notion of what the Sabine language was,
as opposed to dialectal variation which might be heard in contemporary speech. See LL
7. 28 for his belief that the Sabine and Samnite languages were related, and LL 5. 74 for
the idea that Pales, Vesta, Salus, Fortuna, Fons, and Fides were taken from the Sabines
'with small changes', a vague-sounding notion. J. Poucet, Les Origines de Rome
(Brussels, 1985), 80 for a sceptical approach to supposed linguistic evidence for joint
Sabine involvement at Rome in the Regal period.
For full discussion of the difficulties associated with the classification of the Sabine
language/languages, see Ch. 5, below. '
1 9
Festus' comment (p. 434 L.) on the proverb "Sabini quod volunt somniant' (*let
the Sabines dream about what they want') is badly mutilated, but such fragments as
remain seem to point to the importance of prophetic dreaming in Sabine religious ritual;
Gnaeus Gellius (fr. 7 P.) has the Sabines learning from Megale Phryge the art of augury.
For a full discussion of the religious peculiarities focused on in Roman constructions of
peoples of the Central Apennines, see Ch. 4, below.
96 Roman Contexts
The polarity between free farmers and slaves which emerges in
Plutarch's and Appian's accounts of the reforms of Tiberius Grac­
chus can no longer be understood as simple echoes of changes in land-
use in the course of the second century BC. Nevertheless, anxiety about
the numbers, proportions, and origins of slaves appears several times
in 'quotations' from contemporary individuals. For example, after the
death of Tiberius Gracchus, Scipio Aemilianus was, according to
Velleius Paterculus, asked to comment by the tribune C. Papirius
Carbo on his murder. When the crowd was outraged by Scipio's
reply, he replied that he would not be intimidated by those for
whom Italia was a mere noverca. This comment was surely a slur
on the character of the present company as freedmen or slaves not
born in Italy. 135 I would suggest that the foreignness of slaves was felt
to be a cause for concern on two counts. On the one hand, slaves had
no 'stake in the land': the idea of the unreliability of soldiers who had
nothing to lose, and who had no 'roots' was important in Roman
ideology. 136 How much worse were men who were inherently alien
and even hostile to Rome. This aspect of slavery was likely to have
been uppermost in Roman minds during the Sicilian slave-wars, when
actual rebellion was a reminder of the potential danger of slaves.
Another reason was that slaves could be regarded as just another
fancy imported item, like the luxurious goods with Greek names
which proliferate in second century Roman literature, possessions
which could be flaunted by the élite in a divisive and disruptive way. 1 3 7
Another important piece of evidence is Gaius Gracchus' anecdote
about his brother's journey to Numantia through Etruria, where
Tiberius reputedly observed the emptiness of the land and fact that
those labouring on the land were imported, foreign slaves. 138 This
anecdote cannot be used to support claims that Tiberius had any active

135
V.P. 2. 4. 4 cf. P. A. Brunt, The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays
!36
(Oxford, 1988), 243. e.g. Brunt, Fall of the Roman Republic, 254.
137
Polyb. 31. 25. 5a, claiming to be quoting Cato: èç'o'tç Kai MdpKoç <&yavaKvœv>
eine note npòq TÔV Srç/iov On iiàkiox'av Kariôoiev n)v ènì <xò> x^Pov npoKom)v rqç
nofarelaç èK rovtœv, Otav nœXoûnevoi nXeïov eùpioiccooiv oi p.èv evnpeneîç naïôeç TÔV
àypœv, xà 5è Kepôpia TOÔ xaplxov TÔV ÇevyqXaxœv. ('Angry at these things, Marcus
Cato one said in a public speech that they could really regard the state as having
gone all the way downhill, when pretty-boys were being sold for more than land, and
jars of caviar for more than ploughmen.*)
138
Plut. TG 8. 7: . . . Kai n)v èpr^iav TTJÇ xàp&Ç ôpâvxa Kai xoùç yeœpyoûvxaç f)
vèjiovvaç oiKèxaç èneiaoKxovç Kai ßapßdpovc ('and seeing the land deserted, and that
the farmers and herdsmen were imported barbarian slaves*), cf. J. Rich, T h e Supposed
Manpower Shortage of the Late Second Century BC', Hist. 32 (1983), 287 ff., 303-5 for
contemporary anxiety regarding the proportions of slaves to free men.
 Roman Contexts 97
interest in doing something for Italians in general as opposed to
Roman citizens, but, against the background of the Sicilian slave-
wars, is a neat illustration of the way in which anxiety about slaves at
this time might be manipulated in Roman politics. Particular aspects
of slaves, such as their foreignness and their supposed inability to
contribute usefully and reliably to the state in ways that counted might
be focused on in order to point up the claims of one's proposed
beneficiaries, whether these were, in Tiberius' case, Roman citizens,
or, in Gaius' case, Latins and Italians. 139
The fact that Plutarch claims that the anecdote concerning Tiberius
was to be found in a pamphlet written by Gaius Gracchus is interest­
ing, and one might well wonder whether this anecdote suited Gaius'
aims rather than those of Tiberius. According to a sympathetic later
source, the Social War broke out as a result of the perceived unfair­
ness of supplying the majority of arms to a state in which the Italians
had no political share. 140 It seems reasonable to suppose that, in
making proposals concerning the status of Latins and Italians, Gaius
pointed to the usefulness of non-Roman peoples, the primary example
of their usefulness surely being their provision of troops. As we shall
see, after the Social War, one of the most important virtues for which
peoples of the Central Apennines are praised is their association with
warfare and soldiering. 141 Census figures from this period do actually
show that this area was a particularly important producer of troops:
local social structures must clearly have yielded a large number of
free peasants, unlike the more oppressive systems operative in Etruria.
Slaves, on the other hand, were apparently not numerous: the local
élites seem to have put their money into public building rather than
into private adornment. 142 This particular Roman interest in Italians
139
J. S. Richardson, T h e Ownership of Roman Land: Tiberius Gracchus and the
Italians*, JRS 70 (1980), 1 ff., argues that Italians were to benefit from Tiberius* land-
reforms by receiving the Roman citizenship; this argument is ingenious, but fails to
account in a satisfactory fashion for (a) Cicero's belief that Tiberius *sociorum
nominisque Latini iura neclexit ac foedera* ('neglected the rights and treaties of the
allies and those of Latin name*, De RP 3. 29. 41 cf. ibid. 1. 19. 31) and (b) the
discontent of the allies regarding land-redistribution after the activity of Tiberius
(Appian BC 1. 19).
,4b
V.P. 2. 15; cf. Brunt, Fall of the Roman Republic, 120-1 on the burden of Italian
14!
and Latin military contributions. Cf. n. 4 above.
142
P. A. Brunt, Italian Manpower 225 BC-AD 14 (Oxford, 1971), 54, Table 5 for
calculations of free inhabitants of various regions of Italy in 225 BC. The proportion of
free persons to land amongst the Samnites is very much higher than in Etruria. Brunt
(55) points out that in 1936 the area that was once 'Samnite* was similarly more densely
populated than rural Tuscany. However, in ancient Etruria, the population was surely
98 Roman Contexts
of the Central Apennines in general does not emerge until after the
Social War, but I would suggest that it is possible that the more
general Roman discourse of autochthonous Italians143 first appeared
around the 120s BC. If so, it appeared against a background of
discussion of the citizenship, and against the background of a shar­
pened polarity between Romans and non-Romans. Italian claims
could be highlighted by concentration on the importance of their
contribution of troops to Rome, and by emphasis on the existence
of necessarily free men, in contrast to the growing numbers of slaves
and freedmen in the city. Once there was growing anxiety about
foreignness, the Roman discourse of barbarian Italians could be
turned around. If being barbarian implies that one has no real stake
in the Greek world, then the 'flip-side' of this idea is that one is
worthily indigenous.

6. DISQUIETING LANDSCAPE: SAMNITES AND MARSI IN

FOURTH- TO SECOND-CENTURY ROMAN IDEOLOGY

While the discourse of Sabine worthiness/worthlessness was devel­

oping in the course of the second century BC, such worthiness/worth­
lessness was not yet extended to the peoples of the Central Apennines
as a body. In Cato's Origines, Mount Fiscellus, identified as Gran
Sasso, the mountain that rises sharply from the landscape of northern
Abruzzo, is inhabited by amazing jumping goats;144 the landscape is
boosted by the high proportions of slaves, and, originally, penestai (whose status vis-à-
vis the army is unclear: Dionysius 9. 5. 4 believes that they served in the army, a belief
which is doubted by Brunt), both in towns and in the land: Plut. TG 8. 5; Strabo 5. 2. 6-
9; Livy 28. 45; D.S. 5. 40. 3 for the luxury of the Etruscans and their slaves; with Brunt,
op. cit., 55.
The Samnites probably had far fewer slaves: the large free population presumably
supplied plentiful free labour; La Regina, 'Il Sannio', 242-3 points out the concentra­
tion in Samnium on putting wealth into public building of a civil and military character,
rather than in buildings of a private nature. He also suggests that local building
techniques may suggest the use of free rather than slave labour, although this is clearly
open to conjecture. The apparent lack of success enjoyed by Samnites and Marsi in
entering the Senate after enfranchisement may suggest not so much the overall poverty
of these regions (Wiseman, New Men, 25-6), but rather their (for the ancient world)
comparatively equal social organization. I discuss this aspect in greater detail in Ch. 3.
143
Cf. e.g. Varro RR 3. 1 for country people as the only ones left over from the stock
of Saturn; Virg. Aen. 12. 823 for 'indigenas . . . Latinos'; Strabo 5. 3. 1 = 228 C for
indigenous Sabines.
Orig. 2. 20 (Chass.); for the identification of Mount Fiscellus with Gran Sasso,
see Salmon, Samnium, 363; F. Coarelli and A. La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise (Guide
archeologiche Laterza, Rome, 1984), 14.
 Roman Contexts 99
wild, but there is no suggestion that this is a morally laden landscape
in the way that Sabinum had become. Second-century Roman interest
was rather directed towards the strange customs and exoticism of this
region. According to Solinus, the late second-century writer Gnaeus
Gellius told of three daughters of Aeëtes: Angitia, Medea, and Circe.
Circe settled down in the Circeian mountains, practising her evil
transforming spells; Angitia went to live in the area of the Fucine
lake, and practised curing snake-bites; Medea was buried by Jason
Buthrotius, and her son ruled over the Marsi. 145 In the previous
chapter, I suggested that the comparatively early Greek genealogy
of western Italians, descended from Odysseus and Circe, was a
reflection of Greek experience of colonization in Tyrrhenian Italy,
and encounters with local peoples. 146 What is interesting about the
Gnaeus Gellius fragment is that, while Circe remains on the west
coast, there is Roman interest in the location of her sisters Angitia and
Medea further to the east. These disquieting mythical women with
magical powers are located in the Central Apennines. Elsewhere in
Gellius, the Lydian origins of the Marsi were commented upon, and
this detail also suggests a sense of exoticism. 147 Interest in the special
snake-charming powers and the ability to heal snake-bites is a striking
and persistent feature of Roman portraits of the Marsi. For example,
Lucilius, possibly in the course of describing someone about to pop
after stuffing himself with food, likens the scene to a Marsus making
snakes burst open through his singing. 148
Regarding the Samnites, as we saw in Chapter 1, Livy's account of
the Battle of the Caudine Forks seems to resonate with ideological
themes of late fourth-century Hellenistic Italy. Pontius Herennius,
now an old man, gives sound advice within an account in which
Livy alludes to older tradition. His part in this story fits in well
with the role attributed to him in Cicero's De Senectute, and it seems
plausible that these hagiographical traditions go back to the late
fourth-century context of Tarentine Pythagoreanism in which the
passage from Cicero is explicitly set. 149 It seems likely too that
145 146
Fr. 9 P. = Solinus 2. 28. Cf. Ch. 1, s. 1 above.
147
Fr. 8 P. = Pliny NH 3. 108: the Marsic town Archippe was drained from the
Fucine lake and founded by Marsyas, king of the Lydians; for the exoticism of Lydians
in ancient discourse, see e.g. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 149-50.
148
575-6 M.: *iam disrumpetur médius, iam, ut Marsus colubras I disrumpit cantu
venas cum extenderit omnes.' 'Now his midriff bursts, just as a Marsus makes snakes
burst when he has made all their veins stand out with his singing.*
149
Cf. Ch. 1, s. 3 above.
100 Roman Contexts
Livy*s two major accounts of the Samnite armies, first in the battle of
310 that ended in defeat for the Samnites, and secondly in the
formation of the 'linen legion' at Aquilonia in 293, carry elements
of contemporary ideology. 150 While there is certainly a degree of
schematism within the account, it would surely be rash to conclude
that the entire episode of the 'linen legion' was an invention by
Livy. 151
One key passage, Livy 9. 40, in which the bizarre and resplendent
war-dress of the Samnites is described, was analysed very effectively
by Rouveret. She suggested that, while there were certainly reflections
within the account of Augustan Rome, as well as possible reflections
of the Social War, the passage also contains plausible reflections of
the reality of late fourth-century Samnite armies, which may be
compared with contemporary iconographical representations and
grave-goods, seen through a framework that makes perfect sense
within the context of late fourth-century ideology. In other words,
real elements of contemporary Samnite war-dress and practice have
been selected out and exaggerated within recognizable patterns of
thought. For example, while resplendent arms are certainly a feature
of contemporary southern Italian war-dress, within this account, some
of the Samnites are decorated with gold, to emphasize associations
with luxury. While contemporary paintings show tunics which are
white, red, and versicolors, the Samnites wear variously white and
versicolors, extremes of inappropriate colours for battle-dress, in
contrast with the Romans, clad, by implication, in appropriate
red. 152 To take an example from the second passage, the special
religious ceremony presided over by the priest Ovius Paccius, and
involving the following of a ritual contained in an ancient linen book,
and the self-dedication of a special élite, has parallels in other
accounts of archaic warfare in situations of dire necessity. In this
account, however, it has become a sinister black-magic ceremony,
involving a bizarre mixing-up of elements, and the sacrilegious
mingling of human and animal sacrificial victims. 153
130
Livy 9. 40 and 10. 38.
151
Salmon, Samnium, 182 ff. rejects unnecessarily various aspects of the account
e.g. the linen books, and the name of the priest, Ovius Paccius.
152
9. 40; cf. A. Rouveret, Tite-Live, Histoire Romaine IX, 40: la description des
armées samnites ou les pièges de la Symmetrie*, in A. Adam and A. Rouveret (eds.),
Guerre er sociétés en Italie (V-IV s. avant J-C (Paris, 1986), 91 ff.
153
10. 38. 5 ff.; cf. 10. 39. 16 for the speech of L. Papirius. Cf. Rouveret, n. 152
above, 106 ff.
 Roman Contexts loi

Within these accounts, the Samnites are cast as barbarians. Ele­

ments of primitivism seem to be emphasized here, most particularly
the use of linen, and the wearing of one greave only. 154 The Samnites
are, however, to be distinguished from the more straightforward
primitives of ancient thought. For example, Tacitus' Germans do
not know what to do with the silver vessels which are given to
them: in their semi-blessed state of ignorance, they treat them as if
they were no more than clay pots, whereas Livy's Samnites put their
precious armour to a spectacular effect that is only heightened by the
deliberate parallelism of the account. 155
What is the history of this ideology of Samnite barbarians? It is
certainly tempting to relate some of the fear inspired by this account
to the environment of the Social War, and Sulla's subsequent activity
in Samnium, a relatively recent event for Livy and his audience. But
clearly, some of the details of this account are far older than this, and
belong rather to an archaic context. As for the ideology of Samnite
barbarians, while the discourse of luxury is indeed important particu­
larly within the context of early Roman literature, I would suggest that
there is an entirely plausible context for opulent barbarism within the
late fourth century to early third century BC.
While, as we have seen, the theme of Greeks versus barbarians is of
great importance during this period, so too, more specifically, are
images of luxury versus austerity. In this context, one might think
of hagiographical traditions of M'. Curius Dentatus, and various of his
contemporaries, renowned for their austerity. For example, according
to one 'type' of the tradition, the Roman general is found refusing
wealth offered variously by Sabines and Samnites, preferring to rule
over the wealthy rather than to have wealth himself. It might be
objected that there is evidence to suggest that Cato the Elder was
particularly interested in M'. Curius Dentatus, and that such stories
resonate to such an extent with the issues with which he himself was
concerned that he himself must have been the author of them. 156 I
would certainly not deny that Cato had a substantial amount to do
with the history of the tradition, but equally I would not want to deny
parallels between late fourth-century themes of austerity and tryphé,
154 l55
Rouveret, n. 152 above 103 ff. Tac. Germ. 5. 4.
156
Cic. De Sen. 55 cf. Auct. Vir. III. 33. 8-9; Val. Max. 4. 3. 5; Pliny NH 19. 87; cf.
the same story attributed also to Fabricius Luscinus by Val. Max. 4. 4. 6. For a catalogue
of stories about worthy Roman heroes of the Middle Republic, see Harris, War and
Imperialism, 264—5.
102 Roman Contexts
and traditions about the Samnites on one hand, and Roman generals
on the other.
It is very suggestive indeed that it was the Samnites for whom the
Tarentines, fellow enemies of Rome, 'invented' traditions of Spartan
ancestry, with overtones of austerity desirable specifically within the
context of Tarentine Pythagoreanism of the late fourth century BC. 1 5 7
It seems perfectly plausible that Romans in the late fourth to early
third centuries should have expressed thoughts about themselves as
conquerors within a framework of ideas about conquest established in
fifth-century Greece: the terms in which Curius Dentatus refuses the
gold of the Samnites or Sabines find their closest parallel in Herodo­
tus' account of how Cyrus came to take over the kingdom of
Croesus. 158 But images of austerity—of the winning side, of
course—have an added resonance against the background of contem­
porary Tarentine ideology. Rome too had its leaders in the tradition of
Tarentine Pythagoreanism, notable both for their wisdom and for their
ability in warfare. 159 On this hypothesis, Rome's conflict with the
Samnites was originally set not only in the terms of Greeks versus
barbarians, but also of depiction of the enemy as the antithesis of the
worthy descendants of the Spartans they represented within Tarentine
ideology.
It seems likely that images of barbarian Samnites continued to be
important within Roman ideology of the second century BC, as did the
portrayal as barbarians of other peoples of the Central Apennines, and
Italians in general, at certain times in particular suiting Roman
purposes. For example, images such as these are compatible also
with traditions about Italian complaints of their treatment by the
Romans in the decades preceding the Social War. According to
Velleius Paterculus, one of the reasons why the Social War broke
out was that the Italians felt that they were despised by the Romans as
'extremos alienosque', rather than being admitted by them into the
citizenship. 160 Certain Romans were associated with taking up, or
fuelling, the Italian 'cause*. For example, according to Appian,
Fulvius Fl accus in 125 BC excited amongst the Italians the desire to
be partners rather than subjects. 161 Fragments of Gaius Gracchus*
137
Cf. Ch. 1, s. 4 above.
158
Herod. 9, 122: 'The Persians . . . chose to rule while living on poor land, rather
than to be slaves to others while living on plainland.'
159
For traditions of early Roman involvement in Pythagoreanism, see e.g. Mele, *I1
l6ü
pitagorismo'. V.P. 2. 15. 2.
I<ri
BC 1. 34. 152.
 Roman Contexts 103
speeches suggest that he criticised overbearing behaviour on the
part of Romans in allied towns. 1 6 2 One strand in the Roman tradition
about the years immediately preceding the Social War, then, is Roman
treatment of Italians effectively as subject peoples. It is, then, not so
surprising that we should find that images of some of the peoples who
were to rise against Rome have much in common with figures of
barbarians in ancient thought. It is as well to emphasize the fact that
relations between Rome and her allies at this period are extremely
complex, and are reflected in the complexity of the ideological
traditions: in some contexts, the Italians who rose against Rome
were considered to be, or felt themselves to be treated as, no more
than barbarians; in other contexts, some Italians were considered to be
admirably indigenous, in contrast with the foreign slaves increasingly
perceived to be a negative feature of Roman society.
The images of peoples of the Central Apennines discussed above
build up to suggest a sense of considerable unease, which is reflected
also in evidence of Roman attitudes during and immediately after the
Social War. According to Appian, the ambiguous saying, 'no victory
without or against the Marsi' 163 was in existence before the Social
War: the implication of power which could be used either with or
against Rome is disturbing. But Sulla's activity against the Samnites
in 82 Be is surely the best indication of the fear which the Samnites
held for the Romans, or, at the very least, the fear which could be
manipulated in order to justify Sulla's harsh action:
And to those who found fault with him for such excessive wrath he said he
had realised from experience that not a Roman could ever live in peace so
long as the Samnites held together as a separate people.164

7. INCORPORATING THE OUTSIDERS: SABELL1 AND THE

SOCIAL WAR

Some time after the action of Sulla against the Samnites, a new ethnic
was apparently coined by the Romans. At least, the name Sabellus

163
ORF{4) no. 48. 48-9 = Gell. 10. 3. 2 ff. Appian BC 1. 46.
Strabo 5. 4. 11 =249 C.
104 Roman Contexts
used as an ethnic first occurs in Varro, 165 and this timing is not, I
would suggest, accidental. The term could clearly be used by ancient
authors to refer to both Sabines and Samnites, and this new ethnic
cannot fail to put emphasis on perceived connections between Sabines
and Samnites. 166 Despite the confusing modern use of 'Sabellian' and
'Sabellic', the Romans never used Sabellus to refer to the more
northerly peoples of the Central Apennines, such as Marsi and
Paeligni. Sabellus is used in contexts such as Horace Odes 3. 6, 167
where one could reasonably expect to find the metrically identical
'Sabine': Horace is, after all, talking about the stalwart heroes of the
Middle Republic, who are unlikely to be found farming amongst the
Samnites. Why does Horace use the wider term Sabellus in this
context? Salmon explained the appearance of the ethnic Sabellus thus:

It was in his [Varro* s] day, the period of the Social War, that need was felt for
some generic term to describe all of the distinct and physically separated
peoples who spoke Oscan. It was no longer possible to call them all simply by
the blanket term 4Samnites\ since this name had acquired pejorative associa­
tions and moreover had the precise and definite meaning of inhabitants of
Samnium*. To lessen the possibility of misunderstanding Roman antiquarians
brought into vogue the term Sabelli, meaning 'Oscan-speakers'.168

This explanation is unsatisfactory, especially in view of the fact that

Sabellus could clearly be used with reference to Sabines as well as
Samnites. Salmon is elsewhere well aware that written evidence from
165
Varro Men. fr. 17 (Astbury) = Serv. Auct. Ad Georg. 2. 168: 4de Sabellis Varro in
Age modo sic ait:
terra culturae causa attributa olim particulatim
hominibus, ut Etruria Tuscis, Samnium Sabellis'
('About the S abelli, Varro in "Age modo'* says this: "Once upon a time the land was
assigned to specific peoples to cultivate, such as Etruria to the Tusci, and Samnium to
the Sabelli*").
Livy 41. 4. 6 attributes to C. Popilius, an eques, the cognomen Sabellus. Nothing is
known about the origins of this individual, but it is tempting to see his cognomen as a
'tamed' version of his perceived Samnite origins, to fit his identity as a Roman citizen.
166
In the following passages Sabellus can only mean 'Sabine': Hor. Odes 3. 6. 38;
Virg. Aen. 8. 510 (these passages are significantly omitted by Salmon, Samnium, 32 nn.
3-4: he asserts that 4when ancient writers meant "Sabine", they used the word Sabinus
(this is true of the poets as well as the prose-writers, Sabinus and Sabellus being
metrically identical)*. This is clearly not always the case; either Sabines or Samnites:
Virg. Georg. 2. 167; Samnites: Serv. Ad Georg. 2. 167'; Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C; Pliny
NH 3. 107; Hor. Sat. 1. 9. 29, 2. 1. 36; Livy 8, 1. 17, 10. 19. 20. See, further, Appendix
B, pp. 223-6.
16 168
^ Line 38. Salmon, Samnium, 32-3.
 Roman Contexts 105

Sabinum suggests that, at the very least, Oscan had not been spoken
here for a very long time. 1 6 9 Furthermore, it is very odd that the
Romans should be supposed to be avoiding the 'pejorative associa­
tions of Samnites' through the coinage of Sabelli if in fact the
Romans' austere chosen ancestors, the Sabines, were being directly
associated with the rebellious Samnites in this very ethnic. It is
necessary to ask why this was so. I shall argue below that local
myths, the Sacred Spring myths, had already stressed the relationship
between Sabines and Samnites, but what is important to note here is
that there is no sign of Roman interest in this theme until the time of
Varro.170
As we have seen, there is a tendency in early Latin literature to seek
to represent Rome as more culturally advanced than the rest of Italy, a
construction which is at odds with the portrayal of various threatening
Italian peoples, such as Sabines, as wealthy and bejewelled. In the
case of Praeneste, laughing at the local, 'rustic' accent may have been
a way of 'cutting her down to size', minimizing the sense of political
and cultural threat which she represented. In the case of the Sabines,
Roman conquest and incorporation meant that they no longer con­
stituted any threat to Rome. In this sense, Sabinum was clearly
inferior to Rome, and a desirable simplicity could be safely located
there. During the second century, Sabinum was also such a convincing
antithesis of Rome precisely because it was perceived to have a
culture, or at least the remnants of a culture, which was sufficiently
different from Rome, in a way that the Latins did not. But Sabinum
was also culturally relatively close to Rome, and surely increasingly
so, in the obvious sense that, for example, the language spoken in
recent times was Latin—albeit with dialectical variations 171 —and the
Roman citizenship was, by the early first century BC, obviously more
long-standing than it had been a century before. The closer to Rome
the Sabines were perceived to be, the less satisfactory they would be
as the antithesis of Rome.
As a result of the enfranchisement of the peoples of the Central
Apennines such as the Marsi and Paeligni, and of Sulla's violent
169
Ibid. 31.
170
For the ver sacrum with assorted animal-leaders, see Varro RR 2. 16. 29; Strabo
5. 4. 12 = 250 C; D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 16. 4; Pliny NH U). 40; Festus p. 93 L.; Serv. Ad
Aen. 11. 785.
171
For problems in the identification and classification of Sabine, see ch. 5, ss. 4-5
below.
io6 Roman Contexts
action against the Samnites in the course of the 80s BC, these areas
could become a moral resource for Rome. With regard to the Sam­
nites, it is interesting that it is the *Sabelli' who come to have the most
positive associations, rather than the Samnites alone, the most resi­
lient and dangerous Italian allies of Rome. It is as if, through this new
ethnic, the Sabines take on an added aura of foreignness and simpli­
city from the Samnites, without absorbing less desirable and anti­
social qualities of the Samnites, such as their precivilized aspect as
montani atque agrestes and as Opikoi, the worst of all Italian barbar­
ians. The linguistic difference, and the austerity of the Sabines were
emphasized by association with peoples such as the Pentri, occupying
the highest parts of the Central Apennines, people who were using
Oscan even in public documentation right up to the Social War. While
the full impact of Samnite foreignness was apparently filtered through
the more familiar Sabines in the creation of the ethnic Sabellus, it is
interesting too that the distinctive character of Samnite society was
much diminished through a variety of factors during the Augustan
period, at which time Sabelli are frequently idealized. It is as if it is
more comfortable to recreate the foreignness of the recent past than to
make reference to a present foreign reality. 172
The Marsi and Paeligni remain witches and snake-charmers, but
this expression of their difference may have a less sinister aspect
when they are no longer dangerously on the margins of Roman
control, or even at war with Rome. Certainly, Virgil's reference to
fortissimus Umbro, the Marsic snake-charmer and snake-bite healer,
seems a poignant lament for a magical closeness to the old gods of the
land which is threatened by the arrival of the Trojans. 173 The Marsi,
Paeligni, and Sabelli are now representatives also of a desirable
masculinity, valiant providers of troops for Rome, a service which
can be safely acknowledged when it is no longer feared that such
power will be used against Rome. 174 The emphasis on the masculinity
of Sabines, Sabelli, Marsi, and Paeligni after their incorporation is
very interesting: this masculinity represents acknowledged power
which is expected to be used reliably and in a controlled way in the
interests of Rome. Manliness of this straightforward and reliable
variety is never found amongst unincorporated barbarians: Tacitus'
172
e.g. Strabo 6. 1.2 = 253-4 C for the Samnites* loss of cultural identity with
regard to tribal organization, language, armour, and clothing. Cf. Ch. 3 s. 3 below, for
changes in social organisation particularly in the Augustan period.
l7
* Aen. 7. 750-60, ending with a half-line; Aen. 12. 766-71 for the episode when the
174
Trojans uproot a tree sacred to Faunus. cf. n. 4 above.
 Roman Contexts 107

Germans, for example, are strong but unpredictable and prone to

drunkenness and violence, tolerant of cold and hunger, but not of
heat and thirst, and they deteriorate steadily into brutes the further
removed they are from Rome. They have some virtuous qualities, but
are not safely in service to Rome. 7 5

8 POSTSCRIPT

By the time of Tacitus, austere senators showing up the vices of the

Julio-Claudians are found not only amongst Italians, but even
amongst enfranchised provincials. They are free from the imported
vices ever increasing in the city, but are quite distinct from 'Northern
Barbarians' who are total outsiders, like Germans. These austere
individuals are unaccustomed to sycophantic behaviour: their hands
tire easily at the performances of Nero, and they herald the beginning
of fashionable frugality when they arrive in greater numbers in the
train of Vespasian, the Sabine emperor. 176 It is even possible for
potential, rather than actual, senators to provide an austere commen-
175
Tacitus* Germans have some of the positive values of the pre-cormpt e.g.
pudicitia (19), ignorance of the uses of amber amongst the Suiones, who gather it
only for luxuria nostra (45. 5); there is, nevertheless, a highly negative side to their
character: e.g. 4. 3 for their lack of tolerance of heat and thirst; 22. 2 for drunkenness
and violence. R. Syme, Tacitus (Oxford, 1958), ii, 531, underrates this negative aspect:
he describes the work as an 'idealised, conventional, and nostalgic portrayal of virtue
and integrity among the strong and untainted".
176
Ann. 16. 5: 'sed qui remotis a municipiis severaque adhuc et antiqui moris
retinente Italia, quique per longinquas provincias lascivia inexperti officio legationum
aut privata utilitate advenerant, neque aspectum ilium tolerare neque labori inhoneste
sufficere, cum manibus nesciis fatiscerent, turbarent gnaros ac saepe militibus verber-
arentur, qui per cuneos stabant ne quod tempori s momentum impari clamore aut silentio
segni praeteriret.* ('But those who had come as legates or on private business from far
away towns and Italy, still austere and preserving old-fashioned ways of life, and those
who, through the remoteness of their provinces, were not used to licentiousness, could
neither bear the sight of it, nor could they manage the degrading task: their inexper­
ienced hands grew exhausted, they annoyed the trained applauders, and were often
beaten by the soldiers, who were stationed in the aisles in case a moment went by when
the shouts of acclaim were ill-regulated, or a sluggish silence came over the audience.')
Ann. 3. 55. 8 ff.: 'simul novi homines e municipiis et coloniis atque etiam provinciis
in senatum crebro adsumpti domesticam parsimoniam intulerunt, et quamquam fortuna
vel industria plerique pecuniosam ad senectam pervenirent, mansit tarnen prior animus'
('At the same time new men from the towns and colonies, and even the provinces, were
accepted into the senate in numbers, and brought in with them their home-grown
frugality, and although most attained wealth in their old age—by good fortune or
hard work—yet their former inclination stayed with them'). In this second passage,
note the way in which worthiness may spread even- to the provinces, and also the
language of physical exertion, which has been so important right through the develop­
ment of the ideology of Italian worthiness, from Cato onwards.
For Vespasian in particular, see Suet. Vesp. 1-2; 12.
io8 Roman Contexts
potential, rather than actual, senators to provide an austere commen­
tary on the decadence of Imperial Rome.177 From the second century
Be onwards, the figure of the incorporated and tamed outsider was an
increasingly familiar feature of Roman ideology.
177
Ann. 13. 54. 4 for the Frisian ambassadors Verritus and Malorix at the Theatre of
Pompey in AD 58: seeing foreigners sitting amongst the senators, and hearing that these
people have earned this privilege through the courage and loyalty of their states, the
Frisians display commendable, old-fashioned pride in themselves by insisting on join­
ing them.
 PART II
LOCAL SOCIETY
 INTRODUCTION TO PART II: LOCAL SOCIETY

No continuous ethnographical account of peoples of the Central

Apennines survives in ancient literature to compare with the accounts
of the Etruscans in Athenaeus or Diodorus. However, there are many
shorter notices, which indicate interest in the distinctive features of
local society in the Central Apennines. I have chosen to discuss these
under the headings of 'Mountain Society', 'Religion', and 'Questions
of Identity'. Obviously, features of local society are selected by the
observing society, and viewed through its own intellectual frame­
works. However, interest in specific details of local societies, and in
depicting individual societies in particular ways remains striking, and
suggests that the categories chosen by Athenian or Roman society
were not arbitrary. In the section that follows, I explore the possibility
that images of local society that appear in Greek and Latin sources
might be more than reflections of the preoccupations of Greek and
Roman society. Differences which are noticed by one culture might in
some way be important in the self-definition of the other culture, or in
the self-definition of a narrower group within it. One motif may have
different functions within each culture.
 3

Mountain Society

INTRODUCTION

In the present chapter, the first task is to identify what were really the
preoccupations of ancient authors: for example, it will become clear
that modern preoccupation with pastoralism in the Central Apennines
is not echoed by ancient authors for our period. Ancient authors were,
however, interested in the mountainous landscape of the Central
Apennines, the social organization of the area, and in the effect of
the environment on moral character. When peoples of the Central
Apennines were incorporated within the Roman citizenship, it became
possible for their 'rough landscape' to function as a moral ideal for
the city of Rome. In the final sections of this chapter, I shall consider
evidence which suggests that the social structure of the Central
Apennines was rather different from that in the much more pro­
foundly urbanized areas of Tyrrhenian Italy. In particular, I shall
suggest that patterns of élite behaviour were perceptibly different in
the Central Apennines before enfranchisement, and that this differ­
ence may have helped to encourage the images of austerity and
hardship associated with this area in the literary sources.

1. SHEEP AND CULTURAL MODELS

The pastoral aspect of the economy of the Central Apennines has

been much emphasized in modern literature, and sheep-keeping in
this area has attracted most attention. A predominantly pastoral
economy has frequently been postulated in these areas for prehis­
tory and protohistory,1 and still more for the Hellenistic and Roman
1
See e.g. S. M. Puglisi, La civiltà appenninica (Florence, 1959), where the separate
character of prehistoric pastoral society in the Central Apennines is emphasized
throughout; G. Barker, *The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd', PCPS 215 (1989),
1 ff., 6-9, for a useful summary of developments in modern scholarship; G. Barker,
The Conditions of Cultural and Economic Growth in the Bronze Age of Central Italy',
112 Mountain Society
periods. Furthermore, the type of pastoralism practised in these areas
is generally supposed to have been mobile, either nomadic (a model
usually restricted to discussions of prehistoric pastoralism)3 or trans­
humant. Transhumance is the seasonal exploitation of two or more
complementary pastures, one situated in the plain or valley floor (for
autumn or winter pasturage), and the other situated on the mountain,
at higher altitude (for summer pasturage). It is conventional to
distinguish between horizontal (or Mediterranean) transhumance
and vertical (or Alpine) transhumance.4 More recently, however, a
distinction between long-distance and short-distance transhumance
has been preferred, not least because 'horizontal' transhumance tends
to be 'vertical' as well,5 as in the use of Samnium and Apulia as
complementary grazing lands. Having short-distance transhumance as
a category also serves to emphasize the importance of enterprises
which were on a smaller scale. Mobile pastoralism in its various
forms is frequently used in modern literature to explain broader
cultural phenomena: for example, patterns and types of settlements
and the formation of groups, cultural contacts with other parts of Italy,
or, in the form of 'big business' particularly when associated with
individuals, the accumulation of wealth best represented by the third-
to early first-century BC rural sanctuaries of the Central Apennines.6

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 38 (1972), 170 ff.; G. Barker, 'Prehistoric

Society and Economies in Central Italy', in E. S. Higgs (ed.), Palaeoeconomy (Cam­
bridge, 1975), 111 ff., for the complexity of the situation in prehistory; M. Pasquinucci,
'La transumanza nell'Italia romana*, in E. Gabba and M. Pasquinucci (eds.). Strutture
agrarie e allevamento transumante nell'Italia rotnana (II-I sec. a.C.) (Pisa, 1979),
81 ff., 93-4 for suggestions of specialist pastoralism in pre- and proto-history.
2
Pasquinucci, 'La transumanza', 92 ff. for the classic thesis of developments in third
to second centuries BC.
3
For the Paeligni,.see Van Wonterghem, Superaequum, Corfinium, Sulmo, 35; for
the idea of the myth of the ver sacrum as an illustration of nomadism amongst the
peoples of the Central Apennines, see Letta, / Morsi, 25.
4
Pasquinucci, 'La transumanza', 79-81 for definitions of transhumance.
5
P. Garnsey, 'Mountain Economies in Southern Europe: Thoughts on the Early
History, Continuity and Individuality of Mediterranean Upland Pastoralism', in C. R.
Whittaker (ed.), Pastoral Economies in Classical Antiquity (PCPS Suppl. 14, 1988),
196 ff., 201-2.
6
e.g. E. Mattiocco, 'I centri fortificati nel contesto delle culture pastorali', in Centri
fortificati preromani nel territorio dei Peligni (Sulmona, 1981), for Paelignian hilltop
settlement explained in terms of mobile pastoralism; Salmon, Samnium, 50-2, for
settlement in Samnium 'athwart the drovers' trails'; C. Letta, '"Oppida", "vici",
"pagi" in area marsa: l'influenza dell'ambiente naturale sulla continuità delle forme
di insediamento', ih M. Sordi (ed.). Geografia e storiografia nel mondo classico (Milan,
 Mountain Society 113

Ideas of the predominantly pastoral economy of the Central Apen­

nines have also been used to account for some of the images of this
area which recur in Roman literature: poverty, marginality, and non-
urban settlement. It is therefore necessary to reassess evidence—
literary, documentary, and material—on the basis of which many
have argued that pastoralism gave to the Central Apennines a special
character.

(a) Ancient Literature

Within Greek and Roman ethnography, considerable attention is paid
to the types of farming practised by other peoples. The variety of
agriculture or pastoralism (or, indeed, a mixture of both) practised is
one aspect of the broader interest in the themes of geographical
determinism' and human development. 7 The connection between
pastoralism and primitivism is one which is made frequently in
antiquity: according to this view, pastoralism is characteristic of a
pre-civilized existence, and may either represent a former stage in a
now civilized society like Rome, or be used to characterize other
societies in a negative way. 8 Conversely, agriculture is linked with
an ideal stage of development: civilization without decadence. Within
Roman ideology of the Late Republic and Early Empire, small farmers
are of particular moral importance: they live staunch lives away from
corrupting contemporary influences, and make excellent soldiers. 9

1988), 217, for non-urban scattered settlement amongst the Marsi explained partly in
terms of transhumant pastoralism. For the idea that the emergence' of the various tribes
of the Central Apennines in the fourth century BC was linked to the 'evolution' from
nomadism to regulated transhumance, see Van Wonterghem, Superaequum, Corfinium,
Sulmo, 36, 41. E.g. Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 185, for connection between
pastoral 'big business' and the rural sanctuaries.
7
Cf. in general R. F. Thomas, Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethno-
graphical Tradition (PCPS Suppl. 7, 1982), 1 ff. For a discussion of the 'environmental
factor' in Livy, see T. J. Luce, Livy: The Composition of his History (Princeton, 1978),
276 ff.
8
e.g. Ar. Poi 1256 a 31 ff.; Varro RR 2. 1. 1-5 for the primitive origins of animal
husbandry; Propertius 4. 10 for the end of civilization as represented by the image of
shepherds grazing their sheep on the site of Veii. B. D. Shaw, 'Eaters of Flesh, Drinkers
of Milk', Ancient Society, 13-14 (1982-3), 5 ff., for an excellent discussion of ancient
views of mobile pastoralism; C. Ampolo, 'Rome archaïque: une société pastorale ?', in
Whittaker, Pastoral Economies, 120 ff., for criticism of images of early Rome as a
pastoral society.
9
e.g. Cato De Agri Cult. Preface 2; Hor. Odes 3. 6. 37 ff.; Livy 2. 26. 9 for
Cincinnatus at his plough; Cic. De Off. 1. 150-1, 2. 89 for notorious comments on
the moral worth of various types of work.
114 Mountain Society
It should be emphasized that, despite modern preoccupation with
pastoralism in the Central Apennines, there is very little explicit
interest in this aspect of local society within ancient literature. I
have cited above in full the notorious passage of Livy (9. 13. 7),
within which the Samnites are portrayed as montani atque agrestes,
pitched against the despised people of Arpi: 'campestria et maritima
loca contempto cultorum molliore atque, ut evenit fere, locis simile
genere . . . depopulabantur'.10 This passage has generally been read
either as a description of Samnite society 'as it was* in antiquity, or as
characteristic of Roman perception of Samnite society. On either
reading, there is emphasis on the poor, pastoral, and non-urban aspect
of the Central Apennines, in contrast with the richer, agricultural
aspect of the lowland area.11 Both of these views are, however,
problematic. For one thing, it is far from obvious that Livy is
contrasting two different varieties of economy here: there are ways
of contrasting agriculturalists with pastoralists in Latin which are
clearer than agrestes versus culti} The contrast implied here is
more obviously that between the rough and non-urbanized people of
the mountains and the 'softer' people of the plains. For another thing,
Livy is precise about the time he is talking about: ea tempestate must
refer to the late fourth century BC, and cannot therefore be taken as a
general reference to Samnite society in the Late Republic and early
Empire. Above all, however, this particular passage of Livy is very
'pointed': here is 'geographical determinism' in its most explicit
form, used to highlight the conflict between the people of Arpi and
the Samnites. Livy's characterization of the Samnites during the
Samnite Wars has, as we saw in Chapter 2, many facets, and por­
trayal of them as montani atque agrestes should not be privileged
over, for example, the depiction of them in their gold and silver
10
9. 13. 7; cf. Introd. above for translation.
11
For various uses of Livy's montani atque agrestes, see e.g. Salmon, Samnium, 77,
4
It is hardly surprising that these deprived mountain-dwellers should be consistently
represented as covetous of neighbouring and better lands*; Barker, Lloyd, and Webley,
'Classical Landscape', 43: 'From the classical writers we can do little more than
generalise that pastoral systems predominated in the upper valley and arable systems
in the lower valley. Livy characterised the Samnite people as montani atque agrestes (9.
13. 7) and Salmon's study reaffirms the tradition of a rustic backwater thinly populated
especially by shepherds and herdsmen'; Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 180, cites the
passage in support of his statement, 'It would appear that in antiquity the conditions of
life in the highlands were hard.'
12
A. Giardina , 'Uomini e spazi aperti', in E. Gabba and A. Schiavone (eds.), Storia
di Roma, iv: Caratteri e morfologie (Turin, 1989), 71 ff., 76-7 for discussion of the
meaning of agrestes here.
 Mountain Society 115
armour,13 or his accounts of the large amounts of booty gained by
the Romans as the result of sacking Samnite towns in the Third
Samnite War. 14
Apart from this notorious passage of Livy, there is very little in
ancient literature which positively invites association of peoples of
the Central Apennines with pastoralism. Nevertheless, modern pre­
occupation with pastoralism has apparently prompted scholars to read
references to it into a variety of negative Greek and Roman notices on
the area. This interpretation has presumably been encouraged by the
fact that pastoralism is often associated with a negative variety of
primitivism in ancient literature. The possibility that indications of
negative primitivism amongst the peoples of the Central Apennines
might have to do with something other than pastoralism is not always
canvassed, despite the fact that there is no specific reference to
pastoralism in the passages under consideration. Thus, for example,
Frayn, who emphasizes the distinctive and separate character of
shepherd-communities, explains Strabo's 'down-grading1 of Samnite
towns on the 'sheep routes' in terms of his sources being 'unfavour­
able to pastoral communities and unappreciative of their life-style'. 15
When Torelli argues that the Samnite economy was not 'purely*
pastoral, he begins by citing Livy's reference to 'nefarium latroci-
nium Samnitium, belligerum genus' ('the Samnites, an abominable
band of robbers, a belligerent people'), suggesting that this passage is
characteristic of the ancient literary sources as a whole. He interprets
this passage as a depiction of a social structure which was substan­
tially pastoral, manifested in the form of incursions and raids, and
then challenges this view with a more complex picture of Samnite
economic activity. 16 There seems, however, to be no reason why
'nefarium latrocinium' should necessarily be a reference to pastoral­
ism. Furthermore, as we have seen already, Livy's portrayal of the
Samnites is not one-sided. As we shall see later, it would be even
more misleading to view images of 'nefarium latrocinium Samnitium,
belligerum genus' and 'montani atque agrestes' in isolation and to
consider them as representative of ancient literary evidence concern­
ing peoples of the Central Apennines.
13
Livy 9. 40. 1-4; cf. Ch. 2, s. 7 above.
14
Livy 9. 40; cf. 10. 39. 11-14.
15
J. Frayn, Sheep-Rearing and the Wool Trade in Italy During the Roman Period
(Liverpool, 1984), 71.
16
Livy 7. 30. 12; M. Torelli, Ter il Sannio tra IV e I sec. a.C: note di archeologia',
in Sannio (1984), 27.
II6 Mountain Society
Elsewhere in modern scholarship, specialist pastoralism has, until
comparatively recently, been generally regarded as a kind of eco­
nomic 'last resort*: various scholars comment on the natural poverty
of the Central Apennines in terms of agricultural ' and mineral
resources, concluding their discussion of the local economy with
images of mobile pastoralism and the struggle for new grazing
lands, supposedly illustrated by the Sacred Spring myths and the
Samnite Wars.17 The connection between pastoralism and poverty
seems implicit in these accounts, and one might well be reminded
of the topos of poverty which recurs in satirical references to peoples
of the Central Apennines in literature of the Late Republic and early
Empire.18 The connection between pastoralism, poverty, and eco­
nomic marginality was most seriously challenged by Pasquinucci in
1979. She drew attention rather to the 'big business* aspect of
pastoralism, illustrated most eloquently in literary sources for the
second century onwards, by documentary sources for the early
Empire onwards, and by comparisons with the Dogana delle Pecore
system under the Kingdom of Naples in the sixteenth to early nine­
teenth centuries. Her work coincided with the large-scale reassess­
ment of local society and cultural horizons which owed most to the
work of La Regina in the 1960s and 1970s.19 Within this general
model, however, there still remained room for emphasis on the special
character of local life imposed by a mainly pastoral economy. This
approach is illustrated most clearly by Frayn's chapter on 'Shepherd
Communities: A Social Anomaly'.20

(b) Questioning Modern Preoccupations

I have suggested that explanations of cultural and moral phenomena
in the Central Apennines in terms of pastoralism are very much less
17
Letta, / Marsi, 88: 'certamente per i popoli dell'alto Appennino, e per i Marsi in
particolare, quasi del tutto privi di terre coltivabili, lo stabilizzarsi pacifico della
transumanza deve risalire all'inizio del III secolo e deve considerarsi come un vantag­
gio economico' ('certainly for the peoples of the high Apennines, and for the Marsi in
particular, almost entirely deprived of cultivable land, the peaceful establishment of
transhumance must date back to the beginning of the third century, and must be
considered as an economic advantage'); for explanation of the Sacred Spring myths
in terms of overpopulation and the need to seek 'fresh woods and pastures new', see
18
Salmon, Samnium, 35-6. See Ch. 3, s. 2 (c) below.
19
See esp. La Regina, 'Insediamenti vestini'; id., 'Centri urbani*; id., 'I territori
sabellici e sannitici*; id., 'Il Sannio'.
20
Frayn, Sheep-Rearing, 66 ff.
 Mountain Society 117

obvious in ancient literature than might be imagined if one reads the

work of some modern scholars. It is possible also to use archaeolo­
gical and comparative evidence to suggest that pastoralism per se did
not give to the Central Apennines a separate and distinctive character
such as could be remarked on by Greek and Roman authors.
Recently, there has been a reaction against models which rigidly
oppose pastoral and agricultural systems, and the subtler models
proposed seem to be well supported by archaeological survey of the
Central Apennines. From comparative evidence, it emerges that
pastoralism is very rarely practised exclusively, not least because
animal-rearing alone is not an economical way to use land, nor is
the consumption of animal products alone an efficient way of gaining
sufficient calories. 21 Furthermore, despite ancient beliefs, exclusive
pastoralism, which is inevitably mobile to some degree, is not a
feature of economically primitive societies, but generally takes place
within the context of a highly developed economy, not least because
such specialization is a highly risky business. 22 Ideas of 'environ­
mentally determined' long-distance transhumance practised continu­
ously from prehistoric times through into the modern period can no
longer be endorsed by appealing to archaeological or comparative
evidence.
Within these recent studies, the 'big business' side of pastoralism,
which surely involved some degree of specialization, is not, however,
denied. 'Big business' pastoralism in ancient Italy, the variety of
pastoralism within which long-distance transhumance is most likely
to have been practised, is now generally considered to have been a
response to particular historical and social circumstances, rather than
to have been determined by environmental factors alone. 23 Long­
distance transhumance was considered in antiquity to be hazardous,
and is labour-consuming, requiring the absence of valuable manpower
21
W. Goldschmidt, 'A General Model for Pastoral Social Systems*, in Pastoral
Production and Society/Production pastorale et société (Paris and Cambridge, 1979),
15 ff.,16; M. L. Ryder, Sheep and Man (London, 1983), 646; Whittaker, in id., Pastoral
Economies, 1 ff. For calculations of the number of sheep required to feed the 'reference
family', see G. Dahl and A. Hjort, Having Herds (Stockholm, 1976), 140-1; 220 Table
9.5.
22
Whittaker, in id., Pastoral Economies* 4; J. Cherry, 'Pastoralism and the Role of
Animals in the Pre- and Protohistoric Economies of the Aegean 1 , in the same volume,
16-17; Garnsey, 'Mountain Economies', 203-4.
23
Garnsey, 'Mountain Economies' 203—4; Whittaker, in id., Pastoral Economies,
2-4.
II8 Mountain Society
for a good part of the year. Varro puts into the mouth of Cossimus
advice to prospective buyers of livestock to make a clear distinction
between shepherds hired to look after sheep on the farm, and shep­
herds hired to accompany sheep on the calles (livestock trails'). The
latter group of shepherds should be fit young men, and should be
armed.24 Long-distance transhumance also involves the loss of dung,
a valuable fertilizer. Comparative evidence suggests that farmers can
resort to various strategies in order to keep livestock on the farm all
the year round without practising transhumance of any kind: for
example, animals may graze under vines and olives, be turned into
harvested fields, manuring them in the process, or even be fed on
leaves and weeds within their stalls. Transhumance, whether long- or
short-distance, is likely to be practised only when the flock is too large
to be kept adequately on the farm, either because the farm is very
small, or because the flock is very large.25 When transhumance does
need to be practised, short-distance transhumance is likely to have
been the more inviting option: the sheep might in this case be watched
even by a child, 26 and this option would be particularly effective in an
environment such as the Central Apennines, where different altitudes,
and consequently different climatic conditions, are found at compara­
tively close distances.
Doubts remain about the degree of specialization there might have
been before the second century BC, but it is certainly true to say that
the evidence from the second century BC concerning Italy in general is
less circumstantial than it is for the earlier period, although even from
this period, the evidence is nothing like as substantial as that from the
Imperial period. According to Pasquinucci's thesis, large-scale pas-
toralism is a phenomenon which really takes off after the Hannibalic
War. This thesis is based partly on the view that only after the Roman
conquest of Italy could stable political conditions favour long­
distance transhumance, which would involve travelling through the
territories of different peoples, and that big business was favoured by
the confiscation of land in the territory of the allies. It is also based
partly on the view that large pastoralist ventures were favoured in this
period because of the growth of capital, and increases in the numbers
24
Varro RR 2. 10. 1-4.
25
Garnsey, 'Mountain Economies', 206-7; J. Thompson, 'Pastoralism and Transhu­
mance in Roman Italy', in Whittaker, Pastoral Economies, 213 ff., 214.
26
Varro RR 2. 10. 1, 'non modo pueri sed etiam puellae' ('not just boys but also
girls').
 Mountain Society 119

of slaves as a result of Roman imperialism. Certainly, specialist

pastoralism is not denied for the third century: Livy has notices of the
fining of pecuarii ('livestock breeders') for 296 and 293 BC, although
we do not know where these individuals had their flocks.28
For the second century BC, there is considerably more information
available concerning specialist pastoralism in Italy. Livy has further
notices of the fining of pecuarii for 196 and 193 BC. 2 9 Coniurationes
('plots') on the pascua publica ('public pasture-land') apparently
involved large numbers of pastures ('shepherds') in Apulia in 185—
184 BC: the praetor L. Postumius is said to have condemned about
seven thousand men. 30 Various sayings attributed to the Elder Cato
also indicate the perceived importance of animal husbandry amongst
the Roman élite in the first half of the second century BC. 31 The
earliest explicit reference to transhumance is the lex agraria of 111
BC, in which numbers of animals which could be grazed on the ager
publicus are regulated, and in which the calles and viae publicae
('public roads') are also subject to regulations. 32 Even here it is,
however, important to point out that there is no way of knowing the
distances that were being travelled along the calles and viae publicae:
mention of calles and viae publicae is not in itself positive evidence
for long-distance transhumance.
Direct evidence of local individuals in the Central Apennines
profiting from 'big business' pastoralism before the Social War is
thin on the ground. The author of the Polla inscription, found in the
Vallo di Diano in Basilicata (ancient Lucania), mentions not only his
part in the building of the road from Rhegium to Capua and his part in
returning fugitive slaves to their masters in Sicily, but also his part in
making shepherds yield to aratores on the ager publicus:
27
Pasquinucci, 'La transumanza', 94; Garnsey, * Mountain Economies', 199. See
also Whittaker, in id., Pastoral Economies, 4 for emphasis on thé growing needs of the
Roman army.
28
Livy 10. 23. 13; 10. 47. 7; Pasquinucci, 4La transumanza' (1979), 93 supposes that
these pecuarii were active on ager publicus not far from Rome, although they may at
other times have been using complementary pasture-land in the mountains.
29 3Ö
Livy 33. 42. 10; 25. 10. 11-12. Ibid. 39. 29. 8-9.
31
Cic. De Off. 2, 89; Pliny NH 18. 29-30; Colum. 6, Preface 4-5; for Cato 'quoted*
as saying that both pastoralism and agriculture are admirable activities, see Serv. Ad
Aen. 7. 539; Plut. Cat. Mai. 4. 6, 21. 5.
32
FIRA i, no. 8, 14-15 for regulation regarding the number of animals and the
payment of the scriptura\ 19-20, 26 for the incidental pasturing of animals on the calles
and viae publicae.
120 Mountain Society
eidemque
primus fecei ut de agro poplico
aratoribus cédèrent paastores.
And I too was the first to make shepherds yield to ploughmen on the public
land.33
Although this inscription is tantalizing, it tells us little about the
local situation. For one thing, it is far from clear that, when the author
tells of his treatment of the paastores, he is talking about the situation
in Lucania: the order and arrangement of the inscription suggest
rather that this activity took place in Sicily. Even if this inscription
does refer to the situation in Lucania, however, it tells us nothing
about the scale of pastoralism, or the extent of specialization. Later
references tend to be used in reconstructing the situation in the
Central Apennines before the Social War. Varro's famous reference
to long-distance transhumance is much used, presumably because of
his explicit mention of Samnium:
Itaque grèges ovium longe abiguntur ex Apulia in Samnium aestivatum atque
ad publicanum profìtentur, ne, si inscriptum pecus paverint, lege censoria
committant.
Thus flocks of sheep are driven from Apulia all the way to Samnium for
summer pasture, and are declared to the tax-collector, so that, in case they
should fear their flock is unregistered, they may not come into conflict with
the censorial law.34
While this does seem to be a reference to relatively 4big business' and
transhumance as a regular feature of pastoralism on this scale, it is
worth noting the direction in which sheep are said to be driven. This is
not good evidence for Samnite pecuarii. The other piece of literary
evidence which is much cited in discussions of pastoralism in the
Central Apennines is Cicero's Pro Cluentio, in which pecuarii
associated with Larinum appear significantly after the Social War. 35
It will be seen that, although it seems right to suppose that develop­
ments after the Social War to some extent continue trends which can
be traced within the second century BC, the world of the mid-first
33
CIL x. 6950. I owe to Michael Crawford the idea that this passage relates to Sicily
rather than to southern Italy.
34
Varro RR 2, 1, 16; on the use and abuse of this passage, see J. P. Morel,
Romanisation (1991), 187 ff., esp. 200 ff.
35
Pro Cluentio 198, 'iam qui in agro Larinati praedia, qui negotia, qui res pecuarias
habent, honesti homines et summo splendore praediti . . .'
 Mountain Society 121

century BC is a substantially different one from that of the second

century. For another thing, it may not be advisable to be too hasty
about making generalizations about upland Molise on the basis of
evidence concerning Larinum, a town whose social and economic
development is very distinct from the rest of the Frentane area, let
alone from Samnium, from the end of the fourth century onwards. 36
There are certainly signs of the enrichment of individuals in the
Central Apennines from the later second century onwards: signs of
private wealth in Saepinum and Monte Vairano are particularly
suggestive in this context. The best evidence of conspicuous wealth
is, however, still found in the rural sanctuaries of Samnium in
particular. However, while individuals, generally magistrates, are
clearly associated with the stages of building of these sanctuaries,
and while certain gentilicial names recur frequently in these inscrip­
tions, it is as well to admit that we simply do not have good epigraphic
evidence to answer conclusively questions about the extent to which
building was actually funded by individuals or by communities as a
whole. 37 We know still less about the kind of economic activity which
funded these sanctuaries: pastoralism, agriculture, trading, the profits
of empire, or rather a combination of all four?
Similarly, finds of hill-top shelters, votive offerings and cult-places
on or near routes later criss-crossed by fratturi known from later
periods tell us nothing about the scale of 'big business* practised by
members of the élite within the Central Apennines, nor even about the
size of small-scale pastoralism. 38 Even if tratturi known from later
36
On the complex situation of Larinum and the Frentani, see La Regina, 'Aspetti
istituzionali nel mondo sannitico', Sannio (1984), 178.
37
It is worth emphasizing the fact that there is little positive evidence for the funding
of parts of the rural sanctuaries in Samnium by individuals.
In Ve. 149, referring to Temple A at Pietrabbondante, a keenstur (whose name is lost)
is said to have du una ted something (the identity of the gift is lost).
Ve. 154, referring to Temple B has been much discussed: 'd(ekis). staatiis. l(uvkefs).
klar.- (?) . .d. pestlüm. üpsann[üm\ The lacuna between klar, and .d renders the nature
and extent of the individual's action very uncertain. La Regina, *I1 Sannio', 233, 244-5,
cf. id., 'I territori sabellici e sannitici*, 457, fills the lacuna with [stivad eitiuva]d (sua
pecunia). He argues that this is preferable to the alternative [senate(s tanginu\d (senatus
sententia)t on the grounds that the formula [senatéis tanginû]d is, in Oscan inscriptions
from Samnium, inevitably accompanied by the verb prufatted (i.e. probavit), which is
absent in this incription. Even if La Regina is right about this, however, he now admits
that pestlüm is more likely to be the Oscan equivalent of podium, rather than meaning
'temple* as he originally supposed. If this is the case, then the contribution of the
individual would be significantly smaller than La Regina once thought.
38
For the popularity of Hercules in the highest zones of the Central Apennines, see
Van Wonterghem, 'Le Culte d'Hercule', Di Niro, // culto d'Ercole.
122 Mountain Society
periods could be demonstrated to follow the old routes (the calles),
there is no reason to believe that these routes were used exclusively
for the passage of sheep, let alone to believe that they were used
exclusively for long-distance transhumance. Nor, indeed, can the
obvious popularity of Hercules in the Central Apennines, as exempli­
fied most clearly by the statuettes of the god found very commonly
within this region, be used to tell us anything about the scale of
pastoralism or the degree of specialization. Within the ancient
world, Hercules was a supremely adaptable god, with many func­
tions. It is worth emphasizing the fact that in the second-century BC
Agnone tablet, which details the dedication of statues and altars to
numerous deities in the heart of Samnium, Hercules appears as Herek-
lui Kerrüüi (Herculi Cereali), an epithet attributed to several other
gods in the tablet, and one which is most unlikely to refer primarily to a
concern with the generation of livestock. 39 It is also surely a possibility
that the connection of Hercules with cattle was important in the Central
Apennines, as it was in Tyrrhenian Italy. 40 One might think, for
example, of Hellanicus' version of the naming of Italy after Her­
cules' ouitoulos.41 Cattle were apparently of ideological importance
to the Samnites specifically: a bull is their animal leader in the Sacred
Spring,42 while analysis of bones from Pietrabbondante suggests that a
high proportion of cattle was sacrificed at this sanctuary,43 a centre for
all of those who called themselves 'Samnites' during the second
century BC. Lastly, the Samnite bull appears trampling the Roman
wolf on coins issued by the insurgent allies during the Social War. 44
'Big business* pastoralism may, then, remain a possible source for
the funding of rural sanctuaries in the Central Apennines, and for the
accumulation of private wealth amongst the local élites before the
Social War, but it is important to be clear that evidence which is often
used to suggest the large scale on which specialist pastoralism was
practised in the Central Apennines is by no means conclusive, and is
open to alternative interpretations. It has also been noted that 'big

39
Ve. 147.
40
e.g. for Hercules at Rome, see Bayet, L'Hercule romain, 127 ff.
41
Hellanicus FGH 4, F 111 = D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 35.
42
Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C.
43
Barker, 'The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd', 13; id., 'Animals, Ritual and
Power in Ancient Samnium', in P. Meniel (ed.), Animal et pratiques religieuses: les
manifestations matérielles (Paris, 1989).
44
E. A. Sydenham, The Roman Republican Coinage (London, 1952), nos. 628, 641;
cf. recumbent bulls on 627, 631, 638, 642.
 Mountain Society 123
business' is likely to have been privileged in our ancient literary
sources for Italy in general, and that this factor may have given to
modern scholars a misleading impression about the extent of pastoral
specialization. 45 Furthermore, comparison with the Dogana system of
the modern period must surely only be made with great caution: the
creation of the Dogana system came in response to a demand for wool
from the whole of Europe, a situation which does not compare closely
with that of the Roman period. 46
Archaeological survey, on the other hand, has been very useful in
revealing types and patterns of settlement which suggest that specia­
list pastoralism should not be exaggerated: the signs are rather that
pastoralism was one integral aspect of a mixed, 'risk-spreading'
system. For our area, the Biferno Valley Survey, carried out by a
team led by Barker in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the excava­
tion in the early 1980s of the farmstead/villa at Matrice in the Upper
Biferno Valley by Lloyd, Rathbone, and Upson, provided invaluable
information. Both projects also challenged assumptions about the
types of establishment and patterns of settlement typical in the area.
In particular, the farmhouse at Matrice may be used as an illustration
of the kind of sturdy structure which could be found even in the Upper
Valley. Unfortunately, most of the visible remains are from the
Imperial period, when the farmhouse was relatively elaborate. There
are, however, traces of earlier phases. Traces of a simple stone
structure were found below the floor level of the main room. This
early structure seems to have been small (c.10 m. by c.4.5 m.), and to
have had only a crude roof. At this level were found indications of the
building's earliest phase of occupation: black glaze pottery from the
third to second centuries BC, as well as three coins, including one
silver one, from the same period. Interestingly, a considerably larger
structure replaced the original building in the course of the second
century BC. The outer walls of the structure now measured at least
18 m. by 18 m. Analysis of faunal and botanical remains can tell us
something about what the establishment was producing: there are pig,
sheep/goat, and cattle bones, as well as remains of wheat, and even
some grape-pips. The faunal and botanical remains indicate that
mixed farming was being practised here, while the coins and black-

As emphasized by G. Barker, JRS 72 (1982), 193.

Garnsey, 'Mountain Economies*, 204.
124 Mountain Society
glaze pottery are forcible reminders that economic isolation should
not be over-emphasized.47
In the Biferno Valley as a whole, the bulk of settlement was found
to be concentrated on the hillsides, away from the wet river valley, but
on the edge of better arable upland soil. 48 While farmsteads cluster
quite tightly around Larinum in the lower valley, presumably helping
to supply produce for the city, further up the valley, a more regular
pattern emerges of dense, fairly frequent settlement, establishments
commonly occurring about every hundred metres, and with rarely
more than about a kilometre between them.49 When it was possible
to analyse animal bones and vegetal remains, a mixture of agricultural
and pastoral activities was suggested. Amongst the animal bones, a
good proportion of pig-bones were found, suggesting that animal
husbandry in the area involved more than just the rearing of sheep
and goats.50 This is hardly surprising, as pigs are a relatively econom­
ical source of meat.51 Nearby, the remains of a different kind of
activity were identified. Within the valley floors of the river, there
were found to be concentrations of pottery without evidence of bricks
or tiles, while halfway up the valley some sort of camp in a rock
shelter was discovered.52 Recently, excavations around the Abbey at
San Vincenzo have brought to light foundations of small huts and
enclosures. These discoveries have been suggested to be the sites of
shepherd-shelters. Not only are these structures significantly less solid
affairs than the sturdy but crude Samnite farmhouse at Matrice, but
also the sites of these structures, either at high altitude or on the damp
valley-floor, would have been unsuitable for the cultivation of crops
according to the methods favoured in antiquity.53
Thus, the Biferno Valley Survey built up a picture of life in the
Central Apennines which was rather different from one that would
reflect exclusive pastoral activity. It is well worth pointing out that,
while this is the case, it is very difficult to distinguish between mainly
pastoral establishments and mainly agrarian establishments. While the
47
Lloyd and Rathbone, 4A Classical Landscape in Molise*; Lloyd, 'Farming the
Highlands', 182-4; see, however, Morel Romanisation (1991), 187 ff., for caution
regarding over-optimistic assessments of the Samnite economy.
48
Barker, Lloyd, and Webley,'A Classical Landscape*, esp. 44-5.
49
Ibid. 44.
50
Barker, 'The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd*, 12-14; Barker, 'Archaeology
of Samnite Settlement', 24; Barker, Lloyd, and Webley, *A Classical Landscape', 44-7.
51
e.g. K. D. White, Roman Farming (London, 1970), 316-17; 320-1 for the
importance of pig-rearing in ancient Italy as a whole.
*2 Barker, Lloyd, and Webley, 'A Classical Landscape', 47-8.
33
Barker, 'The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd', 14-15.
 Mountain Society 125

results of bone and botanical analysis may be used to make general­

izations about mixed-farming, we have to await an exposition of
criteria which would allow us to judge the relative importance of
animals and agricultural products. 54 Nevertheless, the position and
spacing of the majority of settlements in the Biferno Valley remains
very suggestive: it does appear that establishments were placed to
make the best use of land for mixed farming: for example, many
classical settlements on the Boiano lake basin are found at the
junction between the higher arable soils and the damper valley floor
which could be used as pasture. 55 It is hard too to know exactly how
to understand remains of shepherd-shelters: it is not clear how the
various types of establishment in the valley were articulated, although
it is certainly possible that such shelters were used by shepherds who
came comparatively short distances to use them. 56 There are, then, no
obvious signs of the 'anomalous communities' of which Frayn
wrote: 57 as far as can be seen, sheep-keeping seems to have been
an integral part of mixed farming settlements within the valley. As for
evidence of 'big business', the Biferno Survey and the excavation at
Matrice did, however, produce some results which are suggestive
regarding its possible chronology in the Central Apennines. Lloyd,
working from the situation at Matrice, would not exclude the possi­
bility that comparatively large-scale pastoralism was beginning to
take off here in the decades before the Social War, and to enrich
local élites. 58 However, the Biferno Valley Survey revealed the
disappearance of establishments, and signs of nucleation of establish­
ments to be a phenomenon which is really developing in the course of
the first to second centuries AD. 5 9 The beginnings of masserie-type
establishments are tentatively suggested for the Late Republic. These
suggestions are very interesting particularly when taken in conjunc­
tion with the apparent 'boom' in urban life and benefaction during the
Late Republic and Early Empire. 60
54
This difficulty is admitted by e.g. Cherry, 'Pastoralism', 18; Barker, 'The Archae­
ology of the Italian Shepherd', 4.
Barker, Lloyd, and Webley, 'A Classical Landscape', 45.
56
As suggested by e.g. Barker, Lloyd, and Webley, ibid. 48; Garnsey, 'Mountain
Economies', 201; Barker, 'The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd*, 3.
57 5
Frayn, Sheep-Rearing, 66 ff. * Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 184.
59
Barker, Lloyd, and Webley, *A Classical Landscape', 4 8 - 9 .
60
J. R. Patterson, 'Crisis: What Crisis? Rural Change and Urban Development in
Imperial Appennine Italy', PBSR 55 (1987), 115 ff.; id., 'Settlement, City and Élite';
Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 191-2; cf. Ch 3. s. 3. below.
126 Mountain Society
2. ANCIENT PREOCCUPATIONS

(a) Environmental Determinism

As we have seen, Livy's depiction of the Samnites in the late fourth
century BC as montani atque agrestes can by no means obviously be
taken as a reference to pastoral activity. This is surely rather an
example of the ancient motif of 'environmental determinism', the
belief that human character is a reflection of the environment. Other
authors too display interest in the mountain environment of the
peoples of the Central Apennines. Livy's montani atque agrestes
are undeniably depicted in a negative fashion in this passage.
'Rough* environments are variously perceived in antiquity: a
'rough* environment may be linked with moral excellence: images
of continuous struggle and hard work are very important in Roman
moral ideology of the later Republic and early Empire.61 On the other
hand, a 'rough' environment may produce a population which falls
below the ideal of civilization without decadence. This ambivalent
attitude towards 'rough' environments is comparable with Roman
ambivalence regarding rustici.62 The Samnites' environment raises
questions about their degree of civilisation: hence they are montani
atque agrestes. As I have suggested above, however, Livy's portrayal
of the Samnites at the time of the Samnite Wars is very complex: the
Samnites are made to display various barbarian attributes, such as
their taste for flashy armour and human sacrifice, and are not primitive
and pre-civilized, in the manner of Tacitus' Germans, for example.63
Their mountain environment depicted at 9. 13. 7 is part of a complex
picture, but adds to the impression of danger.
Elsewhere, the mountainous environment of the Central Apennines
lends to the local inhabitants a more positive character. So, then,
Cato's morally excellent youth is set against the background of saxis
Sabinis ('Sabine rocks').64 As we have already seen, this rough
landscape, productive of moral excellence, is in striking contrast
61
e.g. Sail. BC 3-4, for justification of history-writing rather than doing good deeds
oneself: 'pulchrum est bene facere rei publicae. etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est'
('It is a fine thing to do good deeds for the state, and even to speak well of it is not
inglorious').
62
For ambivalence concerning rustici, see e.g. R. MacMullen, Roman Social
Relations 50 BC to AD 284 (New Haven, 1974), 28 ff.; A. Wallace-Hadrill, 'Elites
and Trade in the Roman Town', in Rich and Wallace-Hadrill, City and Country, 241 ff.
63 M
Cf. Ch. 2, s. 8 above. Cato ORF{4) no. 8, 128 = Festus p. 350 L.
 Mountain Society 127
with other images of Sabinum in second-century BC literature.65
Significantly later, Horace's 'rusticorum mascula militum proles'
('masculine offspring of country soldiers') pursue their admirable,
pre-corrupt life-style against a specifically mountainous backdrop,
the geographical location of which is hinted at by 'Sabellis . . .
ligonibus' ('with Sabellian hoes'). 6 6 With regard to the Vestini,
Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini and Frentani, Strabo mentions their moun­
tain environment: xr\v òpsivr\v Karèxovcnv ('they occupy the
mountainous region'). 67 It is, in fact, interesting that Strabo seems
to regard the Central Apennines as a solid block of mountain, which
begins beyond the Fucine lake; according to his account, beyond the
fertile Campanian plain, there is a gradation into fruitful hills fol­
lowed by the mountains of the 'Samnites and Osci'. 68 After his
mention of the mountain environment of these tribes, there follows
a passage concerning their excellence particularly in warfare.69 Given
Strabo's interest in environmental factors, and the connection which
he makes elsewhere between natural environment and local morality,
most explicit in his depiction of Campania and Capua, 70 it is tempting
to suppose that the juxtaposition of mountain environment and moral
excellence implies a causal connection in the case of the Vestini,
Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini, and Frentani.
It is, however, important to note that, even within the ancient
discourse of 'environmental determinism', the value of particular
environments may change: the Samnites, portrayed before the Social
War, are montani atque agrestes, while the 'Sabellian' landscape,
when used as a moral resource for the Augustan Age, becomes the
location of manly excellence. There is also, importantly, a good
degree of choice when it comes to categorizing a landscape: this
point is exemplified most clearly by the case of Sabinum, a geogra­
phically varied territory which cannot easily be envisaged as a unified
block. In the case of Sabinum, it seems likely that historical factors,
namely the incorporation of Sabinum into the Roman citizenship, are
important in the assignment of Sabinum to the category of 'rough
lands' from the second century BC.
65 66 67
Cf. Ch. 2, s. 4 above. Odes 3. 6. 38. 5. 4. 2 = 241 C.
68
5. 4. 3 = 242 C.
69
5. 4. 2 = 241 C: tan Se ràiOvrj raina ptiicpà JIÉV, àvopucónara Se . . . ('these peoples
are small in numbers, but the bravest . . .*).
70
5. 4. 3 = 242 C; 5. 4. 13 = 250-1 C.
128 Mountain Society
(b) Types and Patterns of Settlement
Images of non-urban settlement abound in ancient depictions of
society in the Central Apennines. We have seen above Livy*s depic­
tion of the Samnites living vicatim at the time of the Samnite Wars.71
For Strabo, the Central Apennines had very few nuclei which
deserved the name of polis: the Sabines had very few cities, and
even Cures, once a nókic knioritioç ('city of note'), was now a
KG0|iiov ('small village'). The territory of the Vestini, Marsi, Pae-
ligni, Marrucini and Frentani is also characterized largely by non-
urban settlement:
rà nev ouv äXXa KCOUTJSÒV ÇSHJIV, ëxovm 8e Kai nóXsig . . .
For the most part they live in villages, but they also have cities . . . 73
Similarly, and rather more problematically, Bovianum, Aesernia,
Panna, and Telesia are described as villages after the actions of
Sulla, as opposed to the poleis they had been previously. Amongst
the Samnites, Beneventum and Venusia are the only settlements that
are excepted from the general impression of the devastation of post-
Sullan Samnium.74

(c) Hardship
While mountains might make an ideal background for frugality,
uprightness, and moral excellence in general, as we have seen in
section 1, by the late Republic, the actual poverty of peoples of the
Central Apennines is a topos, frequently used in satirical contexts.
Marsic or 'Sabellian' origins are at various points associated with
proverbial poverty, demonstrated not least by the attribution of
poverty to Marsic individuals with regard to whom it is obviously
inappropriate. For example, in De Domo sua, Cicero emphasizes the
Marsic origins of Scato, whose name, he claims, was put forward by
Clodius as purchaser of Cicero's house on the Palatine in order that
Clodius should not appear both as seller and as purchaser of the house.
The supposed outrage of Scato's claim to have bought the noblest
house on the Palatine is heightened by the assertion that Scato had
nullum tectum amongst the Marsi where he was born.75 Egens, an
adjective attributed to Scato in De Domo sua, and its cognates, appear
71 72 73
9. 13. 7. 5. 3. 1 = 228 C. 5. 4. 2 = 241 C.
74 75
5. 4. 11 = 250 C. De Domo sua 116.
 Mountain Society 129

in association with Marsi in other Ciceronian contexts. Cicero, in the

Pe Divinatione, glosses Ennius' contemptuous reference to augurs
'quibus egestas imperat' ('driven by their indigence') as, inter alios,
Marsi: once again, the Roman association of Marsi with poverty is
illustrated. 76 Likewise, in the Philippics, 'Marso nescio quo Octavio'
('some Marsic man called Octavian'), put at the head of a legion by
Dolabella, on the latter's invasion of Asia, is characterized as
'scelerato latrone atque egenti' ('a wicked and indigent robber'),
whose rampage is said to provide fodder for his begging habit. 77
This attribution of poverty to individuals who come originally from
the Central Apennines is surely the negative version of the admirable
frugality supposedly exhibited by such individuals. The complexity
and ambivalence of Roman moral ideology is well illustrated by these
examples, and acts as a warning against reading Roman ideology as
normative only in one direction.

(d) Manpower
When ancient authors characterize positively peoples of the Central
Apennines, they do so most frequently in terms of the bravery of these
peoples and their association with warfare.78 As we have seen in
Chapter 1, in the case of the Samnites, there is also a pre-Roman
context for exploitation and idealization of available manpower: in
the late fourth century, the Tarentines were apparently characterizing
their Samnite allies as playing Pitanates to the Tarentines' Spartans.79
The association with warfare can have negative overtones, as in
Livy's depiction of the Samnites as belligerum genus ('a belligerent
people'): 8 0 after all, manpower which could be used against Rome
cannot unambivalently be regarded as positive. Similarly, Appian's
attribution of the saying 'no victory without or against the Marsi'81 to
a pre-Social War context highlights the mixed blessings to Rome of
having the Marsi as allies rather than fellow-citizens. It is perhaps not
surprising that, even after the Social War, it is Sabellian, rather than
specifically Samnite, manpower which appears in ideal contexts. 82
76 77
De Divinatione 1. 132 = Enn. Tr. fr. 134 b J. Cic. Phil 11. 2.
78
Virg. Georg. 2. 167 ff.; Hör. Odes 3. 6. 37 ff.; Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 241 C; Pliny NH 3.
79 80
106. Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C. 7. 30. 12.
81 82
BC 1. 46. 203. e.g. Virg. Georg. 2. 167 ff.; Hör. Odes 3. 6. 37 ff.
130 Mountain Society

3. R E C O N S T R U C T I N G LOCAL SOCIETY

(a) Patterns and Types of Settlement

pagi dicti a fontibus, quod eadem aqua uterentur. aquae enim lingua Dorica
rcayai appellantur.

The pagi are so-called after springs, because they shared the same water. For
in the Doric language, waters are called 'pagai'.83

Greek and Roman authors believed that there were very few cities in
the Central Apennines. Recently, however, scholars have emphasized
the existence of urban features even before the Social War: there is
now generally believed to have been greater continuity between
trends in the later second century BC and the municipalization of the
area in the first century BC to the first century AD. One of the real
problems associated with assessing the degree to which a particular
area was urbanized at any particular time is that it is actually very
difficult to know from archaeological remains alone what would have
constituted a city and what would not have done so. Sufficient
epigraphical evidence is not always available to reveal all of the
features which together consituted a city in ancient thought: tem­
ples, an agora, gymnasia, places of assembly, colonnaded streets,
nor is it easy in many cases to uncover and excavate an area large
enough to find (or fail to find) all these features; in the latter case,
there will frequently also be problems with identification.84
There are further complications: for example, it is as well to
remember the significance of the Latin term urbanitas, denoting a
polished and sophisticated life-style: comfortable and stylish living is
the mark of a city. 85 This attribute may be denied to anyone originat­
ing from anywhere but the city of Rome, and may at other times be
exported to the countryside. 86 On the other hand, archaeologists often
83
Festus p. 247 L.
84
R. Martin, L'Urbanisme dans la Grèce antique (Paris, 1956), 13 ff., 253 ff. for the
creation of a standard idea of the polis particularly in the Hellenistic age; for ancient
ideas of what a polis should be, see e.g. Pausanias 10. 4. 1, 10. 32. 10; Thuc. 1. 10;
Strabo 5. 2. 6; Vitr. 5. 1 ff.; for the conflict between the ideal of the city as the model of
settlement, and the actual dominance of non-urban models of settlement in the ancient
world, see M. Frederiksen, 'Changes in the Pattern of Settlement', HIM (1976), 341 ff.
85
E. S. Ramage, Urbanitas: Ancient Sophistication and Refinement (Oklahoma,
1973).
86
For the exportation of urbanitas to the countryside, see N. Purcell, 4Town in
Country and Country in Town*, in E. MacDougall (ed.), Ancient Roman Villa Gardens
(Dunbarton Oaks, 1987), 187 ff.; Wallace-Hadrill, 'Elites and Trade*, 248-9.
 Mountain Society 131

have to make judgements about the status of a settlement based on

partial information: the absolute size of a site, or the existence of
features such as fortifications, public buildings, street systems, and
types and contents of tombs. 87 It will not always be possible to check
archaeological classification against either the locals' self-representa­
tion, or against the perception of the settlement as exemplified by
Greek or Roman literary sources.
Nevertheless, evidence from some pre-Social War sites in the
Central Apennines remains suggestive. Most important of all in this
respect have been La Regina's studies of the sites of future municipia.
The choice of which settlements would become municipia does not
appear to have been arbitrary, nor should there be too much emphasis
on the Roman imposition of urban structures on a non-urbanized
population.88 Future municipia can often be seen to have been
moving in the direction of urbanization, in the sense of the concentra­
tion within a fortified area of buildings of diverse functions, and/or the
concentration within a small area of a sizeable élite enjoying a refined
life-style. 89 At Saepinum, for example, it appears that there were
buildings of public and private function before the Social War, and
some fine Hellenistic mosaic pavements in private dwellings are
eloquent testimony to élite lifestyle here. 90 Even before the Social
War, there is evidence of the public production of bricks,91 just as
there is at Bovianum; 92 presumably building was on a large enough
scale to justify local 'industry'. Buildings of public and private
function may also be seen in pre-Social War Marruvium amongst
the Marsi.93 At Corfinium, conglomerations of tombs dating from
the late second to early first centuries BC contain precious materials
and even strigils, 94 providing evidence of enjoyment of the kind of
87
e.g. Whitehouse and Wilkins, 'Greeks and Natives', 116.
88
The influence of Latin colonies on local society in the third to second centuries BC
is, however, surely very important: e.g. M. Torelli, 'La romanizzazione dei territori
italici: il contributo della documentaria archeologica*, in La cultura italica (Pisa, 1978),
89
75 ff., 82. La Regina, 'Centri urbani'.
90
M. Matteini Chiari, Saepinum (1982), 15—19; Torelli, 'Per il Sannio', 84; Torelli,
'Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica*, 155; Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 184; La
Regina, 'I Sanniti: il sogno di un impero', in S. Gattei et al., Molise, 25 ff., 41.
1
La Regina, 'Centri urbani', 199: a brick-stamp found in the forum area bears the
name of a m(eddiss) t(uvtiks).
92
G. De Benedittis, Bovianum e il suo territorio (Salerno, 1977), 9.
93
Letta, '"Oppida", "vici", "pagi"*, 232.
94
La Regina, 'Centri urbani*, 459.
132 Mountain Society
refined 'good life' which was associated particularly with cities in
ancient thought.
More is known about pre-Roman private life-styles in ancient
Samnium than in any other part of the Central Apennines, simply
because the archaeological picture of Molise in antiquity is clearer
than that of neighbouring regions. Particularly important archaeolo­
gical evidence is available not only from Saepinum, but also from
Monte Vairano near modern Campobasso, whose ancient identity is as
yet unclear. 95 The surrounding circuit of walls, probably dating from
the fourth century BC, measures nearly 3 km., and encloses an area of
49 hectares. 96 There are three gates, and traces of arterial roads
suggest an urban plan. 97 A small pottery-kiln found by the 'Porta
Vittoria', as well as a dump of pottery outside this gate, attest the local
production of black-glaze pottery.98 Finds of fragments of around 80
Rhodian amphorae suggest that the inhabitants were importing fine
Rhodian wine in the mid-second to first centuries BC, while coins from
Pharos, Apollonia, Epirus, Thasos, and Ebusus might suggest the kind
of international connections available to the inhabitants.99 The exca­
vated House of ' L N \ inhabited from the second to mid-first centuries
BC, displayed on its roof an antefix depicting Hercules and the
Ne mean lion, 1 0 0 neatly illustrating the pretensions of its inhabitants.
The non-urban aspect of the Central Apennines should not, then, be
overdone even for the period before the Social War. With regard to the
real growth of urban settlement in the Central Apennines in the Late
Republic and Early Empire, it is as well to emphasize the fact that Strabo
refers to 'few' cities rather than to 'no' cities. It is, however, true that he
places more emphasis on the 'downgrading* of cities than on those
settlements which still deserve the name of polis. As we have seen, he
states that Bovianum and Aesernia, as well as Panna and Telesia, are
now villages in the place of the poleis they once were, apparently as a
result of the actions of Sulla in the 80s. Beneventum and Venusia are
explicitly stated to be exceptions to his general rule concerning the
contemporary dearth of nóXeiq amongst the Samnites.101 This notice
95
For suggestions that Monte Vairano should be identified with Aquilonia, see La
Regina, 'I Sanniti: il sogno di un impero', 25 ff.; Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo,
Molise, 277-83; G. De Benedittis, Sannio (1980), 321-8, id., Samnium (1991), 127.
96
De Benedittis, Sannio (1980), 321-6; (1988), 36-44.
97
De Benedittis, Sannio (1980), 321.
98
G. De Benedittis, Monte Vairano: la casa di ' LN'; catalogo della mostra
10
(Campobasso, 1988), 42. " lbid. 15. ° Ibid. 58-9.
101
Strabo 5. 4. 11 = 250 C.
 Mountain Society 133
is problematic. While what is known about these sites in the Samnite and
early Roman periods is limited, there are some indications that Strabo's
statement cannot be taken as a straight description of Samnium from the
time when he was writing. At Aesernia, for example, there are some
particularly rich funerary reliefs from the Caesarian and Julio-Claudian
eras. The ambitious subjects depicted include gladiatorial contests, and
the conflict between Alexander and Darius, suggesting the presence of a
thriving local élite. 102 Certainly, Cicero in the Pro Cluentio, delivered in
the 50s BC, could still find it appropriate to single out Bovianum as a
worthy supporter of his client, 103 a reference which might seem inap­
propriate if it was universally considered to be a 'village' at the time of
the speech.
Apart from those sites which are explicitly denied the name of city
by Strabo, more is known about Saepinum in the Augustan Age, a site
which is implicitly excluded from Strabo's list. The Augustan Age
seems to have been a very active time in the rebuilding of Saepinum,
and the town apparently received a complete overhaul, walls, towers,
and gates constructed, with financial help from the future emperor
Tiberius himself. 104 An inscription from the basilica on the west side
of the forum, constructed by the last decade of the first century BC,
under L. Naevius Pansa, also attests the intervention of the imperial
family in the form of Tiberius. 105 A particularly active local indivi­
dual in this period was C. Ennius Marsus, who not only built an
impressive mausoleum for himself, but also a whole series of foun­
tains, including the elegant Griffin Fountain, a joint benefaction with
L. Ennius Gallus. 106 The signs are, then, that Saepinum was taking on
an unmistakably urban aspect precisely when Strabo was writing.
It seems possible that concentration on the destruction of Samnite
civilization was important in post-Sullan Roman ideology, and that
hence notices of the decline of Samnite cities may appear to be rather
exaggerated when matched with the archaeological record. This trend
would certainly be in keeping with Sulla's justification of his activity
in Samnium in terms of the peril posed to Rome if the Samnites held
102 103
Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo. Molise, 188. 197.
104
CIL ix. 2443; Matteini Chiari, Saepinum (1982), 57-8 for discussion of chron­
ology.
For inscription, see M. Gaggiotti, 'Le iscrizioni della basilica di Saepinum e i
rectores della provincia del Samnium\ Athen. 56 (1978), 146 ff., 147 ff.; cf. Gaggiotti,
Saepinum (1982), 29.
106
Gaggiotti Saepinum (1982), 29; Matteini Chiari, Saepinum (1982), 70.
134 Mountain Society
together as a separate people. 107 It is surely relevant that Strabo
includes in his list of settlements that are now no more than icdtyiai
centres that must have been of great ideological importance to the
Samnites: Bovianum, capital of the Pentri, and Aesernia, the eventual
capital of the insurgent allies.
Despite the need to emphasize moves towards urbanization even
before the Social War, it is nevertheless important to retain a sense of
perspective. In the second century BC, developments in the Central
Apennines do not compare well with those in Tyrrhenian Italy. For
example, despite the emergence of villae rusticae in Sabinum, urba­
nization is late and on a small scale. Trebula Mutuesca, an important
local centre, only became a municipium in the Augustan Age, as did
Amiternum, which had remained a praefectura up to this date. 108 The
Roman town of Reate is strikingly small, the inhabited area covering
only 8 hectares. 109 The settled area of Cures too seems to have become
noticeably reduced in the course of the second century BC. 1 1 0 While
houses with polychrome mosaic at Saepinum may be dated to the late
second century BC, and are the first real evidence for what may really
be considered as recognizable élite private housing, it is as well to
remember that, at Pompeii, houses with peristyles first appear in the
early second century: there is a considerable time-lag involved here. 111
The systematization of the city of Rome particularly in the 180s and
170s may be seen in the context of an urban 'boom' in Tyrrhenian Italy
in the early second century BC, which is not echoed by truly compar­
able phenomena in the Central Apennines. 112 There is a similar gap
between the periphery of the Central Apennines and the inner areas.
Here, Torelli's conception of cultural 'bands' in Italy seems helpful in
emphasizing the distinctive character of Pentrian territory. Beneven-
tum and Larinum, for example, are very much more precociously
urbanized, and outside cultural influences seem to be absorbed much
earlier and more profoundly. 113 Larinum, for example, probably
possessed a regular urban plan already in the third century BC: 1 1 4 the
107
Strabo 5. 4. 11 = 249 C.
108
For the status of Trebula Mutuesca, see CIL ix. 463; cf. F. Coarelli, Lazio (Guide
archeologiche Laterza, Bari, 1982), 19; for the status of Amiternum, see CIL ix. 397; cf.
109
Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 19. Coarelli, Lazio, 20.
110
Ibid. 34; M. P. Muzzioli, Forma Italiae, Regio IV, ii: Cures Sabini (Florence,
1U m
1980), 40. Gros, Architecture, 25 ff. Ibid. 17-18.
113
Torelli, 'La romanizzazione dei territori italici', 81; id., 'Per il Sannio', 29, 34.
114
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali', 18; cf. Torelli, 'Per il Sannio', 28.
 Mountain Society 135
life-style of the local élite conveyed by Cicero in the 50s in the Pro
Cluentio may be imagined to have deep roots.
While it seems important to establish a sense of perspective by
comparing the state of urban development in the Central Apennines in
the second century BC with that of Tyrrhenian Italy during the same
period, it is equally important not to regard the social organization of
the Central Apennines as merely some kind of pale and inferior
imitation of the urban condition of Tyrrhenian Italy. Documentary
and archaeological evidence taken together reveal the sophistication
of social organization in the Central Apennines before the Social War.
In Latin-speaking areas such as the Vestine territory, the system is
conventionally referred to as 'pagano-vicanic', although it must be
said that details of relationships between vici and pagi remain
obscure. 115 On the traditional view, each pagus was conceived of as
a territorial and administrative unit, within which there might be one
or more vici. While the explanation of pagus which appears in the
passage of Festus quoted above is surely an example of false etymol­
ogy, the territorial aspect of the pagus is nevertheless brought out.
Vici and pagi alike were administered by magistrates. Particularly
characteristic of the 'pagano-vicanic' system was a scattering of
private and public functions within the pagus.116
In Oscan-speaking areas of the Central Apennines, the administra­
tive terminology is rather more difficult to establish, 117 although the
basic conception of territory is apparently similar to that within the
pagano-vicanic system. The basic conceptual unit was the touta, its
annual supreme, non-collegiate magistrate being the meddix touticus.
In earliest times the touta was apparently equivalent to the tribal
nomen, as in the third-century BC reference to tota marouca (i.e. the
Marrucini), within which Teate could be contained, or the fifth-
century references in the Penna Sant'Andrea texts to safinas tutas

115
On the Vestine area, see the classic article of La Regina, * Insediamenti vestini'.
116
D.H. Ant. Rom. 4. 15 ff. for an account of Servius Tullius* creation of pagi which
is revealing as to the nature of pagi in historical times; cf. Frederiksen, 'Changes in the^
Pattern of Settlement'; H. Galsterer, 'Urbanisation und Municipalisation Italiens in 2
und 1 Jh. v. Chr.', in HIM (1976), 327; Torelli, 'La romanizzazione dei territori italici',
83.
117
For caution regarding the application of Latin terminology to non-Latin areas, see
V. Laffi, 'Problemi dell'organizzazione paganico-vicano nelle aree Abruzzesi e Moli­
sane', Athen. 52 (1974), 336 ff.
I36 Mountain Society
118
(the *Safineis). It is clear that, in Oscan-speaking Campania at
least, touta could also be used to refer to urban, rather than tribal,
entities: thus, for example, an inscription from Capua refers to
medikk. tuvtik kapu.il9 The reference to the urban nomen as touta is
apparently a secondary development. 120 There are some problems in
establishing exactly what was the meaning of touta in the century
before the Social War in the less urbanized areas of the Central
Apennines, such as the territory of the Pentii. The problem is that
there is no definite case where touta is qualified by a name. When
meddices toutikoi appear on brick- and tile-stamps from Bovianum, or
on building-inscriptions at Pietrabbondante,121 it is, then, not imme­
diately clear whether the touta referred to is safinim, the nomen
attested in the mid-second century text from Pietrabbondante, or a
smaller unit, urban or proto-urban, as in the Capuan example men­
tioned above. Circumstantial evidence makes the former case more
likely, however, in that meddices tutikoi were very active at Pietrab­
bondante, a sanctuary which was apparently relevant to all the people
of safin-}22 Even if this is the case, it is still clear that there were
smaller conceptual units within the larger idea of the touta safina,
perhaps corresponding to the Latin concept of the pagus. The diver­
sity of suffixes relating to individual place-names in central Italy, such
as EAiniNAE/aaimvç, might suggest the linking together of different
types of settlement, such as a fortified area and a centre further down
in the plain. 123
Performing a central role in local communities of the Central
Apennines were the rural sanctuaries. This central role may be
exemplified by epigraphical reference to the pagus as a whole, or
even to a number of pagi>124 or to an entire nomen as in the case of
Temple A at Pietrabbondante, by the frequent association of local
magistrates with the various stages of their construction, by the co-
118
For tota marouca, see Ve. 218. For tutas safinas, see Coarelli and La Regina,
Abruzzo, Molise, 325 ff.; La Regina. * Appunti su entità etniche e strutture istituzionali
nel Sannio antico', in AION(Arch.) 3 (1981), 129 ff., esp. 130-1. In philology an
asterisk is used to denote an unproven form: in the case of *safineis, the nominative
119
form is not attested, but may reasonably be reconstructed. Ve. 88.
120
La Regina, 'Entità etniche*, 130-1, for the priority of the broader concept, as
121
demonstrated by the Penna Sant'Andrea texts. Ve. 149.
122
La Regina, 4I Sanniti: il sogno di un impero', 41-2.
123
P. Poccetti, 'L'epigrafìa come fonte per la ricerca etnotoponomistica nell'Italia
antica', AWN(Ling.) 4 (1984), 53 ff., 55 ff.
124
e.g. for Furfo, see CIL (2nd edn.) 1804.
 Mountain Society 137
existence of functions at some sanctuaries, and, not least, by the
disproportionate amount of attention lavished on their appearance,
particularly in the course of the second century BC.
Architecturally, the best known of second century BC sanctuaries
are those in the territory of the Pentri. A combination of the work of
Adriano La Regina and other Soprintendenti of the region, and
interest in creating a separate identity for Molise, means that this
area is very much better known archaeologically than any other in
the Central Apennines. If we had a fuller archaeological picture of the
Central Apennines outside Samnium, it would be much easier to
assess the degree to which Samnium had a special character. Never­
theless, there are some signs of emphasis on rural sanctuaries outside
Samnium, such as the sanctuary of Lucus Angitiae amongst the Marsi,
rebuilt or enlarged between the second and first centuries BC. 1 2 5
Amongst the Pentri, there is a real concentration on building and
renovation in the second century BC, and particularly in the decades
immediately preceding the Social War. Beginning with some rela­
tively modest sanctuaries in the area, at San Giovanni in Galdo, coins
deposited under the pavement of the sanctuary indicate some building
activity post-104 BC, perhaps indicating activity in the decade before
the Social War. 126 At the sanctuary at Campochiaro, a series of mid-
second century bronzes may be related to ceremonies relating to the
foundation or reconstruction of the temple, while fragments of a Doric
frieze from the second half of the second century BC also point to
refurbishing at this stage. 127 Building at Vastogirardi may also be
dated to this period by pottery fragments. 128
Of all the Samnite sanctuaries, however, the most famous and
impressive is the theatre-temple complex B at Pietrabbondante, the
last of three built in the vicinity in the course of the third to second
123
e.g. at Lucus Angitiae amongst the Marsi, the sanctuary was rebuilt or enlarged
between the 2nd and 1st cents, BC: M. Torelli, 4ltalia: Regio IV (Samnium)', Atti del
colloquio internazionale AIEGL su epigrafia e ordine senatorio, Roma, 14-20 maggio
1981, ii. (Rome, 1982), 165 ff., 168.
126
La Regina, 'D Sannio\ 237-41; Di Niro, Sannio (1980), 269 ff.
127
S. Capini, Sannio (1980), 197 ff.; in general, ead., Samnium (1991), 115 ff.
128
J. -P. Morel, 4Le Sanctuaire de Vastogirardi et les influences hellénistiques en
Italie centrale*, HIM (1976), 255 ff. NB the temples at Schiavi d'Abruzzo do not fit into
the pattern of renovation and rebuilding in the later second century BC. In fact, here the
earlier temple (3rd or early 2nd cent, BC) is considerably larger and more impressive
than the later one (late 2nd to early 1st century BC). This decline may be explained by
the increasing importance of the nearby sanctuary at Pietrabbondante. For discussion of
the temples, see La Regina, 'Il Sannio*, 237-241.
138 Mountain Society
centuries BC. In his discussion of this site (the building of which is
dated to the period between the last quarter of the second century and
the beginning of the Social War), La Regina points to the direct
influence of Campanian adaptations of Hellenistic models for both
the theatre and the temple. The overall effect is very impressive, and
direct influence from the Eastern Mediterranean is a real possibi­
lity. 1 2 9 Greek influence is apparent also at an earlier stage, in the
stone-carving of Temple A, built in the first half of the second
century. 130 The rural sanctuaries provided local élites with ample
opportunities to advertise their presence in association with impress­
ive monumental architecture in a manner which certainly finds no
immediate echo in the civil architecture of urban and proto-urban
centres of the Central Apennines before the Social War. 131
A considerable amount may be known about the functions of the
sanctuaries at Pietrabbondante. Their apparent isolation should prob­
ably not be overemphasized, as it may have more to do with the
current state of excavation than with third- to early first-century
conditions. 132 Certainly, the necropolis at Troccola 1 kilometre to
the south west of the sanctuaries, with contents dated to the fifth to
third centuries BC suggests that the area was inhabited in the earlier
period at least. 133 Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the third-
century 'Ionic' sanctuary, the early second-century sanctuary, and,
finally, the theatre-temple complex functioned as centres for an area
much larger than the immediate environment. At the earliest levels of
the site, the great majority of objects found are arms, which appear to
have been the weapons of foreign peoples, and may be interpreted as
spolia hostium of the Samnites. 134 If this is so, they would constitute
129
La Regina, 4I1 Sannio' 229; cf. M. H. Crawford, 'Italy and Rome*, JRS 71 (1981),
153 ff., 159 for the choice of precise Hellenistic models for the theatre-temple complex
l3
at Pietrabbondante. ° La Regina, 'Il Sannio' 229.
131
Ibid. 229 for contrast between the situation in proto-urban Alfedena, where early
3rd-cent. buildings are not improved during the course of the later 3rd and 2nd
centuries, and attention paid towards improvement of rural sanctuaries in the territory
of the Pentii, particularly in the later 3rd to 2nd cents, BC. cf. La Regina, 'Centri urbani';
Gros, Architecture, 28-9; Torelli, 'La romanizzazione dei territori italici', 83 ff.;
Patterson, 'Crisis: What Crisis?', 142-6; id., 'Settlement, City and Élite', 149-52.
132
For a cautious approach regarding the apparent isolation of Samnite sanctuaries,
see Morel, 'Le Sanctuaire de Vastogirard', 261.
133
Suano, Sannio (1980), 132 ff.; for suggestions of signs that the necropolis
continued to be used during the period contemporary with the sanctuaries, see Coarelli
and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 231; cf. La Regina Sannio (1980), 131; Coarelli and La
Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 230 for signs of settlement at nearby Arco and Colle Vernone.
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali', 22-5.
 Mountain Society 139
the earliest evidence for the use of the sanctuary as a symbolic
'central place' for the Samnites. 135 The earliest weapons are dated
to the late fifth or first half of the fourth centuries BC, and some are
securely of Tarentine production. 136 It is hard to be precise about the
historical context of these arms, but they form a suggestive backdrop
to the later friendly relations between Tarentum and the Samnites.
Other fragments can be dated to the period of the Samnite Wars,
perhaps the result of Samnite successes against Rome and her
allies. 137
Moving forward in time, as we have seen, an inscription associated
with Temple A, proclaiming the refurbishment of an entrance-way at
least (the text is fragmentary), makes reference to safinim, a term
which must, in the second century BC, refer to the Pentri as a whole. 138
The presence of the ethnic, as well as the rich Oscan documentary
record associated with Pietrabbondante in particular, provides us with
a useful reminder of how to look at 'Greek culture' of Italy. Local
communities played a very active role in selecting and using models
and motifs to reinforce their individual cultural identities. 139 The
theatre, perfectly aligned to Temple B, was built according to the
model of comitia: it seems very possible that it was used not just for
performances, but also for council-meetings. 140 A private dedication
to Vikturrai from the late second century BC might emphasize further
the role of Pietrabbondante a's a focus of specifically Samnite identity:
some would interpret it as a dedication to an anti-Roman victory. 141
The distinctive role of the rural sanctuaries in the Central Apen­
nines before the Social War may also be illustrated by reference to
changes after the Social War. A perceptible decline may be noted in
attention paid towards the rural sanctuaries, striking in comparison
with the building programmes of the second century BC: it is important
to note that, despite the fact that the rural sanctuaries function before
the Social War as 'central places', urban development proper tends to
occur elsewhere. Attention was focused in the Augustan Age rather on
135
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali', 22.
136
Ibid. 23; La Regina, Sannio (1980), 139-53.
137 138
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali', 2 4 - 5 . Ve. 149.
139
Whitehouse and Wilkins, 'Greeks and Natives', for acute criticism of the usual
concepts of 'Hellenization' in modern scholarship: e.g. 102, 'Equally invidious is the
strongly pro-Greek prejudice of most scholars, which Jeads them to regard all things
Greek as inherently superior. It follows that Greekness is seen as something that other
societies will acquire through simple exposure—like measles (but nicer!).'
140
La Regina, 'Aspetti istituzionali*, 21.
140 Mountain Society
the new municipia, founded often on lowland settlement sites, where
local élites began to concentrate on building fine private houses and
public benefactions. 142 A notable exception to the general decline in
attention paid towards the rural sanctuaries is the Hercules Curinus
sanctuary above Sulmona, refurbished magnificently in the mid-first
century BC. It is surely no accident that this sanctuary is an exception
to the general rule in the Central Apennines: its close proximity to the
new municipium at Sulmona surely meant that its importance could
continue, and develop, without any clash of interests between muni-
cipium and rural sanctuary. 143 Overall, then, a significant change in
élite mentality is evident, and in the last century BC and first century
AD, developments in the Central Apennines become, temporarily, very
much more closely comparable with those in Tyrrhenian Italy.
The urban 'boom' of the early Empire was apparently a short-lived
phenomenon in the Central Apennines. The 'pagano-vicanic' model
for the articulation of territory was remarkably persistent in this
area. 144 It is likely that small clusters of settlement, individually
administered within the larger administrative entity of the pagus,
was an attractive means of farming efficiently the fractured landscape
of the Central Apennines.

(b) Social Structure

Can the images of austerity and hardship on the one hand, and
military prowess on the other, which are used in ancient literary texts
to characterize peoples of the Central Apennines, be related to
distinctive features of local society? In the case of the Sabines, I
would suggest that the choice of how to categorize them was largely
determined by the historical context of their conquest by Rome and
incorporation into the citizenship by the mid-third century BC. It is
remarkably difficult to make generalizations about Sabinum, whether
in terms of its geography or culture, not least because the idea of
Sabinum as an entity may well have been a comparatively late,
142
La Regina, 'I territori sabellici e sannitici', 456; Patterson, 'Crisis: What Crisis?',
142-46; Lloyd, Tanning the Highlands', 185-8; Patterson, 'Settlement, City and Élite',
155-6; NB it is important on the other hand not to overemphasize the neglect of the
rural sanctuaries after the Social War. e.g. La Regina, 'Il Sannio', 237 for renovation of
the later sanctuary at Schiavi d'Abruzzo after the Social War.
143
La Regina, 'I territori sabellici e sannitici', 444 ff.
144
La Regina, 'Insediamenti vestini', 'I territori sabellici e sannitici', 441 ff.;
Frederiksen, 'Changes in the Pattern of Settlement', 350.
 Mountain Society 141

Roman invention, but also because comparatively very little is

known about the archaeology of Sabinum after the Roman con­
quest. The subordinate position of the Sabines to Rome after their
conquest might, however, be emphasized by selected features which
could be observed, such as the apparent comparative lack of urbaniza-
1 145
tion m the area.
Images of the austerity and military prowess of other peoples of the
Central Apennines might also be explained partly in terms of the
history of their relationship with Rome. Emphasis on the usefulness
of the Marsi and other peoples of the Central Apennines in terms of
manpower, demonstrated in part by the powerfulness of their opposi­
tion to Rome in the Social War, might well have been used by the
peoples themselves to strengthen claims of deserving the citizenship,
while assertions of environmentally determined worthiness might
have been perceived to be valuable when competing for office. 146
The history of the relationship of peoples of the Central Apennines
with Rome might, then, partly explain their special place in Roman
ideology of the later Republic and early Empire, in contrast with the
negative place occupied by the Etruscans. With regard to the Etrus­
cans, however, the Greek and Roman topos of Etruscan decadence
may be seen to be a phenomenon more profound than an arbitrary
assignment of Etruscans to a moral category within classical thought.
The theme of Etruscan decadence plays on the observation of a highly
differentiated society, in which the élite were clearly marked off from
the rest of the population, a social situation which was at least
partially preserved right up to the time of the Social War. 147 Unfortu­
nately, Greek and Roman authors offer us no comparable detailed
depictions of society in the Central Apennines, but one may still ask
whether images of austerity and military prowess correspond to any
concrete differences within the structures of the local societies.
Manpower figures for Italian tribes given by Polybius in relation to
145
See esp. Coarelli, Lazio, 10 ff.; Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 17 ff.;
C. Pietrangelo 4La Sabina nell'antichità', in Rieti e il suo territorio, 9 ff.; S. Segenni,
Amiternum e il suo territorio in età romana (Pisa, 1985).
146
Cf. Wiseman, New Men, 107 ff., for the ideology of novitas*.
147
e.g. Livy on the principes of Etruria e.g. 2. 44. 8, 9. 36. 5, 10. 13. 3, 10. 16. 3;
D.H. Ant. Rom. 9. 5. 4 for ôuvaTœxaxoi and Tcevéoxai. W. V. Harris, Rome in Etruria
and Umbria (Oxford, 1971), 114 ff., for arguments concerning the persistence of local
social structures after the Roman conquest. For discussion of lautni in particular, see
Harris, ibid., 124-9; Crawford, Romanisation (1991), 135 ff., for crucial discussion of
links between the spread of Roman silver coinage and manpower for the Roman army.
142 Mountain Society
the war against the Gauls in 225 BC are suggestive, although it
would be unwise to underestimate the problems related to interpreting
them. Most interestingly, the figures for the Etruscans are very low,
while, in contrast, the figures for the Samnites are very high indeed.
The figure Polybius gives for the numbers put into the field by the
'Etruscans and Sabines' is 4,000 cavalry, plus infantry in excess of
50,000. For the 'Samnites', the figure for the list of men able to bear
arms is 7,000 cavalry and 70,000 infantry. There is clearly some
confusion here: it is most unlikely that the Sabines would, in 225
BC, have been counted separately from the Romans.149 However, even
if the figure cited refers to Etruscans alone, the density of free persons
to square kilometres of land in Etruscan territory remains very low:
14.4 per sq. km.150 Polybius' 'Samnites' must include- Campanians,
meaning that it is hard to arrive at a fixed calculation for the
population density of Samnium. Nevertheless, it is certainly possible
to arrive at a reasonable hypothetical figure, as does La Regina.
Starting from an overall density of 37.8 free persons per sq. km. in
Campania and Samnium, he suggests erring well (and surely exces­
sively) on the high side for Campanian 'Samnites', putting forward a
figure of 50 free persons per sq. km. for this area, compared with 40.6
for the Latins. Nevertheless, the figure for Samnium remains com­
paratively very high, at 34.8 free persons per sq. km.,151 particularly
considering the high proportion of land over 1,000 m in the territory.
These figures would seem to suggest that the land was being farmed
very effectively, and would also suggest that the way in which the
land was used did not put small farmers to a disadvantage.
The figures for the northern Abruzzi peoples (the Marsi, Vestini,
Paeligni, Marrucini, and Frentani)152 are less strikingly high, aver­
aging out at 23.2 free persons per sq. km. on calculations from figures
'corrected' from Polybius153 (or 21.6 on La Regina's calculation from
148
Polyb. 2. 24. 4-16, with Walbank, Polybius (vol. i, 1957) ad loc.
149 l5
Brunt, Italian Manpower, 48-9. ° Ibid. 54.
151
La Regina, 'Centri urbani*, 449-55.
132
Polybius does not mention the Paelignians. For the suggestion that they are
probably nevertheless included, see K. J. Beloch, Die Bevölkerung der griechisch-
römischen Welt (Leipzig, 1886), 365.
133
For the suggestion that Polybius* figure for the infantry of the northern Abruzzi
peoples should be amended to 40,000, to give a more normal ratio of 1 : 10 between
cavalry and infantry, see Beloch, ibid. 360; Beloch, Der römische Bund (Leipzig, 1880),
97-8. For the suggestion that the number should be amended to 30,000, on the grounds
that this figure produces the most plausible density of population, see Brunt, Italian
Manpower, 49.
 Mountain Society 143
154
uncorrected' figures). Nevertheless, this figure is still relatively
high, when compared with that for the Etruscans, Umbrians (15.3),
Lucanians (16.1), and Apulians (16.6), 1 5 5 and evidence from the first
century BC suggests that the northern Abruzzo peoples could provide
abundant numbers of manpower. 156
What conclusions can be drawn from these figures? The exception­
ally low figure for the Etruscans has reasonably been seen partly as a
reflection of the indigenous social situation. It is likely that serfs, who
were probably not normally eligible for service in the army, formed a
fair proportion of the Etruscan population, and continued to do so,
particularly in the north, even up until the Social War. 157 Is it possible
also to see the relatively high figures for the northern Abruzzi peoples,
and the strikingly high figures for the Samnites as a reflection of
specific local social circumstances? It is not entirely clear whether
the figures given by Polybius include proletarii, but, as Brunt argues,
it seems very unlikely that these were included within the totals. 158 It
seems, then, likely that the high figure for the Samnites represents a
thriving peasantry rather than large numbers of rural poor. While
archaeology cannot ultimately tell us about ownership of property,
the pattern of settlement in the Biferno Valley area for the second to
first centuries BC certainly does not tell against this hypothesis. For
this period, the pattern of settlement is dense, with the majority of
structures apparently placed so as to make best use of agricultural
land, not, of course, excluding the possibility of exploiting higher land
and the valley floors for pastoralism. As we have seen, the pattern for
the first to second centuries AD seems very different, with far more
conglomeration of settlement.
Wiseman's evidence for the origins of Roman senators in the first
century BC and the Augustan Age is also suggestive in this context. 159
Although there are problems in the use of prosopographical evidence
(not least relating to how to count senators whose origins remain only
probable or possible), his findings might be used to gain a broad idea
of the relative success of senators from various regions of Italy.
Counting together senators of certain, probable, and possible origins,
154
For the proposal that Polybius* numbers should be retained, see La Regina,
155
'Centri urbani*, 447. Brunt, Italian Manpower, 54.
156
Domitius Ahenobarbus was able to raise 20 cohorts among the Marsi and
Paeligni: Caesar BC 1. 15. 7; Brunt, Italian Manpower, 87.
157 I5
Brunt, Italian Manpower, 44-58. * Ibid. 58-9.
139
Wiseman, New Men, Appendix 2.
144 Mountain Society
the Etruscans and Umbrians come out at the top of the list of allies
enfranchised after 90 BC, yielding nineteen (five certain, eleven
probable, three possible) and eighteen (three certain, six probable,
nine possible) senators respectively for the first century BC and the
Augustan Age. Peoples of the Central Apennines come out compara­
tively badly, with afigureof nine (one certain, four probable, and four
possibles) for the Marsi, four (two certain, one probable, and one
possible) for the Samnites, two for the Vestini (one of whom is
probable, another only possible), seven for the Paeligni (three cer­
tain, four probable, none before the Augustan era), and six for the
Marrucini (two certain, four possible). On the available evidence,
therefore, there seems to be a considerable difference between the
senatorial success of the Etruscans and Umbrians on the one hand, and
that of the peoples of the Central Apennines on the other. Once again,
amongst peoples of the Central Apennines, there are differences: the
Marsi are apparently perceptibly more successful than other peoples
of the area in the time period treated by Wiseman.
These figures are clearly open to a variety of interpretations. Some
scholars emphasize variations within the group of peoples of the
Central Apennines. Wiseman, for example, surely rightly sees sena­
torial success as likely to depend on a variety of factors. While, in his
view, the comparative lack of urbanization in the Central Apennines
is likely to have affected success in the Roman senate, he suggests
that the comparative success of the Marsi within this group might be
explained in terms of proximity to Rome, particularly by means of
Roman roads, encouraging both the passage of local members of the
élite to Rome, and the passage of Roman senators through the area,
stopping off on the way to other parts of Italy.160 This reconstruction
is supported by evidence of ties of hospitium between the Marsic élite
and Roman senators.161 Broad differences between the Etruscans and
Umbrians on the one hand and peoples of the Central Apennnines on
the other remain, however.
The most immediate explanation for the gap between the compara­
tive senatorial success enjoyed by the Etruscans and Umbrians and the
160
Wiseman, New Men, 24-32.
161
A tessera hospitalis in the form of a ram's head found at Trasacco, in the territory
of the Marsi, records relations of hospitality between a Roman T.Manlius T.f., and a
Marsic individual T.Staiodius N.f.\ CIL i/2. 1764; cf. Letta, / Marsi, 100. For the famous
friendship between Poppaedius Silo and Drusus and Marius, see Plut. Cat. Min. 2; Diod.
37. 15. 3; Val. Max. 3. 1. 2; Auct. De Vir. Ill 80. 11.
 Mountain Society 145
comparative lack of success enjoyed by peoples of the Central
Apennines is surely that, for some reason, or reasons, the local élites
of the Central Apennines were not as readily perceived to conform to
the model of what Roman senators were expected to be. I will explore
this possibility in more detail below, suggesting that there may in fact
be a link between high numbers of men available for the army and
comparative lack of senatorial success, and that second- to early first-
century BC Samnite society in particular was, for the ancient world,
comparatively equal.
The majority of modern scholars have, on the contrary, considered
Central Apennine society to have been highly differentiated. For
Salmon, for example, Samnite society was very divided: wealth,
power, and broad cultural horizons were enjoyed by very few, while
the 'average* Samnite endured a 'life of toil and hardship, no doubt as
the retainer of a local dynast'. In Salmon's view, Roman images of
'Sabellian' hardship represent the exceptionally restricted life-style of
these 'average' Samnites. 162 Letta regarded the Marsi before the
Social War as being dominated by a restricted number of aristocratic
families: in his view, this is suggested by the recurrence of notices of
Vettii, Poppaedii, and Scatones. 163 Gaggiotti has seen the second to
first centuries BC as a time of dramatic change in the growth of capital
and distribution of resources in Samnium: he sees the second century
BC as a time when land was concentrated within a few families, in
contrast with the fourth to third centuries, when wealth was more
evenly distributed within the community. 164 For the second to first
centuries, then, his view of Samnite society is very similar to that of
Salmon. Torelli also has interpreted ancient evidence to support his
suggestion of a considerable degree of social stratification in Sam­
nium, although he does admit that the situation here is not on the same
scale as that in parts of Etruria. His picture of local society is,
however, one of greater continuity than that of Gaggiotti: in his
162
Salmon, Samnium, 53; cf. 52, 'But there are also indications that Samnium, like
other parts of Italy, contained large landed estates owned by a handful of dynastic
families who enjoyed wealth, power, and authority and for centuries were the leaders of
the nation and the makers of its policy. There must have been servile and feudal aspects
to a society which did not live under a city system of government but was organized in
rural communities. The lower orders must have been economically dependent on the
163
aristocrats.' Letta, / Marsi, 99-100.
164
M. Gaggiotti, 'Tre casi regionali italici: il Sannio pentirò*, in Bourgeoisies (1983),
137 ff., 137-8.
146 Mountain Society
opinion, a high degree of social stratification can be observed from the
archaic period through into the first century B C . 1 6 5
It is worth reconsidering the evidence used by Salmon, Letta,
Gaggiotti, and Torelli to reconstruct a highly stratified situation.
Most of the evidence used by Torelli comes from a comparatively
early period. He attempts to see the Sacred Spring myths in 'class'
terms, as a means by which a hereditary aristocracy could maintain its
position. 166 Certainly there are examples of this phenomenon in
accounts of Greek colonization, but it must be said that the Sacred
Spring myths do not invite this interpretation: it is, in fact, striking that
mention of individuals in the Sacred Spring myths seems to be a rare
and secondary development. 167 This general absence of individuals is
one feature which in fact distinguishes this collection of myths from
accounts of Greek colonization, in which named oikists are a recurrent
feature. Likewise, he sees in 'class' terms the 'Samnite' gladiators who
appear in ancient literary sources: according to his interpretation, these
individuals were slaves sold abroad by their masters. 168 Once again,
there is nothing in the ancient evidence to fix this particular interpreta­
tion: we do not even know whether 'Samnite' gladiators were always,
or usually, ethnically Samnite. 169 Livy suggests that it was the Cam-
panians who, 'ab superbia et odio' ('through arrogance and hatred')
started equipping gladiators in Samnite armour and calling them
'Samnites', perhaps implying that they were not always ethnically
Samnite. It is surely more likely that, whoever these 'Samnite'
gladiators were, they were being associated with the military reputa­
tion of the Samnites, much employed as mercenaries, rather than that
they were always ethnically Samnites, being exploited by an oppres­
sive aristocracy who were selling them off as gladiators.
When it comes to material evidence to support his thesis, Torelli
uses as an example evidence from the necropolis at Campo Consolino
(Alfedena), contemporary with the settlement at Curino. 170 This
necropolis, first published by Mariani at the turn of the century,171
165 166
Torelli, Ter il SannioV Ibid. 31.
167
e.g. for the story of the Spartan Dorieus, who went off to found a colony, unable
to bear being ruled by his brother Cleomenes, see Herod. 5. 42. 2. For the story of the
Samnite Sacred Spring involving Comius Castronius as leader, see Festus p. 436 L.
168
Torelli, Ter il Sannio', 31.
169
Livy 9. 40. 17; Lucilius' Aeserninus Samriis (149-52 M.) leaves open the
possibility that 'Samnite' gladiators could be ethnically Samnite.
170
Torelli, 'Per il Sannio', 33.
171
L. Mariani, 'Aufidena', Monumenti Antichi 10 (1901), 225 ff.
 Mountain Society 147
was much more fully excavated in the 1970s under the direction of
F. Parise Badoni and M. Ruggeri Giove. 1 7 2 This team identified three
distinct groups of tombs and a possible fourth, the contents of which
may have as their terminus post quern the late sixth century at the
earliest, and the late fifth century BC at the latest. The necropolis is
therefore conventionally seen as covering the time period from the
late sixth to the fourth centuries BC. Each group covers roughly the
same time period, the oldest—and indeed the richest—tombs being
found at the centre of each group. Torelli emphasizes signs of social
distinction within the necropolis and, in particular, the fact that Parise
Badoni and Ruggeri Giove's first group of burials does not contain
weapons, while their second and third group do. Torelli suggests that
two 'classes' are being distinguished here: one a warrior 'class', and
the other a non-warrior 'class'. This supposed polarity in terms of
function is, in his view, another sign of the high level of stratification
in Samnite society. 173
At this point, there are obvious points of conflict between the view
of Torelli and that of Gaggiotti. It must be said, however, that
Gaggiotti's conception of Samnite society during the fourth to third
centuries BC is based on no good evidence. He supposes that the
building programmes of the fourth to third centuries BC consisted
entirely of defensive structures, funded collectively by the commu­
nity. 174 His main evidence for the second to early first centuries BC,
besides prosopography (which I shall consider below), consists of the
rural sanctuaries, which, in his view, demonstrate the concentration of
wealth within a restricted number of families. 175 The real problem
here is that assumptions are apparently being made about what is
functional and what is ornamental, and consequently, what would be
financed by 'public' funds, and what would be financed by 'private'
funds. It is important, however, to admit that we cannot assume that
fortifications have no 'ornamental' function in the fourth to third
centuries BC. Moreover, we know little enough about precisely how
the rural sanctuaries were funded, but we have no documentary
172
Sannio (1980), 84 ff.; F. Parise Badoni, M. Ruggeri Giove, C. Brambilla, and P.
Gherardini, 'Necropoli di Alfedena (scavi 1974-1979): proposta di una cronologia
relativa', AION(Arch.) 4 (1982), 1 ff.
173
Torelli, 'Per il Sannio', 33: 'C'è già una società che si è strutturata come
aristocrazia guerriera, belligerum genus, e che funziona con una divisione di lavoro
molto preciso . . .' ('This is already a society which is structured as a warrior
aristocracy, and which functions with a very precise division of labour . . .').
174 175
Gaggiotti, 'Tre casi regionali italici', 138. Ibid. 138-9.
148 Mountain Society
evidence whatsoever in association with the building of fortifications
in the fourth to third centuries BC. His perception of the growth of
private property in the second century BC also rests on no good
material evidence. Although there are signs that the farmstead/villa
at Matrice was extended in the course of the second century BC, and
although it looks as if nearby structures previously frequented may
have fallen into disuse during that period, it is essential to be very
cautious about drawing broader conclusions from what may have been
a very localized phenomenon. 176 As we have seen, the most sugges­
tive evidence regarding the conglomeration of property comes from
the first to second centuries AD.
There are, nevertheless, also problems associated with Torelli's use
of the necropolis at Campo Consolino. For one thing, although it is
very interesting indeed that function seems to be distinguished within
the necropolis, it is hard to know which group carried greater prestige.
The tombs in Group 1, within which no arms were found, contain
proportionately more jewellery, made of amber, bronze, and iron, 177
but there is no way of knowing whether jewellery carried more
prestige than arms, or vice versa, or whether in fact the image of
society projected through burials was of this particular variety of
social stratification at all. Differentiation according to age or sex
might be at least as important, and is certainly an important factor
in representations of the deceased in fourth-century tombs in Paestum
and Campania. It is, moreover, important not to exaggerate the degree
of difference in the levels of wealth represented by contents of the
three groups of tombs. Indeed Parise Badoni remarks on the compara­
tive poverty of the necropolis overall with regard to imported fine-
ware, and even the mere quantity of objects, even in the richest of the
tombs. The necropolis at Campo Consolino does not compare well
with contemporary necropoleis in Campania, for example. 178 There is
nothing at Alfedena which compares favourably with the wealth and
176
For admirable caution regarding the conclusions that can be drawn from the 2nd
cent, BC situation at the farmhouse at Matrice, see Lloyd, 'Farming the Highlands', 184.
177
e.g. tombs 17, 29, 30, 33 for amber; e.g. tombs 8, 27, 33, 34, 38, 54, 55 for bronze
and iron; for catalogue, see F. Parise Badoni and M. Ruggeri Giove, Sannio (1980),
84 ff.; 90 ff. for discussion of relative finds of female jewellery in Group 1 on the one
hand, and Groups 2 and 3 on the other.
178
Parise Badoni and Ruggeri Giove, Sannio (1980), 92; for 4th-cent. tombs of
Paestum and Campania, see Pontrandolfo Greco and Rouveret, 'Ideologia funeraria*;
Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria'.
 Mountain Society 149
emphasis on individuals which is suggested either by Central Adriatic
tombs and monuments, or by the painted tombs of Paestum. 179
Moreover, elsewhere in Samnium, other scholars have made recon­
structions of local society on the basis of evidence from the contents
of tombs which are very different from that of Torelli on the basis of
the Campo Consolino necropolis. Johannowsky, for example, empha­
sizes differences in the contents of tombs at Alfedena, and in other
necropoleis in Samnium, increasingly well known through recent
excavation, over the course of the sixth to fourth centuries BC. An
interesting pattern emerges. He sees a gradual reduction of contents
between the sixth and fourth centuries, inside tombs which never­
theless must have been costly to build. He suggests that the reduction
of contents was determined by sumptuary legislation of some kind. If
this were the case, we would nevertheless be no nearer to a conception
of the social structure of the Samnites: sumptuary legislation might, as
in Athenian or Roman society, be aimed at consolidating the position
of the élite as a whole, or at reducing tension between upper and lower
classes. One might be tempted to draw parallels between the situation
of fourth-century Samnium and that of contemporary Paestum and
Campania, where an apparent emphasis on austerity in iconographical
representations of the deceased has been linked with the influence of
Tarentine Pythagoreanism in central and southern Italy at this time. 180
At any rate, however, there is very much less emphasis on obvious
signs of social differentiation in Johannowsky's study. Similarly, Di
Niro's study of the necropolis at Gildone suggests that differentiation
in terms of tomb contents was a subtle affair.181 These various studies
of necropoleis in Samnium, then, suggest conclusions different from a
particular emphasis on social differentiation in the area, especially in
the fourth century BC.
As for prosopographical evidence, it is true that some gentilicial
names recur in local documentary evidence from the second to first
century BC, and in Roman contexts. It is, however, necessary to be
cautious when using evidence of this kind. For one thing, it is
179
There is so far just one painted tomb found in Molise: from Isernia, probably to
be dated somewhere in the 3rd cent, BC, and notably cruder in style than contemporary
Campanian and Paestan tombs: Giampaola, Sannio (1980), 358-9, with pi. 106.1.
1
W. Johannowsky, 4I1 Sannio', Italici in Magna Grecia: lingue, insediamenti e
strutture (Venosa, 1990). 13 ff., cf. Parise Badoni, .Ruggeri Giove, Brambilla, and
Gherardini, 'Necropoli di Alfedena'; for Pythagorean influences, see Mele, 'Il pitagor­
ismo'; Rouveret and Greco Pontrandolfo, 'Pittura funeraria', 102 ff.
181
Di Niro, Samnium (1991), 61 ff.
I50 Mountain Society
important not to exaggerate the small number of names which are
attested as magistrates in documentary evidence. 182 It is, in fact,
possible to see signs of an expansion of the numbers of office-holders
in Oscan-speaking areas in the course of the second century BC.
Campanile demonstrates that it is possible to observe progressive
differentiation of the office of meddix in Oscan-speaking commu­
nities in the period after the Roman conquest and before the Social
War. 183 This phenomenon, alongside the importation of Roman
magisterial titles in this period, would surely have had the obvious
result of expanding the 'honour-roll', as higher numbers of indivi­
duals held office at any one time.
Moreover, the recurrence of the same names as magistrates does
not tell us anything precise about the nature of the local constitutions.
In comparison, it has been well said that stating that the Roman
constitution was always in some sense oligarchical does not get us
very far, unless we consider other features, such as answerability and
the representation of the people. 184 Unfortunately, very little is known
about such features in the Central Apennines. It is hard to know how
far the situation in Pompeii is comparable. Here, two different names
for assembly are attested: Jcomparakio-, and kombennio-.1*5 It seems
most unlikely that the Pompeians would have used two different
names for the same institution. 186 Campanile's suggestion that one
is the senate and one is the popular assembly, is surely to be preferred:
it is not, however, possible to establish which was which. 187 There is,
however, some evidence for popular assemblies in the Central Apen­
nines, so that it cannot then be assumed that the situation in this
significantly less urbanized area was very dissimilar. Within the
182
For a selection of names of meddikes toutikoi in pre-Social War Samnium,

183
E. Campanile, 'Le strutture magistratuali degli stati osci', in E. Campanile and
C. Letta (eds.), Studi sulle magistrature indigene e municipali in area italica (Pisa,
1979), 15 ff.
184
Brunt, Fall of the Roman Republic, 4, commenting on R. Syme, The Roman
Revolution (Oxford, 1939), 7.
185
Ve. 17, 19 for komparakio-\ Ve. 11, 12, 18 for kombennio-', Banda, south of
Samnium, has tribuni plebis (Tabula Osca, Ve. 2), possibly attested even in the 1st cent.
BC: the date of the Oscan law of the Tabula Bantina has been much debated: for a Sullan
date, see H. Galsterer, 'Die lex Osca tabulae Bantinae: Eine Bestansaufnahme', Chiron
1 (1971), 191 ff.; for a pre-Sullan date, see M. Torelli, 'Una nuova epigrafe di Bantia e
la cronologia dello statuto municipale bantino', Athen, NS 61 (1983), 252 ff.
186 187
Pace Salmon, Samnium, 93. 'Le strutture magistratuali', 24.
 Mountain Society 151

third-century law of Rapino, the tota marouca apparently functions

as a popular assembly. 188 For the second-century Samnites, there is no
clear evidence for a popular assembly. Although it has been suggested
that the theatre at Pietrabbondante functioned as a comitium, because
of the apparent influence of the comitium-model in its structure, there
is no way to prove this.
Some of the other arguments used in support of the view that
second- to early first-century BC society in the Central Apennines
was highly differentiated positively beg questions. As we have
seen, Gaggiotti's main evidence for the concentration of wealth
within a restricted aristocracy in Samnium of the second to early
first centuries BC is the building of the rural sanctuaries. For Gag-
giotti, the important aspect of these building programmes is the self-
advertisement of the magistrates associated with the various phases of
their construction. He believes, moreover, that these buildings repre­
sent the conspicuous use of 'privatized' wealth. The communal aspect
of these sanctuaries is, for him, a secondary consideration. 189 To take
another example, the Biferno Valley team were puzzled by the
mismatch between the size of local 'villa' sites, and the quality of
amenities and decoration: fair-sized 'villas' in other areas surveyed,
such as south Etruria, would be expected to be more lavishly equipped
and decorated than Samnite 'villas' which were comparable in size.
The team suggested a resolution: members of the élite could live in
the towns, and ride out to the 'villas', a pattern of behaviour which is
attested in some ancient documents and literary sources, but which
does not fully account for the low level of decoration in the Samnite
'villas'. 190
It must, however, surely remain a possibility that members of the
local élites were using their wealth in ways which were to some extent
different from usual patterns in Tyrrhenian Italy: in the examples
given above, there is apparently some degree of effort involved in
making the evidence fit more expected patterns for second-century
188 I89
Ve. 218. Gaggiotti, 'Tre casi regionali italici', 138.
190
Lloyd and Barker, 'Rural Settlement*, 301-3. For farm agents, see e.g. CIL ix.
2827, 2829. For the owner riding out, see Xen. Oec. 11, cf. Cato De Agri Cult. 2. 1, for
instructions to the paterfamilias concerning his arrival at, and tour of, the farm. The
suggestion of Lloyd and Barker is not, however, entirely convincing, considering the
importance of the rural villa as an integral part of conspicuous high-living on the part of
the Italian élites of late Republican/early Imperial times: e.g. Purcell, 'Town in
Country*; Wallace-Hadrill, 'Elites and Trade*, 248-9; Giardina, 'Uomini e spazi
aperti*, 75.
152 Mountain Society
Italy. Alternative interpretations remain inviting. If the rural sanctu­
aries do represent the private wealth of individuals rather than
communal resources, it still seems that the élites were significantly
more interested in putting their funds into these sanctuaries than into
private dwelling, or the improvement of civic buildings. Within this
context, Patterson's method of analysing the distinctive character of
mountain society becomes very suggestive: he focuses on Samnium,
where the archaeological evidence is most abundant, and finds here a
significant time-lag involved in the development of features like baths
and aqueducts, associated with a Roman-style 'good life'. 191
It is important here to emphasize a major problem associated with
reconstructing society in the Central Apennines: we simply know very
much more about Samnium than about any other neighbouring area in
this region. Ultimately, it is hard to know the extent to which it is
legitimate to make general statements about the Central Apennines as
a whole based on the evidence from Samnium. There are hints that
Samnium may have been rather a special case: her exceptionally high
density of free persons, the emphasis on group identity and the
persistence of Oscan in public documentation may all point to a
very individual local situation. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to
expect there to be broad similarities between the situation in other
areas of the Central Apennines and Samnium, and to expect there to
be broad differences between the peoples of the Central Apennines on
the one hand and the Etruscans and Umbrians on the other, not least
because of differences in the degree of urbanization and numbers of
free persons, as well as relative degrees of senatorial success.
It is tempting to link allegiance to social models which are appar­
ently substantially different from the Roman urban model together
with indications that the élites of the Central Apennines were sub­
stantially less successful in the Roman senate than were the Etruscan
and Umbrian élites. If I am right to suspect that there was less
emphasis on displays of private wealth amongst the élites of the
Central Apennines than there was in the more urbanized parts of
Tyrrhenian Italy, it may be that Roman images of frugality and
austerity are reflections of the perception of difference in the upper
stratum of society. The high manpower figures for Samnium in
particular reflect a thriving peasantry, the existence of which would
also encourage the reconstruction of a society which was, for the
191
Patterson, 'Settlement, City and Élite*.
 Mountain Society 153
ancient world, comparatively equal. These differences might at times
be viewed positively, and even held up as a model for élite behaviour,
but the very double-edged nature of Roman ideology regarding model
élite behaviour meant that élites from the Central Apennines were
certainly not guaranteed success in the Roman senate. It is hardly
surprising that Samnite success in the senate really begins to take off
only in the first to second centuries AD, when allegiance to the
distinctive models of local society is really diminishing.
I would certainly not deny that sites like Monte Vairano and
Saepinum show that the local élites were beginning, particularly in
the later second century BC, to emphasize their wealth in private
contexts in a manner which can begin to be compared with the
situation in the more urbanized parts of Tyrrhenian Italy. Nor would
I underestimate the possibilities offered for self-advertisement in
association with the magnificent rural sanctuaries of the Central
Apennines. Nevertheless, it seems important also not to dismiss
indications of a substantially different mentality on the part of the
local élites, and one which might well have clashed with Roman ideas
about élite behaviour.
 4
Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers:
Religion in the Central Apennines

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I explore the processes of Roman selection and

construction of images of religious practices amongst peoples of the
Central Apennines. In pursuit of this aim, I do not consider Roman
discourse alone. To some extent, archaeology can tell us more about
the Roman process of selection by showing what was left out of
Roman constructions of religion in the Central Apennines. For exam­
ple, the Greek and Roman literary sources tend to emphasize the
marginal and sinister aspect of the religious activity of peoples of
the Central Apennines, such as their role as witches and indigent
seers. The archaeological record of the Central Apennines on the
other hand provides us with abundant examples of architecturally
impressive sanctuaries in which, all the indications are, nothing but
'mainstream' Central Italian cult practices were performed, and with
which, the epigraphic record tells us, the local élites were closely
associated. I do not, however, propose merely to 'test' Roman ideol­
ogy by measuring it against archaeological 'reality*. For example, the
cult of the goddess Angitia is attested in the material evidence, and
her snake-charming priests are very unlikely to have been a Roman
fantasy. 1 shall argue, however, that the cult of Angitia is likely to
have had very different functions and significance in local society on
the one hand and in Roman ideology on the other hand. I shall also try
to challenge the assumption that Roman construction of peoples of the
Central Apennines was entirely a one-way process, by suggesting
that, in some circumstances, it could have been advantageous to
these peoples to reinforce Roman stereotypes by playing the roles
assigned to them.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 155

1. THE TWO FACES OF THE ROMAN TRADITION

When peoples of the Central Apennines are depicted in Greek and

Latin literature, they are frequently attributed religious or superna­
tural roles. There are two distinct strands in the tradition. One strand
is the basic religious piety of the Sabines and *Sabelli\ and their
closeness to the gods, far removed from behaviour in corrupt, late
Republican/early Imperial Rome. By the later Republic, the Sabines
had become moral and religious examples for Rome, and this role was
retrojected into the remote past, so that, for example, according to
Varro, many of Rome's gods and religious institutions were imported
from the Sabine territory at the time of Romulus and Titus Tatius. 1
The piety of Sabines and 'Sabelli' is part and parcel of the promotion
of them as admirable moral examples for Rome, which, I argued in
Chapter 2, became possible as a result of their incorporation into the
Roman citizenship.
Another strand is the sinister role assigned to peoples of the Central
Apennines: the supernatural powers particularly associated with these
peoples, such as snake-charming and witchcraft, as well as the
sacrilegious secret rite of the Samnites described by Livy. 2 Although
this aspect of the peoples of the Central Apennines survives into late
antiquity (and beyond), it is in tension with the specific promotion of
the piety of the 'Sabelli', and with the promotion of the virtue of
peoples of the Central Apennines in general. This sinister aspect of
peoples of the Central Apennines can surely be best understood in the
context of 'pre-incorporation' imagery, within which these peoples
are basically cast in the role of barbarians. It may be that manifesta­
tions of this aspect in Late Republican and Imperial literature mark a
'survival' of pre-Social War ideology, perhaps encouraged by the
activities of the peoples themselves at Rome, trading off their reputa­
tion for supernatural activity.

(a) Sabine/'Sabellian' Piety and Rome*s Heritage

Sabine piety is, in the literary sources of the later Republic and early
Empire, one element within the overall picture of Sabine austerity and
1
LL 5. 74. Varro claims his source here to be annales, a source which cannot, of
course, be precisely dated, but which at least suggests that the tradition is earlier than
2
the mid-1st cent. BC. Livy 10. 38. 5 ft; cf. 10. 39. 16.
156 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
uprightness. So, for example, Livy's Numa, the great religious inno­
vator of Regal Rome, must be Sabine rather than Greek, 'instructum
. . . non tarn peregrinis artibus quam disciplina tetrica ac tristi
veterum Sabinorum, quo genere nullum quondam incorruptius
fuit'.3 Livy too introduces a pious Sabine peasant in the reign of
Servius Tullius. This peasant is bringing a cow to sacrifice at the
altar of Diana, an auspicious cow which will bring imperial rule to the
people whose representative sacrifices her. The peasant is, however,
duped by the Roman priest at the altar, when he goes to wash his
hands in reverence for the gods, on the instruction of the priest.4 In
Horace Odes 3. 6, Rome's valiant ancestors in their Sabellian land­
scape stand in contrast with the contemporary neglect of the gods in
the city described in the first part of the poem.5 Elsewhere, specific
cults or religious practices are attributed to the Sabines. Thus, as we
have seen, Varro attributes to the Sabines the origins of many Italian
cults: this is part of Rome's legacy from the Regal period, a time
when, according to Roman tradition, she was peculiarly receptive to
the influences of the various peoples of Italy.
Fifty years ago, E. C. Evans made a valiant attempt to look for
reasons why Varro should have attributed to the Sabines a long list of
gods worshipped at Rome,6 and her efforts illustrate the difficulties
associated with trying to find archaeological and epigraphical con­
firmation of Roman images of Sabinum. She set out to examine
archaeological and epigraphic evidence from Sabinum and some
nearby areas for the cults mentioned by Varro. While she was clearly
aware that Varro's Sabine deities might have more to do with Varro's
ideological position than with what could actually be seen on the
ground in Sabine territory,7 her investigation is largely a catalogue
of the occurrences of the various gods in inscriptions, or cult edifices
possibly to be assigned to one of the gods in the list.
At times, Evans' mode of enquiry is very unrewarding. For ex­
ample, Minerva appears only once in an inscription from Sabine
territory,8 and is rarely attested at all in central-eastern Italy. When
she does appear in this area, it is at a late date. Looking for her in a
3 4 5
Livy 1.18. Ibid. 1. 45. Hor. Odes 3. 6. 37 ff.
6
E. Evans, The Cults of the Sabine Territory (Rome, 1939).
7
e.g. ibid. p. v, 'It is apparent that Varro looked upon the Sabini as founders, and
agents of transmission into Rome, or certain religious cults which, in point of fact,
flourished throughout the interior of the Italian peninsula.'
8
The only inscriptional evidence in Sabine territory comes from Reate: CIL ix. 4674.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 157
Faliscan and Etruscan context is very much more promising: for
Statius in the Silvae, she is Tyrrhena Minerva? which is unlikely to
mean simply that she 'has power over the Tyrrhenian Sea' rather than
that she was thought to have her origins with the Etruscans.10 She is
important in Etruscan lightning-lore, and appears in the place of
Athena in mythological scenes on Etruscan mirrors.11 It is well worth
noting in this context that Varro has no long list of deities of reputedly
Etruscan origin to match the 'Sabine' list. On the contrary, while the
archaeological evidence for a period of Etruscan domination at Rome
is clear, Etruscan influences and origins are minimized or even denied
in the De Lingua Latina.12 Presumably, Varro was more interested in
'recalling' Rome's 'country' roots—as represented by the Sabines—
than in 'recalling' her urban past.13 Minerva is perhaps the most
extreme example of a god who does not obviously belong to the
Sabine context to which Varro ascribes her, but numerous other
deities to whom Varro attributed Sabine origins seem to be at least
as much at home over a wide area of central Italy. Feronia, for example,
is attested at Rome, Tarracina, amongst the Vestini, in Picenum and in
Umbria as well as within her supposedly native Sabine territory.14
One reason why little can be gleaned archaeologically and epigra-
phically from the Sabine territory in support of the Roman perception
of Sabine ethnic difference is that this area was particularly subject,
and from early days, to a variety of influences, not least Etruscan,
leaving the whole question of Sabine ethnicity even in the archaic
period much vexed in contemporary scholarship.15 From the early
third century BC onwards, Roman influences predominate, and the
9
Statius Silv. 2. 2. 2.
10
Evans, Cults, 163 comments on Tyrrhena Minerva, *one could hardly regard her
cult as of Etruscan origin on that basis, since the epithet may refer only to her power
over the Tuscan sea'. This seems to be over-sceptical, particularly in the face of the
other evidence which points to the importance of Minerva within Etruscan religion.
11
Ibid. 163-4.
12
The rare mentions of Etruscan origins and influences in the De Lingua Latina are
themselves revealing. At 5. 46, Vertumnus is said to be the chief god of the Etruscans.
As his statue stood in the Vicus Tuscus, it would be hard to avoid this inference. At
6. 28, Varro rejects the Etruscan etymology of Ides in favour of a Sabine etymology. In
5. 161, atrium is related to the Etruscan Atria. At 5. 143, many Latin oppida are said to
have been founded Etrusco ritu. In both these cases, the urban character of perceived
Etruscan influence is of obvious relevance.
13
See e.g. P. Pouthier, Ops et la conception divine de Vabondance dans la religion
romaine jusqu'à la mort d'Auguste (Rome, 1981), 40*
14
Evans, Cuits, (1939), 156-7.
15
See e.g. Cristofani Martelli, 4Poggio Sommavilla* ; M. Firmani, 'Panorama archeo­
logico sabino alla luce di recenti acquisizioni', in PSCS (1985), 99 ff.
158 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
third to first centuries BC are not times of great urban development. 16
Much of what can be seen today, or at least much of what could still
be seen several centuries ago, dates from the Imperial period. 17 Even
from this rather late material, however, one can begin to appreciate
the problem of reconciling Roman perception with material remains:
for example, the Hadrianic mosaic of the polymastic Diana (asso­
ciated with cities of Asia Minor, and with Massilia, a city of dubious
reputation) found at Poggio Mirteto, and the Colossus of Cybele at
Amiternum are not quite in keeping with images of staunch reverence
of the 'native' cults of the Italian countryside. 18
Looking for signs of distinctive religious practice in Sabinum is,
then, an unrewarding business. Certainly, the lack of prosperity in
Sabinum until the Imperial period, and particularly of prosperity of an
urban nature, especially in contrast with the flourishing of urban
centres in other areas neighbouring Rome (Latium, Etruria and
Campania particularly in the second century BC) may have helped to
encourage images of pious and pre-corrupt Sabines. 19 It is worth
considering further the relationship between the polarization of
Rome as a city and Sabinum as 'country' and images of Sabine
piety. The idea that farmers, and particularly small farmers, are more
prone to acts of the gods—or forces of nature—and are subsequently
more likely to be meticulous in their attention to the details of ritual
(whether this is considered to be 'religious' or 'superstitious') is
widespread both in ancient and in modern societies. In this context,
one might think of Détienne's interesting theory of farming as ritual in
Hesiod's Works and Days?0 and Virgil's choice of farming as his focus
in the Georgics, a poem which focuses on the problems of picking up
the pieces in the aftermath of the spiritual, social, and political turmoil
of the last years of the Republic. Clearly, there was no lack of rituals
associated with activities within, and the topography of, the city of
Rome itself,21 but the idealization of rituals specifically linked with
farming may have accompanied anxiety about urbanization.22
16
See Ch. 3, s. 3(a) above.
17
e.g. for Amiternum, see Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 19-24.
18
Evans, Cults, 51-3 for the Diana; 114-15 for Cybele; cf. Segenni, Amiternum, 71
for the precocious arrival of oriental cults in the territory of Amiternum.
19
See ch. 3, s. 3(a) above.
20
M. Détienne, Crise agraire et attitude religieuse chez Hésiode (Brussels, 1963).
21
e.g. Pliny NH 28. 28, for superstitions at Rome regarding hair- and nail-cutting.
22
See e.g. Pliny NH 28. 28, where the author remarks on a superstition pagana lege
('according to the custom of the countryside*): women in farming areas are not allowed
to twirl their spindles when walking along the road, or even to carry them uncovered,
for to do so would ruin the harvest and everything else.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 159

(b) Angitia and the Snake-Charmers

According to a fragment of Gnaeus Gellius, written in the late second
century BC, the Marsi were descended from Angitia, daughter of
Aeëtes and sister of Circe and Medea. To Angitia they owed their
knowledge of preventing and healing snake-bites. 23 According to
Lucilius, Marsic chanting could make snakes explode, 24 while for
Silius Italicus, Marsi sang songs to put them to sleep, and used songs
and herbs to heal the viper's bite. 25 Virgil's Marruvian and priestly
Umbro, devotee of Angitia, used herbs to cure snake-bite, a skill
which proved of no avail to him when he was fatally wounded in
battle. 26 For Pliny the Elder, Marsi, like Psylli, possessed the natural
power to frighten snakes using their whole bodies, 27 while Aulus
Gellius explicitly states that these Marsi retain their power over
snakes by endogamy. 28 According to Galen, Marsi were a source of
medical lore, knowledgeable both about curing snake-bite and about
the curative properties of the snake-venom itself.29 In 'Aelius Lam-
pridius' ' account of the reign of Elagabalus, the outrageous emperor
had Marsic priests collect the snakes, which he then unleashed onto
crowds gathered before the games. 30 There is a late, and somewhat
predictable, contamination of the name Angitia with the Latin anguis,
'snake', resulting in the form Anguitia.31
Already, the wide variety of literary sources for the association of
Marsi with snake-charming and curing snake-bite begins to suggest
that this ability is something more than a Roman fantasy: from the
Satires of Lucilius to Gnaeus Gellius' collection of local mythology to
the medical and 'scientific' writers Galen and Pliny the Elder. Angitia
is certainly attested epigraphically in the territory of the Marsi and, in
fact, amongst other peoples of the Central Apennines. Within Marsic
territory, her name is attested in three inscriptions from Luco (Lucus
Angitiae). The earliest of these is the late fourth-century BC dedica­
tion to the goddess, which reads, 'on behalf of the Marsic legions'. 3 2
She is also attested once in a dedicatory cippus from Civita d'An-
23 24 M
Fr. 9 P. = Solinus 2. 28. 575-6 M. Pun. 8. 495 ff.
26 27 28
Aen. 7. 750-60. NH 28. 30; cf. 28. 19. 16. 11. 1-2.
29 30
12. 316-17 K.; 11. 143 K.; 8, 150 K. 23. 2.
31
Ibid. Orig. 9. 2. 88.
32
CIL i. (2nd ed.) 5 = ILLRP 7 = Ve. 228a (MarsicXatin); cf. CIL ix. 3885; C. Letta
and S. D'Amato, Epigrafia della regione dei Marsi (Milan, 1975), no. 176 (second
33
century AD). CIL i. (2nd. edn). 1763 = Letta and D'Amato, Epigrafia, no. 178.
34
Ve. 239, Ila 13.
i6o Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
tino. Her name is also attested in the Umbrian Iguvine Tablets,34
amongst the Paeligni, 35 Vestini, 36 and Sabines, 37 as well as atlsernia. 38
Local evidence for snake-charming is more difficult to establish,
although it is clear that snakes were of symbolic importance in the
Marsic territory: a distinctive type of cylindrical cippus featuring a
hemispherical top with a coiled snake on it was characteristic of this
region throughout the Imperial period. 39 This is obviously not, how­
ever, direct evidence of snake-charming.
The anomalous use of snakes within the modern, Christian tradition
of the Central Apennines has been remarked upon in modern litera­
ture, and assertions have been made about the continuity of pagan
cults within a Christian context. Much has been made of the celebra­
tion of the festival of the tenth-century San Domenico Abate at
Cocullo, a village which would have fallen within the territory of
the Marsi in ancient times. This festival is held each year on the first
Thursday of May, when the serpari (local snake-charmers) collect
wild snakes to offer to San Domenico who, according to local
tradition, has powers associated with a range of dangers faced by
farmers and shepherds in this area, along with their animals and
dogs: he is able to ward off wolves, and can cure snake-bite,
rabies, and, more mundanely, toothache. The festival involves hand­
ling of snakes both by the serpari and by priests, and the highlight
comes when the snakes are placed by the serpari on the crown of the
statue of San Domenico, around which they nestle. The statue of San
Domenico, with its halo of live snakes, is then carried around the
village in a solemn procession, and money is pinned onto it by the
local people. 4 0
This kind of 'evidence' for snake-charming in association with the
cult of Angitia in antiquity, while certainly colourful, is very problem­
atic. It is as well to note that the history of cult-practices associated
with San Domenico Abate have not been the subject of sophisticated
studies. Assertions about the continuity of a tradition of snake-charm­
ing from pagan times in the local literature are likely to be influenced
35 36
Ve. 204-8; 211; CIL ix. 3074 for Sulmo. CIL ix. 3515 for Furfo.
37
For attestation of Angitia at Trebula Mutuesca, see M. Torelli Trebula Mutuesca:
Iscrizioni corrette ed inedite*, RAL 18 (1963), 250. . 38 Ve. 140.
39
Letta and D'Amato, Epigrafia, Table IX, pi. 23; cf. Letta, / Marsi, 145.
40
For a full account of the festival at Cocullo, see T. Ashby, Some Italian Scenes and
Festivals (London. 1929), 112 ff., where extracts from the interesting article by
Professor W. H. Woodward {Manchester Guardian, 1 June, 1909), who visited Cocullo
at the turn of the century, are quoted. I visited the festival myself on 7 May 1992.
 Rural Pietyf Witches, and Snake-Charmers 161
by contemporary self-definition, in itself an interesting phenomenon.
It is as well to admit the possibility that snake-handling in Cocullo
was a self-conscious 'revival' (or 'recreation') of practices associated
with the area in antiquity. Although the festival of San Domenico at
Cocullo is suggestive, it cannot legitimately be used as a means of
studying the cult of Angitia. 'Tradition', after all, does not have a life
of its own, but is constantly remade.
Although the cult of Angitia and the practice of snake-charming are
unlikely to be entirely figments of the Roman imagination, it is far
from clear that these practices had the same significance in Roman
society on the one hand, and in local society on the other. To begin on
a general level, it is worth considering the position of Marsic augurs
plying their trade at Rome, in the context of other itinerant seers.
Cicero, in the De Divinatione, quotes Ennius' contemptuous reference
to the influx of village hacks, glossed by Cicero as 'Marsic augurs',
along with astrologers, village haruspices, diviners relying on the
goddess Isis and interpreters of dreams, all plying their trade around
the circus, meaning, surely, the Roman circus. 41 One problem with
this passage is, of course, that there is no way of telling whether
Ennius himself referred specifically to Marsic augurs, or whether this
is simply a Ciceronian gloss. Whichever is the case, however, it is
possible to see signs of Roman annoyance at the presence of foreign
seers, not 'tied' securely to a local cult, and certainly not part of
established Roman cult practice. It is interesting here to compare
Livy's statements that, as the Hannibalic War dragged on, the super­
stitious hackery of, amongst others, the rustic plebs driven by neces­
sity, helped to bring about the decline of the ancestral religious
tradition of Rome. 4 2 At first sight, this pronouncement seems to be
hardly in keeping with Livy's general approval of the piety of
country-people, often in contrast with general decline on the part of
urban Romans. One can recall here the examples of Sabine piety cited
in the example above. But there is surely not necessarily any contra­
diction here. I suggest that when Livy speaks of the decline of
ancestral, Roman religion, he is thinking of rustici (i.e. people from
outside the city of Rome) not in their role as exemplars of piety for
corrupt Romans, but as hawking their religious wares on the margins
of Roman society. This kind of activity would surely be considered in
a very different light from either country cults within country settings
41 42
Enn. Tr. fr. 134 b J. = Cic. De Div. 1. 132. Livy 25. 1. 6.
162 Rural Piety», W7rc/ze.y, and Snake-Charmers
or from gods once foreign to Roman territory but now recognized by
the élite in the religious map and calendar of the city.
It is worth looking in more detail at the literary sources, to try to
establish some of the ways in which snake-charming and snake-bite
healing in particular were perceived. At several points, these activities
seem to be closely associated with witchcraft. In both Ovid's De
Medicamine Faciei Liber43 and Silius Italicus' Punica44 Marsic
snake-charming and snake-bite healing are mentioned in the context
of magical powers which pervert the course of nature, such as
stopping rivers in their tracks, and bringing the moon down from
the sky by shrieking: precisely the kind of 'night witchcraft' which
was considered to be particularly sinister and dangerous in the ancient
world. 45 It is also worth wondering about the overtones of the
supposed descent of the Marsi from the family which produced
Medea and Circe, two of the most sinister figures in ancient
mythology.
Why did the Romans seem to have found the Marsic snake-practi­
tioners so strange, and why was their activity apparently associated
with 'night witchcraft'? After all, snakes are common enough in the
iconography of 'mainstream' gods, such as Demeter, Ceres, and,
above all, Aesculapius. 46 According to Pliny the Elder, the snake's
special protective powers meant that it was kept as a domestic pet in
many Roman homes. 47 Modern theories suggest that the snake's
special significance is derived from its ambiguous and 'marginal'
character within the structures of ancient thought, a legless land
animal mediating between the world below and the surface of the
earth. 48 Certainly, the use of snake-venom, a substance which had the
power to bring both life and death, was of great importance in ancient
medical practice. In the case of Aesculapius, the god was actually in
the form of a snake when he accompanied Q. Ogulnius Gallus from
43 44
39. 8. 495 ff.
45
For the use of the phrase 'night witch' to refer to the kind of witch who cannot be
identified and accused, and who attacks the 'social and emotional basis of common life',
see R. Gordon, 'Religion in the Early Empire: The Civic Compromise and its Limits', in
M. Beard and J. North (eds.), Pagan Priests (London, 1990), 235 ff., 254 n. 66; cf.
L. Mair, Witchcraft (London, 1968), ch. 3; cf. N. Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons: an
Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt (London, 1975), 206 ff.
46
For a general summary of the role of snakes in Roman religion, see J. Toynbee,
Animals in Roman Life and Art (London, 1973).
47
Pliny NH 29. 72; for the ill-omened death of the Emperor Tiberius* pet snake, see
Suet. Tib. 72.
48
G. E. R. Lloyd, Science, Folklore and Ideology (Cambridge, 1983), 10-11.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 163
Epidaurus to the Tiber island. Snakes are also frequently found
effecting cures in temples of Aesculapius/Asclepius, but here they
are either manifestations of the god himself or agents of the god: there
is no evidence of human intermediaries handling the snakes within
this cult. 50 In some cultures, snake-handling and power over snakes in
general is clearly considered to be special but by no means subversive
behaviour.51 But snake-handling in Greek and Roman thought is
evocative rather of the sinister, and potentially subversive, blurring
of boundaries between gods and men, and men and animals, which is
associated with the frenzy of (significantly female) Bacchants.52
The peculiar power over snakes possessed by Marsic individuals
and, perhaps, by their counterparts in the neighbouring territories of
the Central Apennines, may account in part for the original attribution
to Angitia of a family tree consisting of the sinister wizards of Greek
thought, and for the association of their activities with 'night witch­
craft'. But it may also be that the idea of snake-charming, along with
other sinister 'superstitious* practices attributed to the peoples of the
Central Apennines, had such a hold on the imagination because these
peoples had proved such intractable enemies to Rome both in the
course of the Samnite Wars of the Middle Republic and, very much
more recently, in the course of the Social—or Marsic—War. Letta
also makes the interesting suggestion that the Marsi used their sinister
reputation for propagandist purposes during the Social War: encoura­
ging Roman soldiers to believe that they had supernatural powers
could well be expected to bring havoc. 53
The cult of Angitia, in its local contexts, is likely to have had very
different overtones from the sinister aspect which Marsic snake-
49
Livy 10. 47. 6-7; Per. 11, 29. 11. 1; Ovid Met. 15. 622-744; Val. Max. 1. 8. 2.
50
See the collection of sources with discussion for the healing rites of Asclepius in
E. Edelstein and L. Edelstein (eds.), Asclepius: A Collection and Intepretation of the
Testimonies (Baltimore, 1945).
51
e.g. Certain groups of Native Americans were considered to be aided by snake or
lion 'familiars', which gave them power over the species as a whole and an honoured
place in society, just as magicians on certain Melanesian islands have as their 'servants'
(familiars) snakes or sharks: M. Mauss, A General Theory of Magic (London, 1972), 36.
52
See e.g. C. Segal, 'The Menace of Dionysus: Sex Roles and Reversals in
Euripides' Bacchae\ in Peradotto and Sullivan, Women, 195 ff.
53
Letta, / Marsi, 99. It can, in various circumstances, be advantageous to an ethnic
group to take on and exploit the dominant group's construction of them. Okely, The
Traveller-Gypsies, 4, gives an interesting example of this phenomenon: in the 16th cent.
Travellers might gain acceptance of a kind amongst Gorgios by 'presenting an exotic
identity', and dancing or telling fortunes.
164 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
charming seems to have had in Roman thought. For one thing, it is
clear that, in her local context, Angitia's sphere was broader than
snakes alone. In a Paelignian inscription, she appears with the epithet
cer(r)ia (cerealis)y5 so that she, like the numerous gods given the
epithet kerr- in the second-century BC Agnone Tablet 55 was asso­
ciated with the generation of crops and possibly animals as well.
Interestingly enough, in the festival of San Domenico at Cocullo
mentioned above, snakes are not the only offering to the saint: nuts
and early fruits were once also gathered in abundance to give to
him. 56 In this particular festival at least, the 'saint of snakes' had
broader associations, just as Angitia seems to have done. Elsewhere,
there are hints of aspects of the cult of Angitia about which we know
very little, and which are certainly not mentioned in any of the literary
sources. For example, a Latin inscription from Capestrano contains a
plural version of her name, anciti, suggesting that some sort of family
of deities was associated with her. 57 Such details suggest that the
Roman literary sources give us selective details of the cult of Angitia.
It is also well worth looking at what can be known of the contexts
of epigraphic attestations of the name of Angitia, as these contexts
suggest that the cult of Angitia at the local level was by no means a
marginal one. For example, there is a gold ring inscribed in Oscan
from Isernia, which an individual, Stems Kalaviis, dedicates to the
goddess: this is a costly gift, implying that the donor was a wealthy
individual. 58 There was apparently a cult-place for Angitia a little to
the north of the modern town of Luco, on the west bank of the Fucine
lake, within Marsic territory in ancient times. Certainly, one of the
three inscriptions from Luco that mention Angita is in the form of a
bronze plate, with the inscription pro le[cio]nibus martses, hardly the
offering of a marginal individual. Virgil's reference to a nemus
Angitiae to which the priestly Umbro was attached has been identi­
fied with the ancient site near Luco. 5 9 The modern name Luco, and
ancient epigraphic references to Angitia, plus analogy with attested
place-names such as Lucus Feroniae, have led to the reconstruction of
54 53 56
Ve. 204-8, 211. Ve. 147. Cf. n. 40 above.
57
CIL ix. 3515; cf. CIL ix. 3074, from Sulmo. A plural of the name also appears in
the Iguvine Tablets: Ve. 239, IIa 13.
58
Ve. 140: Stents. Kalaviis. anagtiai. diiviiai. dumtm. deded ('Stenis Kalaviis gave a
gift to the goddess Angitia').
59
For the Luco inscription, see CIL i/2. 5 = ILLRP 7 = Ve. 228a; Aen. 7. 759 for
nemus Angitiae.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 165
the name Lucus Angitiae, a name which is never actually directly
attested in antiquity. This site seems to have become a municipium
after the Social War, and its inhabitants may appear as Lucenses in
Pliny the Elder's list of Marsic municipals. 61 In one inscription found
at Luco, two quinquennales appear restoring a wall ex p.p. Angitiae:
they are apparently using money from the temple treasury.62 A
second-century AD cippus, also found at Luco, marks out the bound­
ary of the p(opuli) Albens(is) and the Marso(rum) Angiti(ae).63
Angiti(ae) here may be a reference to the territory attributed to the
sanctuary rather than to the inhabited centre itself, but this question
should be left open. 64 There has been no positive identification of a
temple of Angitia at Luco. Two sites have been proposed, one at the
top of the hill, where a ruined building and some ex-voto offerings
were found, and one in the lowest part of the town, the area known as
'il tesoro'. Neither site offers any signs of distinctive cult practice.
The votive offerings which can be identified in the 'tesoro' area are
small bronze Hercules. 65 Certainly, the lack of signs of distinctive cult
practice cannot rule out either site: it seems likely that the images of
cult practice associated with Angitia which appear in the literary
sources are selective, and emphasize its more unusual aspects in the
eyes of the Greek and Roman authors.
In its local contexts, the cult of Angitia is likely to have been
sponsored by the local élites. This certainly seems to be indicated by
the appearance of the name of Angitia on a gold ring, the dedication to
the goddess on behalf of the Marsic legions, and the existence of a cult-
place after which a settlement seems to have been named. The Marsic
snake-charmers described by Greek and Roman authors apparently had
their origins in a priesthood of Angitia. For Virgil, Umbro is a
sacerdos,66 and for 'Aelius Lampridius', the Marsi hired by Elagaba-
lus are also priests. 67 This priesthood may have been hereditary, as the
profession of the Marsic practitioners at Rome is said to have been in
the early Empire. Aulus Gellius certainly says that these Marsi were
endogamous, while Pliny the Elder makes comparisons with the
endogamous Psylli, as well as the Ophiogenes of Cyprus, who reput­
edly exposed their new-born children to the bite of poisonous snakes in

60
For discussion of this reconstruction, see Letta and D'Amato, Epigrafia, 292 n. 15.
61 62
NH 3. 12. 106; cf. Letta, / Marsi, 128-9. CIL ix. 3885 = ILS 4024.
63
Letta and D'Amato, Epigrafia, no. 176.
64
For discussion of this point, see ibid. 292-3.
65 w
Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 103-5. Aen. 7. 750.
67
23. 2.
i66 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
68
order to test their wives' fidelity. While élite association with the
cult of Angitia at a local level seems clear, it is not possible to know
for certain whether priests of Angitia actually were members of the
local élites, 6 9 or whether they were merely sponsored by the élites.

(c) Magic and Witchcraft

The magical repertoire attributed to the peoples of the Central
Apennines in the literary sources is largely conventional: Paelignian
and Marsic spells are believed to have the power to hold lovers and
prevent them from leaving, to make friends return, and generally to
'bewitch' lovers, afflicting them with terrible passion. 70 According to
Horace, Sabellae are fortune-tellers.71 As we have seen, Silius Itali-
cus, in his catalogue of Italians, attributes to the Marsi a more
extensive magical repertoire, presumably at least partly because he
is not constrained by the limited subject-matter of love-elegy. 72 They
are thus attributed the familiar repertoire of 'night witches', appar­
ently skilled to confound the forces of nature in general. 73 Perhaps
most interesting of all are ancient ideas about strigae, a mysterious
bird-like species which even Pliny the Elder finds impossible to
classify definitively as either real or mythological. 74 But according
to some authorities, these are old women transformed by night-magic
into birds. 75 This particular witch-belief had a long history in Italy,
and has given to modern Italian one of its regular words for witch,
'strega'. 76 According to the manuscript tradition of Ovid's Fasti
preferred for good reason by Frazer and the Teubner editors, these
strigae were a Marsic speciality. 77
68
Aulus Gellius 16. 11. 1-2; Pliny NH 7. 14-15; cf. 38. 30.
69
The supposed practice of endogamy on the part of the Marsic snake-charmers
might in fact tell against their identification with the Marsic élite. The Marsic élite were
clearly interested in marriage to outsiders: see e.g. D.S. 37. 15 for the conversation
about the ius nuptiarum between the Marsic leader Poppaedius Silo and Marius during
the Social War. On the Marsic élite and marriage, see Letta, / Marsi, 141 n. 42.
70 7l
Hor. Epodes 17. 60 f., 27 ff.; Ovid AA 2. 10 ff. Hor. Sat. 1. 9. 29-30.
72
Pun. 8. 495 ff.
73
For explanation of the phrase 'night witch*, see n. 45, above, with references to
74
modern literature on the subject. Pliny NH 11. 232.
15
Ovid Fasti 6. 142 (Alton, Wormell, Courtney); cf. Festus p. 414 L. s.v. strig . . . ;
Petronius Sat. 134; Ovid Am. 1, 8; Hor. AP 338-40.
76
N. Zingarelli, Vocabulario della lingua italiana (Bologna, 1983), s.v. strega.
77
Fasti 6. 142 (Alton, Wormell, Courtney); Frazer iv. (1929), 143-4. The reading
nenia Marsa must surely be preferred to the reading nenia falsa, as the phrase nenia
Marsa occurs in another certain Ovidian context: AA 2. 102. This reference is given in
the critical apparatus of the Teubner text of the Fasti.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 167
Why did the peoples of the Central Apennines have such a reputa­
tion for witchcraft, unrivalled in antiquity by any other Italian people?
In order to begin to answer this question, it is first necessary to look at
the significance of magic and witchcraft within the structures of Greek
and Roman thought. First of all, it is important to emphasize that the
line between magic and religion, or magic and science, in Roman
thought as in more recent periods of history, is culturally determined
rather than an objective 'fact'. In general terms, practices which are
condemned as magical by Latin writers, members of the Roman élite,
are associated with those who are 'not us'. Latin literature provides us
with ample evidence to suggest the prevalence of a stereotype of a
witch: the witch is most often female, preferably foreign, lewd,
drunken, and ugly. 78 In other words, she fails completely to fit
Roman ideals of females safely incorporated into their patriarchal
society. 79
Although such a stereotype exists, it is often a mistake to assume
that members of the Roman élite saw anything wrong with the actual
practices associated with what was termed witchcraft. The fact that
what we might term 'sympathetic magic', activity which occurs in
Roman depictions of witches at work, was a regular feature of
'official' Roman cult-practice, is familiar from modern studies of
Roman religion. 80 Again, Pliny the Elder reserves his harshest and
most scathing words for the Magi, but the 'medical' practices of
which he himself approves often make use of amulets and prepared
parts of animals and their excrement, as do their 'magical' practices. 81
It is, then, worth taking a more detailed look at how members of the
Roman élite drew the line between practices of which they approved,
and 'magical practices'. Magical activity is most often associated with
low-life and women, occasionally with parvenus, and, during the
Empire, with individuals involved in plots against the life of the
emperor or the imperial family. What these groups have in common
is the fact that they are marginal as far as power, social and political,
78
W. Liebeschuetz, Continuity and Change in Roman Religion (Oxford, 1979), 129.
79
Cf. C. Lamer, Witchcraft and Religion (Oxford, 1984), 84 ff. for an interesting
discussion of the gender-issues involved in accusations of witchcraft and witch*
behaviour.
80
e.g. W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London,
1911), 49 ff.
81
NH 28, 29, 30, passim; cf. Lloyd, Science, 140 with n. 76; cf. G. E. R. Lloyd,
Magic, Reason and Experience (Cambridge, 1979), 13 n. 20; cf. M. Beagon, Roman
Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder (Oxford, 1992), 107.
168 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
82
is concerned. It is worth recalling here Cicero's list of hawkers of
fortunes standing around the circus, a place closely associated with
the people of Rome. 83 Stereotyped witches appear most frequently
within the context of elegiac poetry, where the social status of the
mistress is notoriously ambiguous. 84
'Magical' practices are sometimes scorned by the Roman élite, as is
the credulity of those who resort to going to a practitioner.85 Such
practices should not draw in those whose sex, birth, and good
connections bring social and political success without resort to such
underhand means. Love-magic is a particularly well-used topos from
Theokritos 86 to Virgil 87 to the elegiac poets. 88 With a low-born and
desperate young woman as its focus, it is presumably to be considered
within the context of the 'Hellenistic' fashion for literature which
allowed the reader or hearer a rather titillating 'peep through the key­
hole' at spheres of society which they did not usually encounter at
close quarters—the female sphere is, not surprisingly, a strong favour­
ite. 89 Even when the elegiac lover himself resorts to practitioners of
love-magic, the speaker—and reader—is safely distanced from the
scene, being, presumably, above such things. 90 Love-magic, quite
simply, does not work, says Ovid in his most urbane voice in the
Ars Amatoria.91
There is also a history of diatribes against groups of 'medical'
practitioners who both overcharge for their recondite services and
whose claims are regarded with scepticism by members of the
Roman élite. In this category come the Magi with their cures taken
from exotic or ill-omened beasts, 92 or, in the early second century BC,
the Greek doctors apparently verbally attacked by Cato the Elder both
for their potentially harmful, but fashionable, methods and for the
prices which they dared to charge. 93 It is against this sort of back­
ground that Cato, and, much later, Pliny the Elder extol do-it-yourself
82
Cf. Liebeschuetz, Continuity, 137 for the idea that the particular situation which is
liable to foster magic and accusations of magic is 'when two systems of power clash
within one society.* " Cic. De Div. 1. 132.
84
e.g. Tibullus 1. 2. 44 ff., 1. 8. 17 ff.; Propertius 4. 5; for a discussion of the social
status of elegiac mistresses, see S. Lilja, The Roman Elegists' Attitude to Women
85 8Ó
(Helsinki, 1965), 40-2. e.g. Cic. De Div. 1. 132. Theokr. Id. 2.
87 88
Virg. Eel. 8. 64 ff. Tibullus 1. 2. 44 ff; Propertius 4. 5; Ovid Am. 1. 8.
89
Cf. Theokr. Id. 15; Herodas Mime 1. 6.
90 91
e.g. Tibullus 1.5. 12 ff.; Propertius 1. 1. 19 ff. AA 2, 101 ff.
92
Pliny NH 28. 92 ff., 29. 66-8, 29. 81 ff.
93
Piut. Cat. Mai. 23; Pliny NH 29. 11-14.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 169
cures or cures which can be procured from less exotic sources, such as
Cato's cabbage-cures94 and the Elder Pliny's pig-fat medicine and
sound nutritional advice.95 One might well wonder whether these
rather unexciting and homely medicines, whatever their physiologi­
cal effects, had anything like the psychological effects of more exotic
remedies.96
But it would be a mistake to suppose that condemnations of
practices as 'magical' were indicative only of scepticism on the part
of an increasingly bookish élite. Roman officials are, on the contrary,
frequently found acting on the belief that 'magical' practices are
really effective, harmful, and subversive. Famously, the Twelve
Tables contain legislation against 'charming away' other people's
crops.97 Cato advises his gentleman-farmers to prohibit their vilici
from consulting Chaldaei, presumably because he considered that the
results could potentially cause damage to their master.98 And while
Roman persecution and extermination of Druids and Christians was
accompanied by gory tales of the cannibalism and incest of such
groups, the belief that they were working against the interests of the
Roman people by means of their subversive superstitiones was surely
not far behind such accusations.99 Condemnation of 'magical' activity
is built upon fear of power getting into the 'wrong' hands.100
It is worth considering in some detail what groups of people whose
supposed powers are either disapproved of by members of the Roman
élite, or from whose activities they distance themselves, have in
common. Besides the recurrence of female witches, it is interesting
how often foreigners, or foreign rites, appear in this context: the
Persian Magi, Egyptians, and Jews are the most reviled and sus­
pected.101 Of course, Roman 'religion' itself had no shortage of
foreign cults and rites, such as Etruscan augury and Greek priest­
esses, let alone the traditional insistence on imports from the Sabine
territory during the Regal period, all of which were sponsored by the
94 95
De Agri Cult. 156 ff.; cf. Plut. Cat. Mai. 23. NH 28. 123-35.
96
Cf. Pliny NH 29. 28 for the bitter remark concerning people who consider that no
medicine is beneficial unless it is expensive, cf. NH 28. 20 for the power of foreign
97
words in spells. Pliny NH 28. 18; cf. Twelve Tables ap. Seneca QN 4. 3.
98
De Agri Cult. 7. 4.
99
Cf. G. E. M. De Ste. Croix, 'Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted?', Past
and Present (1963), 6 ff., for the perceived dangers of Christianity to the state.
100
Cf. J. A. North, 'Diviners and Divination at Rome*, in Beard and North (eds.),
Pagan Priests, 51 ff., 58-60 for the connection between power and access to approved
modes of divination.
101
e.g. Pliny NH 30. 1-14.
170 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
Roman élite. A degree of foreign mystique may go a long way
towards encouraging belief in the authority of the powers that
be.102 There were notoriously grey areas between what was consid­
ered to be safe and institutionalized foreignness and what was con­
sidered to be dangerously and distinctly un-Roman or anti-Roman.
Greek culture in particular was very ambiguous indeed. But Persians,
Egyptians, and Jews undoubtedly occupied very dangerous ground
within Roman thought. It is very interesting in this respect to consider
Pliny the Elder's short history of magic. Magic was, he thinks, not
only imported into Italy, but also into Greece.103 There is surely at
times a kind of hierarchy of foreignness in Roman thought: when
Greece and Rome are considered alone, Greece may seem foreign
enough, and may be attributed all the traits of Eastern decadence. But
when ethnic groups on the margins of Greek society itself are brought
into the comparison, Greece can seem very much closer to Rome.
As we have seen, Pliny the Elder reserves his most venomous
verbal attacks for the claims of the Magi. The reputation of the
Magi surely has a lot to do with the fact that Persian culture and
religion lay well on the margins of the Hellenized Eastern Mediterra­
nean. Modern anthropological studies suggest that foreign groups, or
groups which are in other ways 'marginal* to a particular society, or
which directly threaten the society in question, are frequently accused
of dangerous magical practice, as a means of making them into
scapegoats for all the evils within society, grounds for persecution
which are widely considered to be acceptable.104 In societies where
there is not widespread belief in the efficacy of witchcraft and magic,
the grounds for condemnation may merely switch to areas which are
still considered to be dangerously subversive, such as political views
or sexual orientation. For the sake of comparison, Rollin's studies of
ancient Assyria suggest that Mesopotamians believed the steppe and
the mountains, along with foreign territories whose inhabitants from
102
Cf. Polyb. 6. 56. 7 for the importance of ôeiaiôai^ovia (Superstition*) at Rome,
cf. K. V. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971), 274 for the
'magical aura* which the medieval priest could assume in the eyes of an illiterate
congregation by virtue of his education and consecration, cf. 151 ff. for the hierarchical
I03
nature of the church even after the Reformation. NH 30. 5. 12.
104
Cf. Thomas, Religion, 561, *The charges of witchcraft were a means of expres­
sing deep-felt animosities in acceptable guise. Before a witchcraft accusation could be
plausibly made, the suspect had to be in a socially or economically inferior position to
her supposed victim. Only then could she be presumed to be likely to have had recourse
to magical means of retaliation, for, had she been the stronger party, more direct
methods of revenge would have been at her disposal.*
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 171
time to time invaded the land which the Assyrians had settled, to be
inhabited by witches and demons. Foreign women, being doubly
outside the control of the observing society, were especially feared
as witches. The steppe, the mountains, and these foreign territories all
lay mysteriously, and sometimes threateningly, outside the social
control of the Assyrians, and this sense of mystery and threat was
translated into belief in strange and supernatural powers. 105
In general terms, then, the more foreign a group is considered to be
by the society observing it, whether in terms of culture or gender, the
more venomous will be accusations of sinister practice. But what, if
anything, do such accusations have to go on? In some cases, the group
accused is in reality practising an alien religion whose unknown
nature leads to imaginative misunderstandings, as in the case of
Christianity. The Magi too, according to Herodotus, started off life
as religious priests within the Persian Kingdom. 106 Presumably,
problems began when they started trading their wares as outsiders
in the West. As for women, female biology is clearly alien enough to
patriarchal societies, giving rise to a whole range of taboos and
magical powers attached to menstruation, virginity, and child­
birth.107 In fact, women, denied power and status in their own right,
are often perceived to resort to underhand ways of asserting their own
wishes. Within this context come the sinister stereotype of the power
behind the throne, 108 and the wife's magical revenge on her hus­
band's mistress described by Pliny the Elder. 109 Somewhat similarly,
'magical' practices may in reality hold more attraction for those who
do not have more direct means to achieve power and status within
society.
In the case of the Magi in particular, Greek perception of their
powers as something strange and fascinating may have helped to
encourage them to turn their religious practices into a commercial
105
S. Rolli n, * Women and Witchcraft in Ancient Assyria', in Cameron and Kuhrt,
Images, 34 ff., 37.
1(
* Herod. 1. 101, 107, 120, 128, 132, 140, 7. 19, 37, 43; cf. Lloyd, Magic, 13; cf.
Cic. De Div. 1. 91: 'nee quisquam rex Persarum potest esse, qui non ante magorum
disciplinam scientiamque perceperit.* (*Nor can anyone be king of the Persians, before
he has had the training and learned the knowledge of the Magi.')
107
Pliny NH 28. 77-8 for the terrible powers of menstrual blood.
108
For a discussion of this theme in ancient literature, see Lefkowitz, * Influential
Women*, 49 ff.
109
Pliny NH 29. 73: apparently, the trick was to pound up spotted lizards and put
them in the offending courtesan's face-cream. If the wife was lucky, the courtesan
would come out in an unattractive rash.
172 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
venture. For a society's perception of a group as having special
powers may lead not just to persecution and the creation of scape­
goats, but also to individuals seeking to take advantage of the
supposed special powers of the group to which they belong. If the
'foreign' group collaborates and sells their services, as frequently
economic necessity constrains them to do, then the observing so­
ciety's prejudices and stereotypes are only reinforced. The Magi
seem to have made a point of capitalizing on their exotic reputation
by marketing curses supposedly prepared from parts of the exotic
beasts which inhabited the margins of the world according to Greek
and Roman imagination. 110 There are stories too from modern history
of Lapps profiting from their reputation of being magicians by selling
bags of wind to European sailors. 111 In Britain today, Gypsy Lee is a
common sight at fairs, while persecution of, and prejudice against,
Roma continues. 112
Having considered the role of magic and magicians in general
within the structures of Roman thought, it is now time to return to
the more specific theme of peoples of the Central Apennines as
magicians and witches. I have suggested above that groups which
are attributed reputations for witchcraft are very frequently in some
sense 'marginal'. While Marsic, Paelignian, and 'Sabellian' witches
generally appear in Imperial Latin literature as figures of fun, rather
ineffective old women consulted on questions of love, loss, and
fortune, it may well be that their unthreatening appearance has to
do with the fact that, by the early Empire, these people had long since
ceased to be a military threat to Rome. It is worth wondering whether
some rather more sinister and threatening images of witchcraft lie
behind the amusing figures of early Imperial love-elegy. Such images
might have had something in common with the tone of Livy's account
of the Third Samnite War, in which the Samnites, in their secret rite,
combine the blood of human beings with that of sacrificial beasts. 113
Images of this kind might be seen in the context of Rome's relation­
ship with peoples of the Central Apennines before the Social War and
Sulla's activity in Samnium in the 80s BC, when the landscape and
social organization of the area might have been perceived to be a
dangerous antithesis to Rome's own urban and civilized character. It
110
e.g. Pliny NH 29. 66 for the use of basilisk blood.
111
Mauss, A General Theory of Magic, 32.
112 u3
Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies, 4. Livy 10. 38. 5 ff.; cf. 10. 39. 16.
 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers 173
is possible that people from the Central Apennines were then able to
profit at Rome from their reputation as witches. It would certainly
seem that the idea of them practising their craft for money was a
familiar one to the audiences of Horace and Ovid. 1 1 4
Looking for material evidence of witchcraft in the Central Apen­
nines is not a rewarding business. This is hardly surprising, as few of
the activities associated with magic and witchcraft are likely to leave
any lasting material traces. 'Religious' activity associated with the
élite is obviously far more likely to leave its mark in the form of stone
sanctuaries, inscriptions, votive deposits, and the like. With regard to
witchcraft, the major exception is curse-tablets, largely associated
with urban societies, probably because literacy is a more widely
spread phenomenon in such societies. Because of the lack of material
evidence for magic and witchcraft, any discussion of its place within a
local context must necessarily be more conjectural than the discussion
of the cult of Angitia, for example. But it remains a possibility that
communities in the Central Apennines produced their own witches,
scapegoats that could usefully be blamed when things went wrong. In
particular, the strigae, old women transformed into birds, supposedly
a Marsic speciality, remain tantalizing. In the small communities
which were the characteristic form of settlement in the Central
Apennines, the range of 'marginal' individuals would not have been
anything like as rich as it clearly was in the late Republican/early
Imperial city of Rome. All the evils within a small community might
be attributed to the nocturnal activities of certain women, or of other
'marginal' characters. Belief in the existence of such beings as strigae
might well have suited local purposes.

CONCLUSION

Within the structures of Roman thought, religious/supernatural activ­

ity amongst the peoples of the Central Apennines is characterized in
two distinct ways. On the one hand, amongst Sabines and 'Sabelli'
could be found the rustic piety which the city of Rome had, regret­
tably, left behind on her rise to urban greatness. On the other hand,
'Sabelli', Marsi, and Paeligni were associated with snake-charming
and witchcraft, sinister and threatening activities. In both cases, the
114
e.g. Hor. Epodes 17. 60 f., 27 ff.; Ovid AA 2. 10 ff.; Hor. Sat. 1. 9. 29-30.
174 Rural Piety, Witches, and Snake-Charmers
'outsider* quality of peoples of the Central Apennines reflects Roman
perception of their relationship with these peoples. The pious Sabines/
'Sabelli* represent the safely incorporated Sabines (and, later, the
Sabine-Samnites), obviously subordinate to Rome. The sinister
snake-charmers and witches are the result of a history of enmity
and danger. Within local contexts, some distinctive cult-practice
demonstrably had a place, such as the cult of Angitia, but the
significance of this cult at a local level appears to have been very
different from its significance within the structures of Roman thought.
It is important too to note how much is omitted from Roman imagery
of religious activity in the Central Apennines. In the previous chapter,
I discussed the role of sanctuaries as central places within local
society, sponsored by the élites, and with clear signs of wealth and
cultural pretension. Where the gods of such sanctuaries can be
identified with any degree of certainty, they are not gods which
would have been at all unfamiliar to Romans: Hercules, for exam­
ple, is very frequently found, whether as the god of an ornate
sanctuary such as that of Hercules Curinus above Sulmona, or in
the form of votive statuettes, found abundantly within the Central
Apennines. Such features are not, however, part of Roman imagery of
Sabines, 'Sabelli', Paeligni and Marsi. Contrasts rather than echoes
were what were required for Roman purposes.
 5
Questions of Identity amongst the Peoples
of the Central Apennines

INTRODUCTION

In Chapter 2, 'Roman Contexts', I discussed why, when, and how the

Romans began to use the ethnic 'Sabellus' to refer collectively to
Sabines and Samnites after the Social War. The coinage of the ethnic
'Sabellus' was not the only means by which Romans grouped various
peoples of the Central Apennines together without distinguishing
individual tribes: by the Augustan period, these peoples are taken
together in the ancient ethnographical tradition, and are said to share
certain moral characteristics, such as bravery. This treatment is
unique: no other Italian peoples are grouped together in quite this
fashion. Belief in collective identities has been important in modern
scholarship too: it has, until very recently, been generally argued, and
occasionally even taken for granted that the prehistory of Italy can be
understood in terms of large unities, such as an 'Italic' community.1
More specifically, historical collective activity on the part of peoples
of the Central Apennines, most notably the Social War, has been
explained in terms of the existence of shared 'objective' character­
istics, such as a 'Sabellian' or 'Sabellic' character underlying activity
in the historical era, apparently maintained without change as an
inheritance from a prehistoric community. 2
In this present chapter, I shall discuss some of the problems
encountered when dealing with questions of identity amongst the
peoples of the Central Apennines: in particular, I shall question first
the treatment of traditions on the origins of these peoples as descrip­
tions of 'objective' prehistoric groups, and secondly the assumption
1
e.g. Pallottino, Earliest Italy, 3 ff., for the history of ideas of 'Italic* history.
2
See e.g. Salmon, Samnium, 344; most recently, A. Keaveney, Rome and the
Unification of Italy (London, 1987), e.g. 11 for explanation of the part played by
Venusia in the Social War in terms of its 4Oscanised nature*.
i76 Questions of Identity
that historical actions and groupings should be understood as simple
survivals of prehistoric groups. I shall then suggest that we should
look at the social and historical context in which a particular tradition
was asserted: rather than explaining the present in terms of the
survival of the past, I shall be looking at how the past was con­
structed according to the needs of the present. I shall aim to show
that the diversity of traditions suggests a dynamic process, and that
various collective identities tend to be asserted under pressure, in
response to circumstances, rather than remaining static and
unchanged for hundreds of years.3 This is especially true in the
case of the ancient example with which I am concerned here: when
we do not have to reckon with a racist ideology assigning permanent
pseudo-biological categories, or even with religious categories which
are exclusive, the fluidity of self-definition may be all the more
marked. As one important example of a 'pressure-point' in the
context of which collective identities are asserted, I shall study in
detail the allied ideology of the Social War. While the Social War
cannot be considered an example of 4ethnic conflict' in a modern
sense, as in the situation in Northern Ireland, or the former Yugosla­
via, where war is waged explicitly on the grounds of ethnic or
religious difference, the ideology of the Social War appealed clearly
to collective identities ranged against Rome. 4
When questions of self-definition are asked within the context of
the ancient world, we find that some cultures inevitably provide us
with very much more information than do others concerning percep­
tions of their own ethnic identity, their relationships with other
peoples, and their general place in the world. Such cultures, under­
standably privileged in the treatments of ancient historians, are those
which have left behind them a substantial body of literature, such as
Late Republican and Imperial Rome, and fifth- to fourth-century
Athens. Within the literatures of such cultures are included accounts
of peoples outside them, but it would obviously be unreasonable to
expect that Athenian or Roman historians were as aware of the
3
Cf. e.g. Hobsbawm and Ranger, Invention; Tonkin et al. (eds.), History and
Ethnicity.
4
I follow the definition of ethnicity given by O. Patterson, 4Context and Choice in
Ethnic Allegiance: A Theoretical Framework and Caribbean Case-Study*, in Glazer and
Moynihan, Ethnicity, 305 ff., 308: 4we may define ethnicity as follows: that condition
wherein certain members of a society, in a given social context, choose to emphasize as
their most meaningful basis of primary, extrafamilial identity certain assumed cultural,
national, or somatic traits.'
 Questions of Identity 177
problems of researching and recording information about peoples
who did not share their culture as are modern social anthropolo­
gists. The way in which peoples are identified in Athenian and
Roman literature, and the way in which they would themselves
have described their ethnic identity will not necessarily match
exactly. Nevertheless, as we have seen in preceding chapters,
accounts of 'other peoples' in Hellenistic Italy are rarely complete
inventions, but rather 'ways of seeing' through the cultural grid of the
society observing them.
Moreover, amongst ancient cultures which do not have a substantial
surviving literature of their own, peoples of the Central Apennines are
in certain ways more privileged, and more eloquent about questions of
identity, than are some. For example, a large number of coins
circulated amongst the allies during the Social War advertise notions
of collective identity which the allies were clearly expected to share,
such as, most commonly, the name Italia, written in Latin or in Oscan.
Obviously this kind of information is in some ways very much more
tantalizing than a literary account, and is likely to be open to even
more interpretations than are many literary passages, but at least the
existence of such material means that questions are worth asking, and
have a specific starting-point. Furthermore, Rome's unusual tendency,
when compared with Greek poleis, to incorporate peoples first within
her army, and later within her citizen body, and within her social and
political élite, may at some points mean that we are given compara­
tively substantial information about what Italian peoples thought
about themselves, and how they defined their actions, in contrast
with peoples conquered or encountered by Athenians. After all, to
some extent, the history of the Samnites or Marsi was to become the
history of Rome from the Late Republic onwards, with profound
consequences for the construction of the past.
In later sections of this chapter, I shall examine closely ways in
which peoples of the Central Apennines expressed their ethnic iden­
tity, concentrating on their use of collective names and symbols, and
on myths of origins and interconnections which can be argued to have
been important to the peoples themselves in their own self-assertion.
Before doing this, however, it is necessary to examine and criticize
other ways in which ancient and modern scholars have sought to
categorize peoples of the Central Apennines.
178 Questions of Identity

1. ANCIENT AND MODERN CATEGORIES

(a) Ancient Ethnography and the Central Apennines

Once upon a time when the Latins, the Umbrians, the Ausonians and many
others were all called Tyrrhenians by the Greeks, because they were remote
places, and therefore knowledge of them was imprecise . . . (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus)5
Despite the fact that ancient authors at times show awareness of the
inadequacy of the information available to them, in modern scholar­
ship, appeal is still frequently made to ancient theories of the pre­
historic, primitive unity of peoples of the Central Apennines. This use
of ancient ethnography and myth may be used to interpret prehistoric
archaeological data, or to strengthen claims that a sense of ethnic
unity was important during the Social War. In the latter case, the
implication, put bluntly, is that, if the peoples of the Central Apen­
nines 'really' had a common origin, then such a sense of a common
origin would—more or less automatically—condition behaviour in
historical times. I will investigate this particular assumption in more
detail below. For the moment, however, it is clear that it is worth
beginning by examining ancient ethnographical sources, and asking
how valid it is to build modern theories on this kind of evidence.
As we have seen, an addition to the end of Hesiod's Theogony
constitutes some of the earliest written evidence for Greek mytholo­
gical genealogies for Italian peoples. 6 In this passage, Circe and
Odysseus are said to have produced Latinus and Agrios, kings of
the Tyrrhenians. This trio is very interesting: while Tyrrhenians and
Latinus obviously stand for historically known peoples (the Etruscans
and the Latins), Agrios presumably refers to any other non-Greek
peoples of Italy. 7 But we know of no Italian peoples who ever called
themselves Agrioi: Agrios is surely a coinage based on the Greek
adjective: nothing more than wildness and savagery personified.8 This
5 6
D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 29. 2. Hesiod, Theog. 1011-18.
7
Torelli, *Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica', 56-7, for discussion of Agrios, and of
Greek images of Italian peoples in general.
8
West, Hesiod, Theogony, 433, does not allow for the possibility that the Hesiodic
Agrios is related to other Agrioi, and is therefore not specific to Italy, but a generic Wild
Man. To argue, as he does, that a relationship between the Italian Agrios and e.g. the
Thracian Agrianes could only occur if the author were in an improbable state of
'enormous confusion' is to underestimate the fogginess of the ancient notion of the
margins of the world.
 Questions of Identity 179
likelihood is increased when one realizes that there were other sets of
agrioi in Greek thought, two of which supposedly lived in Thrace and
Ethiopia, suitably savage locations right out on the periphery of the
known world in classical times. 9 These Italian agrioi are surely also
figments of the Greek imagination, belonging to the days of early
Greek colonization, when Greeks had little interest in large tracts of
Italy, and particularly inland, mountainous Italy, which would initi­
ally have been comparatively remote from the Greek colonies of the
coast, and which had few material resources of obvious value to
exchange for precious Greek artefacts. 10 Etruscans and Latins are,
then, 'on the map', while the whole of the rest of Italy is uncertain and
uncivilized.
While the case of Agrios may be easily explained, ancient authors
also people central Italy with names that are not as etymologically
transparent, but which are none the less never attested as names by
which peoples ever called themselves. There is, for example, the case
of the Opici/Obsci/Osci (the names are apparently entirely inter­
changeable). 11 They are believed to be a prehistoric people, and are
first mentioned by Thucydides. He does not give any precise indica­
tion of what he imagines their territory to be, but merely attributes to
them the role of driving the Sicels out of Italy in remote prehistory.12
Elsewhere, they are said to inhabit Campania before the arrival of the
Etruscans, and Samnium before the arrival of the Samnite division of
the Sabine Sacred Spring. 13 The supposed occupation of such a vast
territory by a single tribe back in the mists of time before the Trojan
War and the arrival of civilization in Italy is incredible. 14 The fact that
the Opici/Obsci/Osci are also believed to have inhabited all the areas
9
For Ethiopian Agrioi, see Strabo 16. 4. 10 = 771 C; for Thracian Agriai or
Agrianesx see Steph. Byz. s.v.; Polyb. 18. 5. 8. For ancient notions of what went on
at the edge of the known world, see Hall, Inventing the Barbarian, 47-50; J. Romm,
The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (Princeton, 1992).
10
Torelli, 'Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica', 56-7, for the relationship between
economic advancement amongst Italian peoples and ethnographic precision in Greek
literature.
11
For the argument that Opici and Osci are falsely distinguished by Strabo, see
12
Frederiksen, Campania, 149-50 n. 16. 6. 2. 4.
13
Campania/western Italy: Ar. Pol. 1329b19, 'Opikoi*; Strabo 5. 3. 6 = 232 C,
4
'Osci*. Samnium: Strabo 5. 4. 3 = 242 C, Opikoi\
14
For the sake of comparison, the emergence of the so-called 'super-tribes* in Africa
must be understood within a specific, and complex social context of migration and
urbanization, which contributed to the widening of ethnic identities: M. M. Gordon,
'Towards a General Theory of Racial and Ethnic Group Relations*, in Glazer and
Moynihan, Ethnicity, 84 ff., 126.
i8o Questions of Identity
occupied by peoples referred to as 'Samnites' in ancient literary sources,
and speaking dialects classified by the ancients and by modern scholars
alike as 'Oscan'15 should also make us suspicious. The Opici/Obsci/
Osci are surely no more than a projection back into prehistory of the
observed situation in southern Italy after thefifthcentury occupation of
Campania and the South by Oscan-speaking peoples.
Historical names of peoples of the Central Apennines also crop up
in the accounts of the Greek geographers. As many of these passages
are hardly less problematic than ancient accounts of prehistoric
peoples and their migrations, it is worth dealing with these here,
too. In later Greek accounts, such as those of Dionysius of Halicar-
nassus and Strabo in the Augustan period, individual tribes, and even
some entirely inland peoples, such as the Marsi,16 are named, and
Strabo also mentions some settlements which he thinks may be called
cities amongst these peoples.17 Dionysius is interested mainly in
contrasting the barbaric tribes of central and southern Italy with their
conquerors, the civilized Romans of Greek descent.18 Strabo is rather
more generous to the peoples of the Central Apennines, although his
account of them obviously does not compare well with his detailed
accounts of the Greek cities of the south. It is clear that he has
absorbed Roman ideology concerning the moral and military prowess
of the peoples of the Central Apennines, and the fact that he locates
the various tribes along (Roman) roads may indicate that he has even
made some use of specifically Roman geographical source-material in
this section:19 after all, the Romans had more of a vested interest than
the Greeks ever did in having a clear idea of the individual territories

13
R. Coleman, The Central Italian Languages in the Period of Roman Expansion',
TCPS (1986), 100 ff., for the actual complexity involved in classifying central Italic
languages and the relationships between them. The possible relevance to questions of
'Oscan' identity of Osca in Spain is open to dispute: Salmon, Samnium, 319 n. 2.
16
Marsi: Strabo 5. 3. 9 = 237 C; D.H. Ant Rom. 1. 89.
17
Strabo 5. 4. 2 = 241 C for cities amongst the Vestini, Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini,
and Frentani. Strabo 5. 3. 1 = 228 C for the few remaining cities amongst the Sabines.
Strabo 5. 4. 11 = 249-50 C for Samnite villages which were once cities.
18
D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 89 for Rome as a Greek city, in contrast with the barbarous
hordes of Opici, Marsi, Samnites, Tyrrhenians, Bruttians, Umbrians, Ligurians, Iber­
ians, and Gauls incorporated into her citizenship.
19
Strabo 5. 4. 2 = 241 C for the bravery of Vestini, Marsi, Paeligni, Marrucini, and
Frentani. For the location of tribes along Roman roads, see e.g. 5. 3. 11 = 238 C for the
Via Valeria.
 Questions of Identity 181
20
of their various tribes. Strabo's account of the Samnites is compara­
tively detailed, in contrast with his treatment of other tribes of the
Central Apennines such as the Marsi: his is the longest account we
have of the original Sacred Spring in which the Sabines/Samnites
arrive in Samnium, and he also has some ethnographical material
which does not appear elsewhere.21 He clearly had access to accounts
which were sympathetic towards the Samnites: as a result of their
dealings between Tarentum and the Samnites in the second half of the
fourth century BC, the Greek world had had occasion to take a keen
interest in Samnites.22
Earlier geographers give us a very much less detailed picture of
central and southern Italy than do either Dionysius or Strabo. Of
fourth-century geographers, Philistus of Syracuse apparently wrote
that 'Samnites' inhabited Tyrseta and Mystia.23 The former settle­
ment cannot be identified, while the latter is said by the Elder Pliny to
be in Bruttium.24 Pseudo-Scylax wrote that 'Daunitai* occupied a
broad band of territory between the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic
Seas: the text is conventionally emended to 'Saunitai'.25 On Sal­
mon's calculation of the length of coast occupied by these Saunitai/
Daunitai, indicated by Pseudo-Scylax as the length of time it takes to
sail past them on either coast, they would occupy at least the
territories of the following historical tribes: Picentini, Pentii, Fren-
tani, Paeligni, Marmcini, Marsi, Vestini.26 In the fourth century other
candidates were also favoured for the occupation of central eastern
Italy: according to Eudoxus of Cnidus, the territory between the
Ombrikoi and

20
See D. Musti, 'La nozione storica dei Sanniti nelle fonti greche e romane*, in
Sannio (1984), 71 ff., for an interesting discussion of the related theme of the differ­
ences between Greek and Roman accounts of Samnite tribes. The ideological impor­
tance of the Roman 'divide and conquer* mentality which surely lies behind Roman
geographical precision is usefully discussed by Salmon, Samnium, 46-8.
2
Strabo 5.4. 12 = 250 C for the Sacred Spring, Pitanates amongst the Samnites, and
22
Samnite wedding customs. Cf. Ch. 1, s. 3 above.
23
Philistus ap. Steph. Byz. s.w. 4Mystia\ 'Tyrseta*. 24
NH 3. 95.
23
Periplus 11. 15. The text as it stands reads Daunitai rather than Saunitai, and this^
point is much discussed. Although Salmon, Samnium, 40 n. 4 is eager to emend the text,
Musti, 4La nozione storica', 78, suggests that the reading Daunitai should be preserved,
and that the author is evoking an affinity between the Samnites and the Daunian world,
to the advantage of the Samnites.
26
Salmon, Samnium, 40; but see his note of uncertainty in nn. 5 and 6 on the same
page.
l82 Questions of Identity
Iapygia was occupied by Phelessaioi, an ethnic which might con­
ceivably be a corrupt form of the name of an historical people, 28 if it
is not entirely his own invention.
Three distinct phases may be identified within these early Greek
accounts of the peoples of the Central Apennines. These phases surely
reflect primarily the level of Greek interest in these peoples, and
cannot legitimately be used as the starting-point for a study of the
ethnic identity of the peoples themselves. At the first stage, repre­
sented by the name Agrios, the level of interest seems very low
indeed: Italy is inhabited by Latins and Tyrrhenians, and an amor­
phous mass of Wild Men. At the second stage, represented by the
name Opikos, some attempt has been made at coining an ethnic to
describe a group which is perceived to share common characteristics,
such as language. While these Opikoi indicate a clear interest in the
re-creation of the prehistory of the non-Greek peoples of central and
southern Italy amongst the Greek world, they seem too obviously a
projection back of the perceived contemporary situation to be of any
use at all in the reconstruction of actual prehistoric ethnic identity.
The first appearances of more precise names for the peoples of central
eastern Italy in the fourth century BC are unlikely to be accidental. For
one thing, the Samnites were of obvious political and military
importance to both Greeks in the later fourth century BC and Romans
during the Samnite Weirs of the fourth to third centuries BC. For
another thing, it seems that Syracusans first established the colony
of Ancona on the coast of Picenum at some point during the first few
decades of the fourth century. 29 With established colonies in the
Adriatic, Greeks are likely to have had very much more direct deal­
ings with central eastern Italians than ever before. 30 Obviously,
difficulties remain with material of this period: for one thing, authors
do not agree about the names they attribute; for another thing, Greek
27
Eudoxus of Cnidus, Periplus F 319: <J>eXecmaîoi Èdvoç öpopov xoXç 'Opßpiicoic npôç
xfi'Iaftvylc, <bç EOôoÇoç ÌKTQ ('The Phelessaioi. A people neighbouring the Ombrikoi
close to Iapygia, as Eudoxus says in his sixth book*).
28
Van Wonterghem, Superaequunt, Corfiniutru Sulmo, 23 identifies Paeligni with
Phelessaioi; this identification is clearly not certain: Faliscans or Telasgians* are at
least as likely candidates.
29
For the establishment of Ancona, see Strabo 5. 4. 2 = 241 C.
30
The importance of Tarentum in the spread of Greek culture in eastern Italy should
probably not, however, be underestimated even in the case of tribes further to the north,
such as Paeligni and M arsi. See Letta, / Marsi, 69, for discussion of Ve. 224, [i Joui es.
puclefsj = ioviis pue ris, as evidence of the diffusion of a specifically Tarentine, rather
than Roman, version of the Dioscuri cult.
 Questions of Identity 183
authors may use a historical ethnic which was actually used by people
to describe themselves, such as 'Samnite*, to describe people who did
not refer to themselves in this way. Parallels may be seen in the
modern Anglo-American use of terms such as 'Chinese1.31 Where
other evidence is lacking, it will have to remain a possibility that it
is precisely this phenomenon which we can observe in the case of
these Greek geographers. I will, however, argue below that it is
entirely possible that the name 'Samnite' had a geographically
extensive sense within a fourth-century context.

(b) Myths of Origin

A subgroup within ancient ethnographical treatments is an account of
the origins of a people, generally in the Mediterranean world set
within the tradition of wandering heroes, particularly in the aftermath
of the Trojan War. Accounts of the origins of peoples of the Central
Apennines given within Greek and Latin literature are comparatively
numerous and varied. The majority of accounts are given by authors
of the Late Republican period, although some fragments of Cato's
Origines and of Gnaeus Gellius are also concerned with accounts of
origins of peoples of the Central Apennines. 32 Within this chapter, as
elsewhere in this book, close analysis of particular accounts will take
into account questions about specific authors, and the social and
cultural context within which they were writing, although it is well
worth noting here that there is no observable pattern of preference for
particular kinds of myth on the basis of the times when these authors
were writing. This is perhaps not surprising when one takes into
account the prevalently antiquarian nature of this material. In the
course of this chapter, I shall suggest plausible ideological contexts
for the assertion of individual myths of origins. For the moment,
however, I shall take a synchronic view of myths of origins, to
emphasize their variety.
One group of accounts of the origins of peoples of the Central
Apennines is very much within the tradition of foundations by
individual wandering heroes. Thus, for example, according to a
version found in Servius' commentary on the Aeneid, various Sam-
31
For interesting examples of this phenomenon in north-west Ontario, Canada, see
Banton, Racial Consciousness, 3.
32
Cato Orig. 2. 21-3 (Chass.); Cn. Gell. fr. 8 P. = Pliny NH 3. 108;fr.9 P. = Solin. 2.
28; fr. 10 P. = Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 638.
184 Questions of Identity
nite towns were founded by Diomedes. 33 Festus has a version of the
origins of the Paeligni within which their forefather, Volsimius, came
from Illyricum; his grandson Pelicus became the eponymous ancestor
of the Paeligni, 34 very much within the tradition of Hellenistic taste
for etymologies of this kind. Then again, there is a group of traditions
linking peoples of the Central Apennines up with Sparta, which I have
discussed within the context of Samnite-Tarentine ideology of the
later fourth century BC. Thus, according to Strabo, 'some say' that the
Samnites were joined by Laconian colonists, and that some Samnites
were actually called Pitanates.35 Servius' version, whereby the Sam­
nites are descended from Persians, is surely based on the same kind of
idea, Persians being originally austere, before their corruption by the
possession and enjoyment of empire. 36 As we have also seen, Cato
apparently had a story whereby the Sabines were descended from
Lacedaemonian Sabus. 37
Another group of myths locates the origins of peoples of the Central
Apennines within Italy. Thus, Cato's alternative version of Sabine
origins has them descended from Sabinus, son of Sancus, otherwise
known as Dius Fidius. While this version might have had for Cato
special overtones of Sabine piety, one might compare the 'indigen­
ous' version of the origins of Rome, which of course involves the
fatherhood of Mars. 38 Other myths interestingly emphasize connec­
tions between the origins of various peoples of the Central Apennines.
Thus, for example, Cato has a version of the naming of the Marrucini,
whereby they will take their name from either Marsus or Paelignus:
the Marsic individual or the Paelignian individual—or even, perhaps,
an eponymous 'Marsus' or 'Paelignus', depending on who kills an
enemy first:

Marsus hostem occidit prius quam Paelignus, propterea Marrucini vocantur,

de Marso detorsum nomen.
Marsus killed his enemy before Paelignus, and on this account the Marrucini
are so called, their name a corruption of Marsus.39
33
Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 9. ^ Festus p. 248 L. s.v. Peligni.
35
Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C; cf. Ch. 1, s. 3 above.
36
Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 638; cf. Herod. 9. 122,1. 71; Plato Laws 695a; Arrian An.
5. 4. 5.
37
Cato Orig. 2. 22 = Cn. Gell. fr. 10 P. = Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 638; cf. Ch. 2, s. 4
above.
38
Cato Orig. 2. 21 (Chass.) = D.H. Ant. Rom. 2. 49. 2; cf. Ch. 2, s. 5 above.
39
Cato Orig. 2. 23 = Priscianus Gramm. 9, pp. 487 ff.
 Questions of Identity 185
Finally, there is the myth of the Sacred Spring, or, rather, the myths of
the Sacred Springs, as there are a number of different versions,
involving different peoples. These 'Sacred Springs' are quite unlike
Sacred Springs within the Roman tradition, a ritual dedication in
times of crisis of fruits and animals born one spring.40 'Sacred
Springs' reputedly sent out by Sabines and Samnites involve men,
sent out in expeditions, sometimes led by an animal. 'Sacred Springs'
of this kind become, therefore, accounts of origins of a distinctive
kind, involving neither wandering heroes, nor even named eponymous
heroes of any kind. One of the fullest versions is found in Strabo,
when he is discussing various versions of Samnite origins:
The Sabini, since they had been fighting the Ombrikoi for a long time, vowed,
just as some of the Greeks do, to dedicate everything produced that year, and
when they had had their victory, they sacrificed some of the things produced,
and dedicated the rest; but when a famine followed, someone said that they
should have dedicated the children as well. So they did this, and dedicated to
Ares the children born that year, and when they grew up, they sent them off as
colonists, and a bull led their way; when the bull lay down in the land of the
Opikoi (who happened to be living in villages), they [the Sabini] threw them
out and settled there, and sacrificed the bull to Ares who had given him as a
guide, on the instructions of the prophets. It is reasonable on this account that
their name 'Sabelli' should be explained as a diminutive form of their
ancestors' name, while the Samnites, whom the Greeks call Saunitai, are
so-called for a different reason.41
The origin of the Picentes is also attributed by Strabo to a Sacred
Spring sent out by the Sabines. The Picentes followed, very suitably, a
picus, or woodpecker. This version is found also in Pliny the Elder. 42
Strabo also gives to the Hirpini an animal leader, a wolf, or 'hirpus, as
the Samnites call a wolf. 4 3 In the Fasti, Ovid attributes Sabine
origins to the Paeligni, and says that the Sabines and Paeligni
together consider the fourth month of the year to be that of Mars:
he does not mention directly a Sacred Spring or an animal leader. 44 In
Festus, who claims to be using an account by Alfius, in the first book
of his Carthaginian War, the Mamertini too are attributed origins in a
Sacred Spring sent out by the Samnites. This is a highly interesting
version, as Apollo has partially displaced Mars/Ares as the god
40
Salmon, Samnium, 35.
41
Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C. Loeb translation, with adaptations.
42 43
Ibid. 5. 4. 2 = 240 C; cf. Pliny NH 3. 110. 5. 4. 12 = 250 C.
44
Fasti 3. 9 5 - 6 .
i86 Questions of Identity
associated with the Sacred Spring, and as there are other motifs, such
as the plague, which strongly suggest a version heavily influenced by
ideology of Greek cities of southern Italy:

The Mamertini are so-called for this reason: when a serious plague fell on the
whole of Samnium, Sthenius Mettius, the leader of the Samnite people, called
a meeting of the people, and explained that he had dreamed of Apollo, who
advised him that, if they wanted to be rid of this plague, they should dedicate
a Sacred Spring, that is, that they should offer to him whatever was born in the
next spring; they did this and were relieved, but then after the twentieth year a
plague of the same kind struck them again. Once again, Apollo was consulted
and made his reply, saying that their vow had not been completed, because the
men had not been offered: if they drove them out, then certainly they would
be free of this calamity. So those who were ordered to do so left their
homeland, and, when they had settled in the part of Sicily which is now
called Tauricana, they came without being asked to the aid of the Messanians,
who happened to be hard pressed in the early stages of a war, and thereby
freed the people of that place: in return for this service, to repay them, the
Messanians invited them into their citizen-body, and to share land in common
with them, and together they took on a single name, so that they were called
Mamertini, because when they had put into their lottery the names of the
twelve gods, Mamers was the name that chanced to fall out: this is the name
for Mars in the language of the Osci. Alfìus is the author of this story in the
first book of his Carthaginian War.'45

These, then, are the different types of myths of origins concerning

peoples of the Central Apennines. For many, a reasonable case can be
made that they represent local self-definition, as well as playing their
part within Greek and Roman perceptions of them. Before moving on
to discuss modern treatments of origins and prehistory, I would want
once again to emphasize the diversity of these myths, as well as their
complexity, often forgotten in modern treatments, when one myth is
selected out and chosen as a description of a factual occurrence.

2. MODERN CATEGORIES

An archaeological culture is not a racial group, nor a historical tribe, nor a

linguistic unit, it is simply an archaeological culture.46
43
Festus p. 150 L. s.v. Mamertini.
46
D. L. Clarke, Analytical Archaeology (London, 1968), 13.
 Questions of Identity 187
Modern scholars do not now use categories such as agrioi or Abor­
igines to describe prehistoric peoples of Italy, nor is it felt to be valid
to write about the culture of the Opici, although Salmon is still
content to make judgements about the probability that 'the language
of the Opici resembled that of the Samnites, and that they were an
earlier group of related immigrants who had made their way into
southern Italy'.47 Most recently, however, archaeologists' and philol­
ogists' names for culture- and language-systems respectively have
supplanted Opici and the like. These names are often in themselves
less loaded with ethnic implications than were the names used in
ancient times, although, as we shall see, these too can assume ethnic
connotations in the hands of modern scholars.48 Most successful of all
are names which are used to describe cultures with defined time-
spans, but which suggest primarily simply geographical position,
such as 'Apenninic' or 'Central Adriatic'. More questionable are
the pseudo-scientific names which are based—and rather broadly at
that—on ancient names, such as 'Protosabellic'. Such names are
methodologically dubious, and far too suggestive of specific ethnic
identities which are not justified. 'Protosabellic' is doubly dubious, as
it is based on an ethnic—Sabellus—which is likely to have been a
comparatively late Roman invention.49
The real problem is that even very recent modern literature is full of
assumptions that culture- or language-systems may simply be equated
with tribal groups or broader ethnic affinities. A popular theme in
modern archaeological and linguistic accounts of the prehistory and
history of the Central Apennines is that of invasion. When culture or
language changes in this area—or when it is believed to change—this
phenomenon is assumed to signify a change in personnel, with, in rather
more sophisticated accounts of this kind, the original inhabitants remain­
ing in the area, but within a very much less active substratum.50 Different
47
Salmon, Samnium, 29.
48
For criticism of this tendency, see D. Ridgway, * Italy from the Bronze Age to the
Iron Age*, in CAH(2) iv. (1988), 623 ff., 641.
49
See Salmon, Samnium, 33 for very stretched usage of Sabellus and insistence on
using the modern coinages 'Sabellic' and 'Sabellian', despite awareness that this is 'not
demonstrably in conformity with ancient usage'. The fact that the practice of extending
the sense of Sabellus and its modern variations beyond ancient usage, in which it is
restricted to Sabines and Samnites "has in fact become so widespread as to be normal*
(33) is not an argument for continuing to use it thus.
50
See e.g. Ridgway, 'Italy from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age', 623 ff. for
criticism of the application of invasion hypotheses to Villanovan and Etruscan cultures.
i88 Questions of Identity
'waves' are favoured according to the culture- or language-system in
which various scholars are interested, or according to which culture- or
language-system is in vogue at the time, but the tendency remains
strikingly similar, and is, at times, analogous to the world-view of the
ancients. Some modern scholars are more explicit in their recognition of
this similarity than are others, and will take ancient myths as the starting-
point for their interpretation of the archaeological or linguistic record.
Some examples are needed. A number of the oldest modern
reconstructions are based on a notion of the arrival of Indo-Eur-
opeans in Italy, a process which can include the maintenance of a
pre-Indo-European substratum.51 Such reconstructions are often based
on the linguistic study of place-names, a kind of study which can be
hazardous. 52 But trouble really begins when the rather abstract—and
potentially helpful—notion of Indo-European is subtly transformed
into a more or less defined group of people called Indo-Europeans,
who originated in a certain zone. When this happens, we basically
have something very similar to the ideas of the primitive ethnic
unities which were familiar in ancient thought, some coming with
their own eponymous founders, or at least named leaders from over­
seas, and others consisting of amorphous tribes filling in the gaps
between such honoured groups. 53
Invasion theories have also been very closely related to culture-
systems identified more recently than Indo-European. These more
tangible culture- or language-systems have been frequently linked
up with the Sacred Spring myths concerning the origins of central
Italian peoples such as Picentes, Samnites, and Paeligni, and certainly
the Strabonian version of the origins of the Samnites is a model for
their interpretation in these modern accounts: a succession of person­
nel, from the prehistoric and amorphous Opici to the named, historical
tribes of this region, is the pivotal point in these interpretations.
Amongst cultures identified more recently is the 'Central Adriatic'
31
See e.g. Salmon, Samnium, 34, for the idea of 'persistent infiltration by groups of
Indo-European-speaking pastoral warrior nomads who already in the prehistoric period
had mingled, no doubt violently, with the 'aboriginals' into whose midst they had
penetrated*. Cf. J. P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans (London, 1989),
especially ch. 8, pp. 222 ff., 4Indo-European Expansions'.
52
See D. Silvestri, 'Identificazione e interpretazione linguistiche di etnici e topo­
nimi dell'Italia antica', AION(Ling.) 4 (1982), 65 ff., 70, for useful remarks on the
difficulties associated with attempts to distinguish between Indo-European and non-
Indo-European.
33
Pallottino, Earliest Italy* 25-33 for a summary and criticism of this approach.
 Questions of Identity 189
archaeological culture. This rich culture, fine examples of which can
be seen in the Museo Nazionale di Antichità in Chieti, is characterized
by inhumation in tombs, sometimes in stone circles, with grave-goods
consisting of arms, vases, bronze and amber ornaments and geometric
figurines: a culture that shows abundant signs of interaction with
Greek, Etruscan, and other Mediterranean cultures. 54 This archaeolo­
gical culture has been identified over quite a large area of eastern Italy
(on the coast alone, from Ancona to Pescara, and possibly some way
beyond), over several centuries, peaking in the sixth century BC.
Contacts with other parts of the Mediterranean apparently start to
diminish during the course of the sixth century.55 According to
Cianfarani, who made an extensive and highly influential study of
Central Adriatic culture, a 'Sabellic' element arrived in the Central
Adriatic world during the course of the sixth century BC. This is
argued on the basis of an apparent 'fall off in material culture and
Mediterranean connections in the area at around this time. 56 Even
before the archaeological data is examined more closely, and other
reasons are put forward to account for any such 'fall off, this theory
immediately begs questions about how it is possible to account for a
specific phenomenon of cultural change by referring to the lack of
cultural sophistication of an 'element' about which we know nothing
before its sixth century 'arrival' in this area. Appeal is presumably
being made here to ideas of the rough and ready Samnites who are
familiar to us from Latin literature, but it is hardly sound methodology
to use ideologically-laden texts from the first century BC 57 to interpret
archaic archaeological data. In Cianfarani's account, the Sacred
Spring myths concerning central Italian peoples dramatize the arrival
of this 'Sabellian' element. 58
Perhaps the least helpful application of the Sacred Spring myths to
54
Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche.
55
Pallottino, Genti e culture dell'Italia preromana (Rome, 1981), 88-9.
56
Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche, 61, 'Superati gli anni difficili, nessuna circostanza
locale valse qui a suscitare quella ripresa della quale, sia pure in un mutato clima
culturale, fruirono le Marche, sicché le tribù sabelliche ebbero agio di imporre
definitivamente agli indigeni la rudezza dei loro costumi montanari* ('When the
difficult years were over, no local condition was enough to bring about a revival of
what the Marche enjoyed, whether simply because of a changed cultural climate, or
rather because the Sabellic tribes now had the opportunity to bring in definitively to the
indigenous peoples the rough-and-ready nature of their mountain ways.*)
See e.g. Livy 9. 13. 7; cf. Salmon, Samnium, 50 ff., for reconstruction of Samnite
society on the basis of passages such as this.
58
Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche, 55 ff.
I90 Questions of Identity
archaeological evidence is that of Grossi, who interprets archaeolo­
gical data in the Marsic region by reference to the arrival here of an
4
Umbro-Sabellic, element in a Sacred Spring, supplanting an earlier
population. Now, for a start, there is nothing in ancient literature to
suggest that the Marsi were traditionally one of the peoples sent out
by the Sabines in a Sacred Spring. It has been argued that their name
is based on the name Mars, and that, as Mars is the god to whom
Sacred Springs are originally dedicated, then the Marsi must, like
other tribes, have had a place in this myth.59 This argument is
questionable, and it has to be emphasized that there is no sign of
this version even in the literature of the early Imperial period, when
there is a substantial level of interest in the Italian *heritage* of Rome.
Grossi, however, goes on to look for signs of the arrival of 'migrated'
elements within his chosen archaeological landscape. This investiga­
tion is remarkably unsuccessful, but Grossi continues to assert that the
arrival of 'Umbro-Sabellic' groups in the Fucine area 'must have'
brought with them innovations; unfortunately, we do not know what
they were. He is reduced to pointing to myths localized in the Marsic
area which refer to, for example, the lost city of Archippe, which
surely cannot by themselves be interpreted as certain evidence for a
lost civilization later supplanted by new arrivals.60
It is, however, in accounts based largely or exclusively on linguistic
and textual data that some of the most sweeping conclusions about
ethnic identity are found. Most recently of all, and, as we shall see,
very misleadingly, there has been talk of a 'Safin- culture', which has
also been linked up with Sacred Spring myths.61 This 'Safin- culture'
(or even, in some modern accounts, 'Safin- community'62 has been
based largely on the discovery of written texts dating mainly (but not
exclusively) to the sixth to fifth centuries BC within eastern Italy,
39
Letta, / Marsi, 26 asserts: 'innanzi tutto recorderemo il nome stesso dei Marsi,
derivato con certezza dal nome di Marte, il dio di ogni ver sacrum9 ('above all we shall
recall the very name of the Marsi, derived with certainty from the name of Mars, the god
of each ver sacrum*). If this is so certain, it seems rather strange that no ancient source
that we have makes the connection, although the connection with Marsyas is made
frequently.
G. Grossi, Il territorio del Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo dell'antichità (Civitella
Alfedena, 1988). 124-5.
61
I use the form 'safin-' throughout, because we have no surviving example of the
use of this ethnic in the nominative. The nominative plural would probably have been
*safineis.
*2 Grossi, // territorio, 65 ff., 'Il territorio del parco nel quadro della civiltà satina
X-IV a . C
 Questions of Identity 191
found within the area of historical southern Picenum, as well as in
the historical territories of the Vestini, Paeligni, and Marrucini. The
language of these texts is conventionally referred to as 'south Picene',
and the areas where texts have been found correspond broadly with
the areas covered by Central Adriatic culture. Affinities have also
been argued to exist between the language of these texts and that of
texts discovered in the Sabine and Campanian areas. 63
Most recently, and most suggestively of all, Morandi, and, with
rather greater caution, Marinetti, have sought to establish links
between South Picene texts and the text of the 'Cures pillar', dis­
covered in a river-bed to the north of the ancient site of Cures by
Giorgio Filippi in April 1982, and still very largely undeciphered
(and, it should be admitted, largely illegible as well). Morandi, who
published the text of the Cures cippus in 1983, came to some rather
hasty conclusions about its linguistic context, and, indeed, about
relationships between South Picene texts in general. He suggested
that the alphabet and language of the Cures cippus and South Picene
texts were 'absolutely identical', an over-confident conclusion to
make about an inscription which has been so badly eroded by
water. He also suggested the importance of links between the South
Picene texts and the archaic text from Poggio Sommavilla in the Tiber
Valley, suggesting the existence of a common language shared by
peoples 'from the Tiber to the shores of the Adriatic'. Nor, in fact, did
he stop at the Tiber. Having pointed to links also between the Cures
inscription and archaic (i.e. pre-Oscan) texts from Campanian Nocera
Inferior and Vico Equense, he concluded by making assertions about
the 'common stock' of the peoples of all areas linked in his argument,
and about their 'remote cultural unity'. Morandi's interest in inscrip­
tions from the historical area of Campania is directed towards
'proving' the tradition of Sabine involvement in the early history of
Rome: his argument is, presumably, that, if one can find Sabines in
Campania, then they must have gone via Rome to get there; this is
hardly satisfactory. 64 Morandi's conclusion brings him close to
ancient beliefs about the existence of the Opici in their most exten­
sive manifestation, stretching from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic.
63
For detailed discussion of this subject, see e.g. A. Marinetti, 'D sudpiceno come
italico: nota preliminare', St. Etr. 49 (1981), 113 ff.; A.-Morandi, 'Iscrizione sabina
arcaica nel territorio di Cures', St. Etr. 51 (1983), 595 ff.; Prosdocimi, *La lingua*, 41
satini', 'Sabinità'; Cristofani Martelli, 'Poggio Sommavilla'.
64
Morandi, 'Iscrizione sabina arcaica'.
192 Questions of Identity
The 'Safin-' label used by other scholars to refer to a territory as
extensive as that described by Morandi is derived from a sub-group of
South Picene texts concentrated exclusively around Penna Sant'An­
drea (a site located near the modern Abruzzese town of Teramo,
within the area of southern Picenum in Roman times) which contain
the word safin- in formulas translated as 'the Safin- people', and
'leading men of the Safin-', which have, not unreasonably, led to its
interpretation as an ethnic.65 The strong possibility of connections
between the south Picene safin-, the historical people known in Latin
as Sabini, and the Oscan reference to safinim in a mid-second century
Be inscription from Temple A in Pietrabbondante (in the territory of
the Pentrian Samnites in historical times), has caused great excitement
amongst modern scholars.66
Excitement about these new discoveries is certainly justified, but
the problems associated with interpreting this new data are formid­
able. I will discuss them in detail in the next section, paying particular
attention to problems of identifying Sabini, Samnites, and safin-, but,
for the moment, it is worth pointing to some of the dangers associated
with the application of the 'Safin-' label in modern scholarship. Too
often, this material has been taken as 'proof of the Sacred Spring
myths. It is interesting that, in fact, a variety of phenomena are taken
as 'proof of these myths, emphasizing in fact that these myths are
more complex and more open-ended than one might assume from the
individual accounts of certain archaeologists and philologists.
According to one view, the geographical distribution of the South
Picene texts 'proves' the primitive unity of the people in these areas,
and this primitive unity is the main element pulled out of the Sacred
Spring myths. Once upon a time, according to this particular recon­
struction, all the areas where South Picene texts have been found were
inhabited by people who called themselves safin-, thus 'proving' the
blood relationship implied by the Sacred Spring myths.67 In fact,
according to a few modern scholars, 'Safin-' inhabited also areas
where South Picene texts have not been found, and in which Central
Adriatic culture is not clearly represented, such as in the territory
historically inhabited by the Marsi. This is argued by Grossi on the
basis of a single element, a type of sword widely distributed in archaic
65
For transcription of these texts, see Appendix A; for sketches of the monuments,
see Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo, Molise, 325 ff.
66
Marinetti, 'Il sudpiceno*; Prosdocimi, 'Sabinità*.
67
See esp. Morandi, 'Iscrizione sabina arcaica'.
 Questions of Identity 193
68
eastern Italy. This indiscriminate use of the 'Safin-' label is
alarming.
According to another view, the Sacred Spring myths are to be
related to the time when this 'Safin-* unity 'disappears', when South
Picene is 'replaced' by the 'minor dialects' of Osco-Umbrian lan­
guages. In its most simplistic form, the argument runs that, at this
time, Osco-Umbrian speakers arrive in their individual areas in their
Sacred Spring, supplanting the speakers of South Picene.69 This
particular theory relies heavily on the belief that there is a consider­
able gap—a real breach—between the latest South Picene texts and
the earliest appearance of the minor dialects. This type of argument is
by now familiar from the other examples of it cited above, and is built
on the presumption that changes in culture- or language-systems can
be equated with changes in personnel. It has obvious affinities with
the phenomenon known familiarly to archaeologists interested in
trade and settlement in the ancient Mediterranean as the 'pots-
equal-people ' fallacy.70

3. QUESTIONING TRADITIONAL THEORIES

The arguments which I have outlined above all rely heavily on the
identification of definite discontinuity in culture- or language-sys­
tems. In some cases, it may even be supposed that scholars set out
deliberately to look for evidence of discontinuity and to find it at all
costs, in order to support the conventional interpretation of the Sacred
Spring myth as a dramatization of the invasion of eastern Italy by
people culturally distinct from the indigenous inhabitants, and of the
cultural/blood relationship between Sabines and other peoples of the
Central Apennines, Samnites in particular. Much emphasis has there­
fore been placed on the identification of common cultural and linguis­
tic elements shared between these peoples. Not so long ago, scholars
concentrated on Varronian glosses of Sabinisms, and on reconstruct­
ing the process by which an original Indo-European ethnic became
68
Grossi, // territorio, esp. 89.
69
See esp. Cianfarani, Culture adriatiche, 55 ff.
70
For criticism of this approach, see La Regina, /Entità etniche*, 129-30; most
recently, A. J. Graham, 4Pre-colonial Contacts: Questions and Problems*, in Des-
coeudres, Greek Colonists, 45 ff., 50; cf. 58—9. For the assumed equation of language
with people, see esp. Salmon, Samnium, 343—4.
194 Questions of Identity
represented in different periods and in different languages as Sabines,
safinim, and Samnites.71 Lately, studies of archaeological material
and of South Picene texts have played a much greater part in these
studies. Very recently, however, doubts have been raised by a number
of scholars about whether the archaeological and linguistic evidence
can be used to support the hypothesis of cultural discontinuity in the
Central Apennines, and also about whether the Sacred Spring myths
must necessarily be interpreted in this literal fashion. Moreover, there
is, in general, growing dissatisfaction with the use of invasion theories
as explanation for cultural change. In addition, doubts have been
raised about some of the primitive unities which have been popular
in recent decades. The identification of culture- and language-systems
such as Central Adriatic and South Picene are very suggestive in the
context of early Greek perceptions of homogeneous masses, but they
cannot necessarily be used to argue that the peoples themselves
considered themselves to be part of a broad group, and privileged
such affinity over their sense of membership to a smaller, more local
group.
I shall now outline some of the main arguments against the
traditional reading of the archaeological and linguistic evidence.
There are, for a start, profound difficulties associated with demon­
strating that Sabinum was the point from which the hypothetical
invasion radiated outwards, at some time during the archaic period.
The problem, which has been familiar for some time to those working
on the origins of Rome, is that it is very hard indeed to identify
distinctive cultural features of Sabinum during this period.72 Such
features are quite remarkably few and far between. Given this
difficulty, it would be unreasonable to expect that we could trace
the hypothetical invasion of Sabine elements into the Central Apen­
nines. The archaeological map—and, indeed, the geographical and
historical map—of Sabinum is highly complex, and there are in fact
several distinct, but interconnected, archaeological regions of Sabi­
num.73 Considering only the broadest differences, one might begin by
contrasting archaic tombs from Poggio Sommavilla with those from
71
See Salmon, Samnium, 321 n. 1: 'Varro (L.L. VII, 28) obviously thought that the
Sabine and Samnite languages were related; and although he probably could not speak
either tongue, he must have had some grounds for his opinion'.
72
See e.g. Poucet, Les Origines, e.g. 65 ff., 116 ff.
73
See, in general, e.g. Cristofani Martelli, 'Poggio Sommavilla'; cf. Firmani,
'Panorama archeologico sabino*.
 Questions of Identity 195
Terni, Santa Anatolia di Narco, and Monteleone di Spoleto. In general
terms, tomb-types from Tiberine' Sabinum, tombe a camera appar­
ently grouped together close to the inhabited centre, have closest
affinities with those in the neighbouring Falisco-Capenate territory
in the same period. One well-known example is represented by the
burial complex at Poggio Sommavilla, which is used largely between
the seventh and fourth centuries BC. 7 4 Tomb-types from parts of
Sabinum further to the east, tombe a fossa in apparently isolated
situations, such as those found at Terni, Santa Anatolia di Narco
and Monteleone di Spoleto, have greater affinities with those from
Picenum in the same period.75
Nevertheless, similarly shaped pottery and similar painting reper­
tories can be identified within Sabinum and within Picenum. 76 How­
ever, we should be very wary about assuming that such evidence can
be used to confirm the Sacred Spring myth, by 'proving' the 'common
stock' of these areas. For one thing, the designs do not seem to
originate in Tiberine Sabinum, but in the Faliscan and southern
Etrurian areas. 77 For another thing, the manner in which the designs
are developed from region to region makes an invasion hypothesis the
least valid of the possible hypotheses. If invasion was the means by
which these designs spread, we should expect a sudden and rather
uniform change. 78 Moreover, once these ideas have come to Sabinum,
their development is by no means confined to those areas associated
with the Sacred Spring myths. They do not reach just Picenum, but
Umbria and Romagna as well. 7 9 This kind of evidence is very
interesting in that it suggests the importance of the Sabine territory
as a kind of artistic conduit for parts of eastern Italy, but it certainly
cannot 'prove* that the Sacred Spring myths are a simple description
of a series of migrations from the Sabine territory.
At the other end of the hypothetical invasion route, Iron Age and
archaic Samnium too are highly problematic for those seeking 'proof
of the Sacred Spring myths. Despite the valiant efforts of D'Agostino
to scrutinize and patch together unpromising pieces of isolated
information, some of which are now known only from the descrip­
tions left by the nineteenth-century antiquarian of the region, De
74 75
Cristofani Martelli, 'Poggio Sommavilla', 12-17. Ibid, 17.
76
Ibid 2 5 - 3 2 for calici a corolla cf. 4 2 - 6 for general conclusions regarding the
77
artistic position of Poggio Sommavilla. Ibid. 26-7; 3 0 - 1 .
78
ibid. 46 for caution regarding the relationship of the Sabines1 Sacred Spring to the
79
evidence from Poggio Sommavilla. Ibid. 29.
196 Questions of Identity
Nino, the picture of the area remains sketchy. It is, nevertheless, well
worth noting D'Agostino's cautious conclusions regarding inland
Molise. He tentatively suggests that we can 'catch a glimpse' of
cultural 'provinces' within Pentrian Samnium during this period. He
suggests that highland Molise, as represented by the sites of Capra-
cotta and Carovilli, gravitates towards Central Adriatic culture, with
some important local links with nearby Alfedena. Inland Pentrian
Samnium gravitates rather towards the Volturnus valley and Campa­
nia. 80 This tendency towards regionally on a small scale is worth
emphasizing, and, once again, raises serious questions about the
hypothetical invasion, a foreign people sweeping through from Sabi-
num to Samnium.
Recent, careful linguistic studies of South Picene texts tell the same
kind of story as do recent, careful archaeological studies of Iron Age
and archaic material from the region. Just as Sabinum's cultural
context is complex and confusing in the archaic period, so too is
her linguistic context during the same period. As we have seen,
Morandi emphasized homogeneity between, on the one hand, both
the Poggio Sommavilla text and the Cures cippus and, on the other
hand, South Picene texts from the eastern Adriatic region, not to
mention texts from the Campanian region, without making clear the
exact degree of linguistic similarity between them. In his desire to
see—and interpret—links between all these areas, he made light of
the difficulties associated with deciphering these texts, and did not
allow for alternative interpretations of any similarities which can in
fact be admitted between them. 81 Fortunately, over the last decade,
Marinetti and Prosdocimi have both made various more sophisticated
studies of these Sabine texts, and of South Picene and other, possibly
linguistically related, texts. The conclusions of these studies challenge
both Morandi's Sabine unity, and the Osco-Umbrian invasion theories
favoured by other scholars.
As Prosdocimi points out, alphabetically as well as culturally, there
is more than one Sabinum. 82 Morandi may be right to class the Cures
cippus alphabetically together with the South Picene texts, but studies
of the text are really at a too early stage to make a definitive
classification of either its alphabetic or its linguistic context. 83 How-
80
D* Agostino, Sannio (1980), 21 ff., 25.
81 82
Morandi, 'Iscrizione sabina arcaica". Prosdocimi, 'I satini', 52.
83
For caution regarding the Cures pillar, see ibid., 51.
 Questions of Identity 197
ever the Cures text turns out, there are signs of an entirely different
alphabetic tradition in the Sabine area, as represented by a text from
Poggio Sommavilla. It is, however, also well worth noting that studies
of this text too are at a very early stage. Morandi's sweeping conclu­
sions about this text's place in the identical language stretching from
coast to coast have little basis at this stage. Marinetti, whom Morandi
cites in his article, is very much more precise. Information relevant to
arguments about the linguistic context of the Poggio Sommavilla text
is as follows: final syncope in forms in -fs places it, she argues, within
the broad linguistic group of 'Italic'; two alphabetic signs in the
Poggio Sommavilla text suggest a common alphabetic model for
this text and for South Picene. 84 This is very different from Moran­
di's suggestion that the language and alphabet of the Cures cippus and
the South Picene texts are identical. 85 Marinetti's difficulties in
classifying the language of the Poggio Sommavilla inscription are
indicative of the depth of the problems associated with establishing its
linguistic context. The alternatives she suggests are Sabine, Proto-
sabine, and Italic. 86 As we do not yet know what Sabine was, and how
it fits in with other languages of central Italy, the first two categories
do not really take us very far. The third category, Italic, is, in this
context, really too vague to be useful. 87
Moving further afield, two signs which occur in Capenate inscrip­
tions used to be read as Etruscan signs, but make better sense if they
are read as South Picene signs. 88 As for the 'Protocampanian' inscrip­
tions of Nocera and Vico Equense eagerly fitted into Morandi's
scheme, these may use one alphabetic sign which is similar to one
used in South Picene texts. 89 Marinetti's cautious suggestions of
linguistic links between the Protocampanian, Sabine, Capenate, and
South Picene texts are tantalizing, but certainly cannot be used as
'proof of 'common roots', or even of 'common culture' in any useful
sense. 90
Nor can linguistic arguments be used to support the theory that the
Sacred Spring myth is a simple description of the invasion of Osco-
84
Marinetti, 'II sudpiceno', 124.
85
Morandi, 'Iscrizione sabina arcaica', esp. 602.
86
Marinetti, 'Il sudpiceno*, 123.
87
For 'Italic* as a category, variously defined, see Pallottino, Earliest Italy, 3 ff.; cf.
Salmon, Samnium, 33 and n. 4. Marinetti, *I1 sudpiceno', 124.
89
Ibid. 125.
90
Ibid. 128 for an extremely cautious conclusion, drawing attention to the very
limited state of solid knowledge at the moment.
198 Questions of Identity
Umbrian speakers into an area inhabited by people who spoke some
other 'indigenous* language, called Protosabellic by Devoto, 91 and
South Picene in more recent scholarship. In fact, both Marinetti and
Prosdocimi have recently pointed to regional variations in dialect
within South Picene which are precisely features which appear in
the so-called 'minor dialects' (e.g. Marrucine, Vestine, Paelignian),
when these first appear in the individual regions. The fact that this
variation in dialects remains constant between the period of the South
Picene dialects and that of the minor dialects means that the hypothe­
tical invasion sweeping through the area is a most unlikely explana­
tion for linguistic change. 92 It cannot be denied that different cultural
influences are apparent in this region by the time of the emergence of
the 'minor dialects' in the fourth to third centuries BC: most strikingly,
the 'minor dialects' are written in the Latin alphabet rather than in the
South Picene alphabet.93 However, Roman influence in eastern Italy,
represented most clearly by the Samnite Wars, is a much more likely
and obvious explanation for the spread of the Latin alphabet in this
region than is an invasion of Sabines. 94 The continuity in variations in
dialects within individual regions should discourage theories about
the invasion of Osco-Umbrian elements, and new use of the Latin
alphabet in this region suggests Roman, rather than specifically
Sabine, influence.
Once again, it should be noted that historical Samnium lies well on
the margins of South Picene, just as it lay on the margins of the
archaeological Central Adriatic culture.. In fact, the earliest Oscan
text discovered to date is from the fourth century BC. Close links
between the Sabine or South Picene areas are most unlikely in the
development of written Oscan, as the alphabet used is modelled on the
Etruscan alphabet. It is highly probable that this was filtered through
the Campanian environment in the course of the fifth century BC. 95

4 THE FIFTH CENTURY SAFIN-

My task in the following two sections is to outline arguments against

the indiscriminate use of the label 'Safin-', and to examine in detail
91
G. Devoto, Gli antichi Italici (Florence, 1967), e.g. 23.
92
Prosdocimi, 4La lingua*, esp. 64-8. Marinetti, 'Il sudpiceno*, 125-6.
93
Marinetti, *I1 sudpiceno*, 126.
94
Ibid. 127, for explanation of the new use of the Latin alphabet in terms of cultural
95
and political choice gravitating towards Rome. Prosdocimi, 4La lingua*, 66.
 Questions of Identity 199
use of the label 'Samnite'. I have shown above that ideas about
cultural homogeneity stretching over the areas of central Italy men­
tioned in Sacred Spring myths (and, in some cases, beyond these
areas) should not be exaggerated. However, it is not yet clear whether
broad similarities or regional differences would have been privileged
by peoples living in this area. The relationship between cultural
similarities and differences and ethnic identity is highly complex:
cultural similarities are not necessarily proof of shared ethnic iden­
tity. The real problem is that, although one will expect to find shared
ethnic identity accompanied by cultural similarities, the similarities
privileged are culturally specific, and cannot always be observed
objectively'. This complexity is demonstrated when an experiment
is performed: archaeologists examine the cultural data of a contem­
porary people who can be questioned about their ethnic identity by
social anthropologists. Even when hundreds of different cultural items
are available for classification, the most that can be said is that there is
a broad overlap between the ethnic categories assigned by archaeol­
ogists after classifying the material data, and the information which
can be gathered about how the people classify themselves ethni­
cally. 96 In comparison, the very small amount of material available
to philologists and archaeologists for classification of peoples living
in the Central Apennines two and a half thousand years ago, should
caution us against over-optimistic assertions about their ethnicity
based on this data alone.
When we have any kind of information about the names which
people give themselves, these should, then, be privileged, as they
may offer us important clues about ethnic boundaries, safin- appear
in three texts dated to the fifth century BC: on two stelae from Penna
Sant'Andrea, and on one from nearby Bellante, that is, in the
historical area of Picenum. 97 These inscriptions represent a compara­
tively small proportion of the twenty-two inscriptions which can be
assigned to the body of South Picene texts. 98 The only other
appearances of safin- are (1) in a mid-second-century BC inscription
from Pietrabbondante," and (2) on coinage circulated during the

96
Clarke, Analytical Archaeology, ch. 9, 'Group Ethnology', 358 ff.
97
Coarelli and La Regina. Abruzzo, Molise, 325 ff., for sketches and transcriptions
98
of the relevant inscriptions by La Regina. Mari netti, 4D su dpi ce no', 116.
99
Ve. 149.
200 Questions of Identity
Social War. If one does not feel constrained to include Sabellus in
the package, it is quite an easy matter to reconstruct a common Indo-
European form that would result in both safin- and the Latin form
Sabinus.101 Including Sabellus causes great problems, but it is per­
fectly possible, and, I have suggested, probable, that this is a com­
paratively late Latin coinage, perhaps based on the diminutive
form. 102 The real question, however, is how extensive was the ethnic
safin- at any one time.
For the fifth century BC the data is scarce. Archaeological evidence
tells against an invasion, but cannot really be used alone to answer
questions about ethnic identity. Evidence for the use of ethnic names
is not plentiful. The only area from which we have any solid,
contemporary evidence at all is a relatively restricted area of south­
ern Picenum. There are six relevant inscriptions. The three safin-
inscriptions are, as we have seen, all clustered around the neighbour­
hood of Penna Sant'Andrea. The three other relevant inscriptions all
come from the area just to the north of Penna Sant'Andrea, two from
historical Picenum, and one from the historical neighbouring Prae-
tuttian territory. Within the latter texts, pûpûn- appears in formulas
which correspond closely to the use of safin- further north. In one
inscription, there is even the formula püpünis nir, which corresponds
exactly to safinum nerf ('leading men of the safin-') in one of the
Penna Sant'Andrea texts. The occurrence of these formulas, as well as
the comparatively frequent appearence of the pûpûn- within this
particular group of texts have led to the convincing suggestion that
pûpûn- like safin-, is an ethnic rather than any other kind of name. 103
Its relationship to any historical ethnic is, however, very much less
obvious than is the case for safin-, but this has not prevented scholars
from linking it up with Picentes.10*
If two different ethnics are represented within a relatively restricted
100
Sydenham, The Roman Republican Coinage, 89 ff. R. Cantilena, 'Problemi di
emissione e di circolazione monetale*, in Sannio (1984), 90, discusses two remarkable
silver issues attributed to Samnium with the Greek legend SaunitanlSaunion. Whether
these were produced by the Samnites themselves or by the Tarentines, it is tempting to
set these issues within the fourth-century context of close connection between Samnites
and Tarentines.
101
Mari netti, *I1 sudpiceno', 119 ff., for a version which is to be preferred to that of
H. Rix, 'Sabini, Sabellì, Samnium: Ein Beitrag zur Lautgeschichte der Sprachen
Altitaliens', Beiträge zur Namensforschung 8 (1957), 127 ff.
102
See eh. 2 s. 7 above.
103
Prosdocimi, 4I safini*. 49-50; La Regina, 'Entità etniche*, 131-3.
104
La Regina, 'Entità etniche', 132 for a note of caution.
 Questions of Identity 201

area, as they do indeed seem to be, what conclusions can be drawn

from this information? It reminds us at least that we are unlikely to be
able always to make accurate judgements about ethnic identity from
cultural and linguistic data alone. It also suggests that, in the fifth
century at least, in some cases, local cultural diversity might be more
relevant to questions about ethnic identity than are broad cultural
similarities. It would, then, be most unwise to apply the 'safin-' label
indiscriminately to the whole area represented by finds of South
Picene texts, or of the Central Adriatic archaeological culture, let
alone to any areas where any degree of influence by South Picene
or Central Adriatic culture can be detected without further evi-
dence.105
There have recently been some interesting and sophisticated dis­
cussions of the possible historical and social contexts of the two
groups of texts containing ethnics found in and, in one case, near
to, southern Picenum, and these arguments are very relevant to
questions about how ethnic identity is forged and strengthened. La
Regina in particular points to the concentration within comparatively
small areas of each group of texts. He suggests that this concentration
is not due to an accident of survival, but demonstrates the assertion of
an ethnic boundary; on one side, the stone monuments, apparently
large grave-markers, with a rather crude, ovoid representation of a
human head and a relatively long inscription referring to the indivi­
dual, proclaim that this was a leader of the pupun- people, and on the
other side, the monuments proclaim that this was a leader of the safin-
people. The 'loudness' of this assertion—the build-up of texts on
either side of the boundary—may suggest that these texts represent
a new stage of self-differentiation in this particular area. La Regina
points also to the recent discovery (1979) in northern Abruzzo of yet
another suggestive fifth-century text. Its context, a bronze bracelet, is
more puzzling than the grave-markers, but the text seems very
relevant to this discussion. Within the twelve-word inscription, there
appears the formula ombriien acren posticnam. There are clear
comparisons with the Iguvine tablets, which would suggest that
ombriien acren was a locative, equivalent to in agro umbro,106
105
Grossi, // territorio, 65 ff., for a strikingly indiscriminate use of the *safin-' label.
106
La Regina, 'Entità etniche', 131-3; cf. F. Barth, Ethnie Group and Boundaries
(Boston, 1969).
202 Questions of Identity
Despite its curious setting, this text contains a clear reference to a
sense of ethnic territory.
Recently, scholars have set these texts alongside accentuated
cultural differences over the next couple of centuries, seeing the fifth
century as representing the beginning of a very important period in
increased ethnic differentiation and regroupings. The problem is that,
even if they are right to suppose that the build-up of ethnic proclama­
tions during the fifth century in this small area is significant, it is very
hard to know what exactly it signifies: is one—or even both—of these
names being asserted for the first time, or have the boundaries
between them merely shifted? Some, like Torelli, assume that these
texts signify the 'fragmentation of the safin-',107 but the problem is
that we know nothing about the whereabouts, or even the existence, of
the 'safin-' before this date.
Recent debate has, then, centred on the texts found in and around
Penna Sant'Andrea, seeing in the fifth century the beginning of a
process of fragmentation of the 'safin-', out of which the historical
tribes eventually emerge during the course of the fourth to third
centuries BC. Modern scholars have emphasized the fact that regional
cultural differences in the Central Apennines are greater than ever
before in the fourth to third centuries BC. Linguistic evidence provides
a vivid example of this increased differentiation. Both Marinetti and
Prosdocimi have argued that regional differences are not to be ignored
within South Picene texts, but they stress that, from the fourth to third
century, differences are very much more pronounced. Most striking of
all is the new alphabetic difference, the northern tribes now using the
Latin alphabet, and the Samnites using the Oscan alphabet heavily
influenced by the Etruscan alphabet.108 Scholars argue that these more
pronounced regional cultural differences are the articulation of new
tribal awareness. This new tribal awareness, in contrast with the much
greater cultural homogeneity of the period covered by Central Adria­
tic culture, is variously explained in terms of the supposed social and
economic changes of the fourth to third centuries BC. The social
effects of the circulation of luxury goods, power struggles, and the
advent of literacy, are all seen as important instruments in this
supposedly more precise articulation of tribal awareness.109
107
Torelli, 'Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica', 66.
108
Prosdocimi, 4La lingua', 66-7.
109
See esp. Torelli, 'Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica', 62 ff.
 Questions of Identity 203
This debate has been stimulating and exciting, but there are funda­
mental problems with the assumptions that lie behind it. Most
importantly, it is too often assumed that, while the concept of
'safin-' is extensive, it predates any awareness of smaller identi­
ties. 110 In other words, there are assumed to be no subgroups—such
as Picentes or Curetés, for example—within the concept of 'safin-'
before the fourth to third centuries BC. This is a complex issue, and
resolving it requires that we understand what kind of a name 'safin-'
is: later, it can function as an overarching name, within which
individual tribes may be contained: rather more like 'Hellene' than
Ticentene', for example. Of course, we cannot know when exactly
the historical tribes came into being: in most cases, epigraphic
evidence for the names of historical tribes is comparatively late:
beside these rare fifth century attestations, such as umbro, others
date to the fourth to third centuries. 111 Despite the problems asso­
ciated with understanding just how significant are these earliest pieces
of evidence, it is tempting to think of some of these early attestations
within the contexts both of apparent increased emphasis on self-
definition and differentiation on a smaller scale, and subsequently
of conflict with Rome. One hypothesis might be that conflict with
Rome, like conflict with other peoples of central Italy previously,
acted as a catalyst to accentuate and accelerate emphasis on possibly
pre-existing smaller entities, such as Picentene, or Vestine, at the
expense of the assertion of larger identities, such as 'safin-'.

5. WHEN IS A SAMNITE NOT A SAMNITE?

Who are these 'safin-', and who is a Samnite? There are a number of
different ways in which such questions should be addressed. For one
thing, we need to ask what sort of a name was 'safin-', or Samnite, and
who was included under this name. Secondly, there is the related
question of ways in which self-definition were expressed, often by
reference to myths of origins. As we shall see, the issue is very
complex, as the meaning of 'safin-'/Samnite apparently shifts con­
siderably within different political and social contexts.
110
e.g. ibid. 66.
111
e.g. Ve. 228a = CIL i(2). 5 for a dedication pro le[cio]nibus martses {pro
legionibus Marsis) of the late fourth century; Ve. 218 for the Rapino bronze of c.250
BC, a religious law concerning the tota marouca.
204 Questions of Identity
Considering first of all the fifth century 'safin-', it is tempting to
take together the mid-fifth century inscriptions from Penna Sant'An­
drea, and the easily reconstructed common Indo-European root for
Latin Sabini, Samnium, and South Picene and Oscan safinim. I
suggest that, at some time, the Sabines, Samnites, and people from
at least a restricted area of southern Picenum called themselves, in
some contexts at least, 'safin-'. This may have been a broad nomen, as
'Samnite' certainly seems to have been later, within which there were
subgroups consisting of individual tribes and smaller groups, such as,
for example, the Picentes, the Curetés of the Roman tradition, and
perhaps the Pentri and Frentani within the 'Samnites'. These 'safin-'
might have had a religious or political bond, like the Latins, but very
little can be known about its arrangement; although the Penna
Sant'Andrea inscriptions refer to individuals—nerf—and an institu­
tional body, a tuta, suitable parallels for such institutions are not
readily available. It is, for example, hard to know whether an Osco-
Umbrian touto was exactly the same kind of institution.112 Nor is it
easy to know much about the social and political context for such an
assertion of group identity, because of our lack of knowledge about
central eastern Italy in the archaic period. The obscurity of the ethnic
situation apparently asserted in the Bellante and Penna Sant'Andrea
texts reminds us of quite how little we know about other relevant
ethnic groups at this time. While the 'safin-' in these areas seem to
have been distinguishing themselves, and were distinguished, from
the neighbouring 'püpün-', were they elsewhere defining themselves
in opposition to Etruscans, or Greeks?
Similarly, not much can be known for certain about why these
'safin-' no longer appear under a common name in the historical
period. Nevertheless, the narrative of Roman expansion suggests
that the Sabines—or, at least, some Sabines—were the first to be
'broken off from the other 'safin-* and brought into a relationship
with Rome, Sabini being nothing more than a Latinized form of
'safin-', and raising serious questions about the extent to which the
Sabini had constituted an entity before the third century BC. It is more
difficult to know when exactly this process began, but the tradition
indicates that it was a long process, perhaps beginning with individual
families in the archaic period, and culminating in the enfranchisement
112
See e.g. La Regina, 'Entità etniche*, 130-3 for a discussion of the concept of
touta in Osco-Umbrian texts.
 Questions of Identity 205

of 241 BC. The problem is that the Roman tradition tends to treat the
Sabines as a block, and it is hard to know exactly which Sabines are
being referred to in the context of the early history of Rome. The first
Sabini with whom Rome came into contact would inevitably have
been Tiberine Sabines. Traditionally, of course, Rome's relationship
with Tiberine Sabines went back to the dual reign of Romulus and
Titus Tatius,113 while the coming of known Sabine gentes to Rome
was traced back to the early Republic, with the gens Claudia.114
Roman encounters with the more remote Sabines would have come
later, in the course of the Samnite Wars.115 The strange detail about
M \ Curius Dentatus conquering Sabines as far as the Adriatic coast in
the early third century BC might, if it does not just derive from a late,
exaggerated source, be a reference to the 'safin-' of the Penna
Sant'Andrea inscriptions.116 At any rate, when, in the course of the
third century BC, the Romans succeeded in driving a wedge of power
across to the sea coast, the Sabines and Picentes were decisively
separated from the Samnites.
Thinking now about the terms in which the 'safin-' defined them­
selves, I would suggest that some of the Sacred Spring myths are
relevant to the fifth-century 'safin-'. To be sure, as I shall argue
below, some of these myths, namely those concerning the Paeligni,
Hirpini, and Mamertini, seem to be later variations on the theme of
the Sacred Spring, in themselves interesting examples of the re­
deployment of traditions, particularly in the case of the distinctive,
and apparently culturally specific, Sacred Spring. Nevertheless, that
leaves the traditions of the migration of the Samnites and the
Picentes, both apparently from a Sabine epicentre.117 I would suggest
that it is most unlikely that either is a Roman antiquarian invention:
113
e.g. Enn. Ann. 104 (Sk.), *0 Tite, tute, Tati, ubi tanta, tyranne, tulisti' CO Titus
Tatius, you tyrant, you brought such evils on yourselF); Ann. 98 (Sk.) for a possible
reference to the rape of the Sabine women. Sabines are very important in Livy's account
of the Regal period: see e.g. Numa 1.18. 2-4; the rape of the Sabine women, 1. 9. 6.
114 Tl3
Livy 2. 16. 4 Musti, 4I due volti', 80-3.
116
Auct. Vir. III. 33. 1, 'Marcus [sic] Curius Dentatus primo de Samnitibus
triumphavit, quos usque ad mare superum perpacavit.' ('Marcus Curius Dentatus first
triumphed over the Samnites, whom he reduced all the way to the Upper [Adriatic]
Sea.') The entire section is thought to be confused, and it is not clear that the author
distinguishes clearly between Sabines and Samnites. See G. De Sanctis, Storia dei
Romani, (Turin, 1907) ii. 365 n. 1.
The idea *ad mare superum' may be nothing more than rhetorical hyperbole, although
it is taken seriously by La Regina, 'Entità etniche*, 131.
1,7
Strano 5. 4. 12 = 250 C; 5. 4. 2 = 240 C; Pliny NH 3. 110.
206 Questions of Identity
the idea of the Sacred Spring with representative animals seems an
oddly elaborate and strange way of inventing a tradition of collective
origins.118 It would seem much more likely that such an invention
would have been based on a more familiar type of myth of origins,
such as individual eponymous heroes.119 Nor is there any obvious
reason why anyone should have desired to dramatize connections
specifically between Sabines, Samnites, and Picentes in the late
Republic.
I would suggest that the most plausible setting for the assertion of
Sacred Spring myths of origin of the Picentes and Samnites is the fifth
to fourth century BC, and that these myths refer in some way to the
extensive sense of 'safin-' in the archaic period. I have argued above
that it is most unlikely that these myths are literal descriptions of
invasions, and that they are much more likely to be dramatizations of
connections and/or separate identities. Further than this, it is hard to
be precise about what these myths are dramatizing: is the emphasis
more on connections between these peoples, and a collective identity,
or is it rather on separate identities? If the emphasis is on a sense of
collective identity, we might suppose that is an assertion of an identity
distinct from *püpün-\ or Etruscan, or Greek, or even, particularly in
the context of the fourth century, from Roman. If it is on separate
identities that the emphasis lies, then we might suppose that these
myths dramatize the assertion—or new emphasis on—tribal identities,
perhaps at some point during the fourth century.
Thinking now of the 'Samnites', the name Samnium must have
come to Rome by a route different from that of Sabini. For a start, it is
likely that the Romans first encountered the Samnites at a date later
than their first encounter with the Sabines. As we have seen, accord­
ing to the narrative of Roman conquest, the Romans first encountered
the Samnites in the mid-fourth century BC as a result of Roman
successes in Latium;120 war broke out when both were competing
in the Middle Liris Valley. It has been suggested that the name
Samnium came into Latin during the latter part of the fifth century,
118
Cf. Salmon, Samnium, 35.
119
Festus p. 436 L. has an alternative version, involving a named leader, Comius
Castronius, and the localization of first Samnite settlement at Bovianum. This is surely a
later version than that found in Strabo, reflecting the ascendency of Bovianum amongst
the Pentri.
120
354 BC: Livy 7. 19. 4, 'Res bello bene gestae ut Samnites quoque amicitiam
peterent effecerunt' ("Success in warfare brought it about that the Samnites sought
friendship*).
 Questions of Identity 207
perhaps through an Etruscan conduit after the extension of Samnite
influence into Campania. 121
Within Greek and Latin literary sources, definitions of a Samnite
vary widely. Authors tend to write sweepingly about 'Samnites', more
rarely mentioning individual tribes. At one end of the spectrum are the
Samnites who apparently occupy an enormous area of central and
southern Italy. While it is possible that early Greek authors at times
use 'Samnites' interchangeably with other names, perhaps even of
their own invention, to fill in the Italian landscape with an amorphous
mass, some notices which have come through the Greek tradition
remain tantalizing. In particular, there is Strabo's notice of the
Tarentine invention of a Spartan ancestry for 'the Samnites*. They
did this, Strabo says, to flatter powerful 'neighbours'. 122 If one takes
this literally, the Tarentines' neighbours are more obviously the
Lucanians than the Samnites, 123 and it seems unlikely that the Tar­
entines would have chosen arbitrarily the name of the 'neighbours'
they wanted to flatter. And indeed, within the whole tradition of the
Spartan ancestry of various Italian peoples, Sabines, Samnites, and
Lucanians are included. 124 For the Sabines and Samnites, a common
Indo-European root for the names can be argued suggestively easily,
but might the Lucanians also at some time have called themselves, or
have been willing to be called, 'Samnites'?
At the other end of the spectrum, there is a very much narrower
definition of 'Samnite'. Within Livy's account of the 'Samnite' Wars,
the Romans' major opponents are the Pentii, Caudini, and Hirpini. 125
But, more extremely, when ancient authors refer to the insurgents in
the Social War, and the peoples of the Central Apennines subse­
quently, it can sometimes be seen that, through a process of elimina­
tion, 'Samnites' are only the Pentri. Other tribes, such as Hirpini and
Frentani, let alone Lucani, are mentioned separately. 126 It is surely no
accident that, in the ancient sources as a whole, of the Hirpini,
121 122
La Regina, Sannio (1980), 29. Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C.
123
See Musti, 'La nozione storica*, 74-5.
124
Sabines: Cato, Orig. 2. 22 (Chass. cf. Ch. 2, s. 4 above). Lucani educating their
boys Spartan-style: Justin 23. 1. 7-10.
Salmon, Samnium, 42 n. 1. The Carriceni (see Coarelli and La Regina, Abruzzo,
Molise, 161 for this, the correct Latin form) were apparently absorbed by other Samnite
tribes after the Pyrrhic war: Salmon, Samnium, 44. Polyb. 2. 24 for Samnites in the line­
up against Hannibal in 225. Walbank, Polybius, i. (1957) ad loc. on the inclusion of
Hirpini at least, as well as, presumably, Pentri and Frentani within these 'Samnites'.
126
Appian BC 1. 39. 175; cf. Salmon, Samnium, 343.
208 Questions of Identity
Frentani and Pentri, the Pentri are mentioned by far the least fre­
quently: 'Samnites' had come to be synonymous with the Pentri.127
Greek usage of the term Saunitai varies. Lucanians, like Bruttians,
are treated separately in Greek literature of a comparatively early
date,128 and even the mid-fourth-century author of the Periplus treats
Lucani and Campani separately from Samnites.129 Nevertheless, as
we have seen, 'Samnites' can, in Greek sources, occupy a very large
area of central and southern Italy. But did Lucanians and even
Bruttians ever think of themselves as 'Samnites'?130 I have argued
above that Strabo's report of the Tarentine fiction of Spartan ancestry
might imply that Lucanians at least allowed themselves to be called
Samnites at this time. The only other evidence which is relevant to
this question is that of myths and accounts of origins. As Musti has
shown, Strabo's account has a neat gradation of relationships. The
'inner core' is the Sacred Spring involving Sabines, Samnites, and
Picentes. The Frentani are saunitikon ethnos ('a Samnitic people'),
but are nevertheless listed separately. The Lucani are the apoikoi
('colonists') from the Samnites, and the Samnites are their archegetai
('founders'). Finally, the Bruttians are themselves apoikoi from the
Lucani. Musti suggests that the idea of apoikia reflects a Greek
attempt to make sense of relationships between Lucani, Bruttians
and Samnites, by referring to the practice of colonization which
was such a familiar feature in their own history of expansion.131
This might be the case, but, even if it is, it still leaves open the
question of what kind of relationship the Greeks were trying to
account for. It is possible that the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttians
themselves dramatized their present, fourth-century, relationship
through the assertion of common origins, and these too might have
been envisaged as a gradated series of relationships. A possible
parallel might be found in the history of the Achaean League. Here,
there were 'original' Achaeans, but the name could be, and indeed
was, extended, along with the political relationship which the name
signified.132 The Lucanians too, it would seem, could, when acting
127
See Ch. 5, s. 5.
128
See e.g. Aristophanes fr. 629 Kock ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. Brettios; Lucanians:
Lycophron Alex. 1083-6; Leonidas Tarentinus Anth. Pal. 6. 129, 131.
129
Salmon, Samnium, 40.
130
From the early 3rd cent, BC, both Lucanians and Bruttians are issuing coins which
bear their ethnic. For Bruttians, see BMC Italy, 319-33 nn. 1-118; for Lucanians, see
l31
BMC Italy, 224-5 nn. 1-6. Musti, 'La nozione storica', 71-3.
132
Polyb. 2. 37 ff.
 Questions of Identity 209

together with the more northerly tribes, such as the Pentri and Hirpini,
have allowed themselves to be called 'Samnites'. And grouping the
Lucanians together with the other 'Samnites' could have appeared to
Greeks and Romans either desirable or not desirable in various
circumstances. It may not be accidental that the biggest hint that
the Lucanians were in some sense 'Samnites* comes to us via
Tarentum. It would surely be in the interest of the Tarentines around
327 Be to emphasize strongly the broadest possible connections
between themselves and peoples of central and southern Italy, and
amongst these Italian peoples themselves. If they could build upon a
sense of connected origins which reached broadly from the Sabines to
the Bruttians, then so much the better.
Roman interests in the fourth to third centuries BC are likely to have
been very differentfromthose of the Tarentines around 327 BC.133 And it
is surely the Roman presence which was ultimately responsible for the
gradual whittling away of the name of 'safin-\ In some cases, it could
seem advantageous to an individual tribe to side with the Romans against
the other 'safin-', as seems to be the case with the Frentani during the
Samnite Wars.134 But more decisive action on the part of the Romans
was apparently needed to drive a wedge between the Hirpini, Caudini,
and Pentri, with the sending out of the Latin colonies of Beneventum
(268) and Aesernia (263). Nevertheless, in the line-up against the Gauls
in 225 BC, it looks as if Polybius includes Hirpini amongst the Saunitai,
even though he later treats these as a separate people.135 But by the mid-
133
Musti, *La nozione storica', for an interesting discussion of the differences
between Greek and Roman portrayals, with emphasis on * dividing and conquering'
on the Roman side.
134
Frentane valour on the Roman side during these wars was notorious: Plut. Pyrrh.
16. 10. The general history of the Frentani is very complex. In the late fourth century,
the Frentani made a treaty of alliance with the Romans. From the last few years of the
fourth century BC, Larinum used a separate coinage from the other Frentani. and
becomes Latinized, in contrast with the other Frentani, who are Oscan-speaking right
up to the Social War. See La Regina, 4Aspetti istituzionali', 178. Subsequently, the
Frentani are invariably grouped with the Vestini, Marsi, Paeligni, and Marnici ni: see
e.g. Polyb. 2. 24. 12, which is surely indicative of their distance from the other Samnite
tribes after the end of the fourth century, BC.
135
For 'Samnites' in the line-up in 225, see Polyb. 2. 24, with Salmon, Samnium,
294 n. 5 for the inclusion of the Hirpini. For Hirpini treated separately after this, see e.g.
Polyb. 2. 91. 9.
For the beginnings of a wedge between Pentri and Hirpini, see Salmon, Samnium,
200; cf. Musti, 'La nozione storica', 81; A. La Regina, 'L'elogio di Scipione Barbato*,
DDA 2 (1968), 173 ff., esp. 182; Salmon, 'The Hirpini: ex Italia semper aliquid novi\
Phoenix. 43 (1989), 225 ff., 226-7.
210 Questions of Identity
second century BC, apparently only the Pentri were referring to them­
selves, and being referred to, as 'safin-'.
The subsequent history of the Pentri is ironic. They were the only
Samnite tribe that did not side with Hannibal, and it may be that they
were subsequently enabled to flourish at the expense of other tribes in
the region. At any rate, by the late second century BC, they were
building a monumental theatre-temple complex at Pietrabbondante,
which was clearly a new and improved central sanctuary and meeting-
point for all the second century *safin-\ the Pentri. Perhaps the
Hannibalic War was a turning-point for the history of the name 'safin-'
itself: it may not be a coincidence that Polybius apparently believes
that Hirpini and Pentri enter the war as Samnites, but that afterwards
the Hirpini are decisively broken off. Perhaps the Pentri used the new
prestige which they achieved by being the only tribe loyal to Rome
throughout the conflict to advertise themselves as the 'safin-' after the
war, to the exclusion of other tribes. One result of visible Roman
presence in the Central Apennines after the Samnite Wars may have
been the accentuation of rivalries and differences which already
existed between the individual tribes. As for the Hirpini, I would
suggest that they chose at some point during the third or even second
century BC to dramatize their newly found closeness to Rome by
asserting that the hirpus ('wolf) which allegedly gave them their
name was really the Romulean wolf. 137
In 91 BC, however, the prestige of the Pentri was being used in a
novel way, as Papius Mutilus, embratur of the southern allies in the
Social War was clearly Pentrian. Seven coins—a very small percen­
tage of those coined by the insurgent allies during the Social War—
carried the name safinim alongside the name of Papius Mutilus. These
coins surely referred only to the Pentri themselves, and such a small
proportion cannot possibly have been intended to invoke the older,
broader, sense of safinim.*3*
136
La Regina, 4Il Sannio\ esp. 229. La Regina, Sannio (1980), 29 ff. for the
character of Pietrabbondante as common sanctuary of all remaining safin- i.e. the
Pentri during the 2nd cent. BC.
137
Salmon, 'The Hirpini*, 225, 234-5 suggests that the Hirpini had a tradition of
Romulus and the wolf which was separate from that of Rome. It seems unlikely that this
shared tradition is a mere coincidence, and Salmon may be overly concerned here with
the desire to demonstrate the anti-Roman tradition of the Hirpini.
138
Sydenham, The Roman Republican Coinage, 89 ff. Of coins minted during the
Social War, only one out of the total thirty-four types, seven out of the 198 known
individual coins discovered bear the legend safinim. cf. La Regina, Sannio (1980), 29 ff.
for the restriction of safinim to the Pentri from the 2nd cent. BC. Prosdocimi, 4I safini\
 Questions of Identity 211

Myths of origins concerning the Samnites might be seen as elo­

quent expressions of ways in which they saw themselves, and their
place in the world. For example, on one reading, the myth related by
Servius, according to which Diomedes founded a number of Samnite
cities, would be no more than the projection of a Hellenocentric
world-view onto the Samnites. Alternatively, it is easy to see the
potential offered to the Samnites themselves by such a myth, con­
necting them closely with desirable values of the Greek world, and in
fact hard to resist the conclusion that the Samnites were well aware of
the value of such a myth. Similarly, as we have seen above, it is not
unlikely that the Samnites were aware of the 'Tarentine version' of
their origins, and able to exploit it to their advantage. 139
As we have seen, it is likely that the 'Sacred Spring' myths
concerning the origins of the Samnites and Picentes are expressions
about identity dating from the fifth to fourth centuries BC. It is very
interesting that Alfius' version of the origins of the Mamertini, quoted
above, reiterates and redeploys themes of the 'Sacred Spring'. This
version is very positive: the expedition of the Mamertini is given
divine sanction, and, in return for services rendered to the Messa-
nians, they are invited to share their community. 140 The better known
version of events is found in Polybius and Dionysius of Halicamassus:
the Mamertini were mercenaries enlisted by Agathocles, who seized
Messana on his death in the 280s. 141 Alfius' account most plausibly
dates to the late third or early second century BC, and the fact that he
has an Oscan name is surely significant. The expedition is called a
Sacred Spring, and, like the Strabonian version of the origins of the
Samnites themselves, involves the motif of the 'incomplete' dedica­
tion which excludes men, followed by the dedication of the men in
order to complete the vow properly. Mars, the god elsewhere asso­
ciated with Sacred Springs, also plays a part in this tradition concern­
ing the Mamertini, although he is not the god to whom the expedition
is dedicated. While such features serve to recall the Strabonian
version of the origins of the Samnites, certain features of Alfius'
account of the Mamertini recall different traditions. Above all,

44, asserts that even non-Samnite Italic peoples chose for themselves the name 4safin-*
in the course of the Social War. This view cannot be supported by any of the available
ancient evidence.
139
Servius Ad Verg. Aen. 8. 9; cf. Ch. 1, s. 3 above.
140
Festus p. 150 L. s.v. Mamertini; cf. Ch. 5, s. \{b) above.
141
Polyb. 1. 7. 3; D.H. Ant. Rom. 15. 5.
212 Questions of Identity
certain features are reminiscent of the colonization tradition of
Rhegium, within which the Chalcidians, struck by a plague, dedicate
one man in ten to Apollo. These men are sent to Delphi, and
subsequently to colonize Rhegium on the instructions of the Delphic
oracle. These latter reminiscences are unlikely to be accidental. 142
Associating Apollo closely with the Mamertine Sacred Spring ties
this tale neatly into Greek colonization traditions, appeals to ideas of
Apollo as protector of Hellenism, and also surely refers to the special
relationship between the Greek cities of Sicily and Apollo, as does the
Mamertines' later emphasis on his cult. 143 At the same time, however,
Alfius' version does not merely reproduce a Greek-style foundation
story: self-consciously Greek elements are woven into a tradition that
refers us back to an indigenous* version of the origins of the
Samnites themselves. Once again, reference to Greek motifs is
entirely culturally specific.

6. THE IDEOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL WAR

Although divided into two groups, the rebels nevertheless possessed a certain
degree of ethnic community. They all belonged, or at one time had belonged,
to the same linguistic family, and both Q. Poppaedius Silo, the 'Marsic'
leader, and C. Papius Mutilus, his 'Samnite' counterpart, bear unmistakably
Sabellian names. Thus the war was not without its nationalist aspect.144
Salmon's analysis of the 'nationalist* aspect of the Social War is
extremely problematic. He insists on using a category—Sabellian—
for which there is no evidence until after the Social War, a category
which was very probably coined by the Romans, and which, more­
over, is never used to refer to the more northerly insurgent peoples
such as the Marsi, Paeligni, and Picentes. If such a category was
important to the insurgent allies at the time of the Social War, it is
strange that they did not advertise it on their coins.
Salmon also considers as relevant to his argument the fact that the
insurgent allies belonged, or had belonged, to 'the same linguistic
family*. In fact, on this point, his book as a whole is extremely
confused. Elsewhere, he asserts that, 'If Samnites, Lucani and Bruttii
failed to form a political union, it may have been due in large part to
142
Cf. Heurgon, Trois études sur le *Ver Sacrum', Collection Latomus 26 (Brussels,
l43 144
1957), 20 ff. Cf. Intro, to Ch. 2, above. Salmon, Samnium, 344.
 Questions of Identity 213

differing racial strains. The common language (whose dialectal varia­

tions were really quite minor) should not be taken as proof of ethnic
identity'. 145 Salmon suggests that language is a determining factor in
ethnic identity when he sees peoples of central and southern Italy
acting together, and then asserts that it is not a determining factor
when he has to explain why the Lucanians and Samnites are fre­
quently found on opposite sides. The idea that people's actions and
affinities are determined by their racial make-up is the product of
racist ideology of the modern period, rather than a useful analytical
tool for considering the past, 146 and the implication that a common
language is necessarily the cause of a sense of affinities and common
actions is not helpful, and would put great difficulties in the way of
understanding the history of the peoples of ancient Italy. If Salmon is
right when he is arguing that language is a determining factor, one
would have to wonder why the Marsi, Paeligni, and Marrucini did not
apparently feel greater affinity with the Umbrians than with the
Samnites, and one would be very hard pushed to explain the actions
of Capua. Language is not a determining factor in notions of ethnicity;
a perception of sharing a language may be used to strengthen a feeling
of affinity, but a common language is not a necessary factor of such a
feeling. 147
It is, then, essential when examining the ideology of the Social
War, to consider in first place the not inconsiderable evidence of how
the allies themselves asserted their common aims. Amongst the very
large number of coins issued during the Social War, by far the most
common slogan is Italia. In contrast, only one out of the total thirty-
four types, seven out of the 198 known individual coins of the allies
discovered bear the legend safinim. Furthermore, Italia more usually
appears in Latin, although a minority of coin-types have the legend in
Oscan, and one, doubtful, issue has a bilingual legend. On coins
bearing this legend, a bull is often depicted, sometimes recumbent,
and sometimes, in the most famous type, trampling on the wolf of
Rome. 148 A recumbent bull also appears on coins with the slogan
145
Salmon, Samnium, 95.
146
Patterson, 'Context and Choice', esp. 305-6 for discussion, and criticism, of the
idea that ethnic identity is involuntary and not changeable.
147
Banton, Racial Consciousness, 2-3, for the difficulties in deciding by what
criterion or criteria a group has been constructed, and for the different criteria which
may be important in any particular social context.
148
Sydenham, The Roman Republican Coinage, 89 ff., no. 628.
214 Questions of Identity
safinim: on this type, it lies by the side of a soldier who stands with his
foot on a Roman standard. Italia, or Italica, also appears as the name
of the last capital of the allies, Corfinium transformed.149
What can these images tell us? First of all, they suggest that Italia
was felt to be a more effective rallying cry for the allies than was
safinim, which would have referred only to one tribe—the Pentri—at
this date. Secondly, they suggest that language was of limited impor­
tance in rallying the allies as a whole. If the allies were really held
together by a language that all had—or had had—in common, or even
if language had taken on strongly 'nationalist' overtones as in modern
Wales or Brittany, 150 one might expect at least more coins of the
bilingual type, if not more coins with the legends in Oscan exclu­
sively. Instead, the different languages used in coin legends are rather
to be explained by the different languages in common use within the
insurgent areas. Broadly speaking, tribes to the north, such as the
Picentes, Marsi, and Marrucini, would have been used to public
documentation in dialectal Latin for a long time, while, in the
south, amongst the Pentri, Frentani, and Lucani, Oscan was the
norm until after the Social War. 151
What did Italia/viteliu mean to the allies when they fought the
Social War? While there is a long history of conceptualizations of
Italy in Greek and southern Italian thought, shifting to reflect different
ideologies, it was ultimately to Roman ideology that the allies owed
their concept of Italia in its geographically extensive form. 152 The
recurrent image of the bull on allied coinage bearing the name of
Italia, and, for that matter, of Safinim, nevertheless offers clues that
the allies' Italia had alternative overtones, and appealed to other
traditions. Most striking of all is the coin-type that bears the image
of the bull against the wolf of Rome: the Romanness of Italia was
surely not uppermost in the allies' minds.
I would suggest that the bull had a number of possible meanings,
which are not mutually exclusive. It might recall the story attributed
to Hellanicus of Lesbos, where the land wandered by Herakles'
149
Diod. 37, 24 ff„ Strabo 5. 4. 2 = 241 C for Italica; cf. sling bullets with the name
itali, Salmon, Samnium, 345 n. 3.
150
See McDonald, * We Are Not French!', for an interesting study of the place of
language amongst modern 'Celtic* separatists.
l
" Sydenham, The Roman Republican Coinage, 89.
152
Brunt, The Fall of the Roman Republic, 113-14; Gabba, 4I1 problema dell
4
"unità***.
 Questions of Identity 215
ouitoulos, conveniently loose in terms both of geography and ethnic
disinctions, becomes ouitelia.153 Then again, it might be the bull
followed by the Samnites when they arrived in their Sacred Spring.
Reminiscences of the Sacred Spring myths seem altogether likely in
the context of the ideology of the Social War, particularly in view of
the fact that according to Sisenna, the allies seem to have declared a
Sacred Spring in the course of the action, a Sacred Spring that Sisenna
certainly refers back to its 'original' Sabine roots:
Quondam Sabini feruntur vovisse, si res communis melioribus locis consti-
tisset, se ver sacrum facturos.
The Sabines are said to have vowed once upon a time that, if their situation
improved, they would dedicate a Sacred Spring.154

There is, moreover, reason to suppose that bulls were of continued

importance to the Samnites: studies of the bones of sacrificial victims
at Pietrabbondante, the common shrine of the second century 'Safin-',
the Pentri, are beginning to show the importance of bulls within this
particular sacrificial ritual. 155 One might see here further contexts in
which the Sacred Spring version of Samnite origins was evoked and
related to a cult of importance in historical times.
It seems possible that the symbol of the bull on allied coinage might
also serve to evoke perceived connections between Samnites and
other peoples, connections positively sought after as the allies joined
the common cause against Rome. I suggested above that a fifth
century version of the Sacred Spring myth probably referred only to
Sabines, Samnites, and Picentes. Despite this restricted membership,
however, the symbol of the bull might have evoked connections
between Picentes and Samnites, recalling as it did the Sacred Springs
which linked them in common ancestry. If the Samnites 'kept alive'
the myth of the Sacred Spring by reinventing it with regard to the
Mamertini, and, just possibly, through sacrificial ritual at Pietrabbon­
dante, it is not impossible that the Picentes too had 'kept alive' on
their own part the myth of the Sacred Spring, suiting the needs of their
own society. One might well wonder too whether this was the point at
which assertions were made about the origins of additional peoples in
the form of a Sacred Spring sent out by the Sabines. It is in this
153
Hellanicus FGH iv, F 111 = D.H. Ant. Rom. 1. 35.
154
Sisenna fr. 99, 100 P.
155
Strabo 5. 4. 12 = 250 C; Barker, 'Animals, Ritual and Power*.
 2l6 Questions of Identity
context that Ovid's allusive reference to the Paeligni and their Sabine
forebears becomes suggestive. In contrast with the versions concern­
ing the Picentes and the Samnites, this tradition seems rather bare:
there is no explicit reference either to a Sacred Spring, or to an animal
leader, suggesting the likelihood that connections between Sabines
and Paeligni was a 'secondary' ideological development. In view of
Ovid's interest elsewhere in a version of the Social War in which the
allies sought libertas, one might suppose that Ovid would be particu­
larly interesting in relating 'local' traditions that stressed their non-
Roman character. Was it the Social War that provoked the assertion of
such a tradition, linking the Paeligni in closely with the Samnites?156

CONCLUSION

Modern scholars have all too often posed questions about the ethnic
identity of the peoples of the Central Apennines in terms of nineteenth-
century theories of race. In their identification and discussion of
primitive unities, they have assumed that the actions of peoples
who lived hundreds of years after the periods covered by these
supposed primitive unities were more or less determined by this
v pre-existing cultural unity. They have been frequently misled by the
i ancients themselves, who regularly expressedpresentRelationships in
I terms of blood ties. I have argued that notions of identity are far from
I fixed and objective', and that questions of identity must be posed in
such away as to allow for the pos^bilîtyô^f fréquent regroupings
' according~to individual çirçumslaaces. Combined action can be
accompanied by assertions of common roots and culture, but com­
mon roots and culture do not automatically determine action. The
categories used by outsiders will also shift, according to what is
perceived to be advantageous to any one of these outside groups at
any one time. Sometimes these categories will have overlapped, or
coincided, with the image being projected by members of the inside
group. Sometimes the images will have clashed. I would argue that
one of the most significant cases of overlap occurs during, and in the
decades following, the Social War. Durin£jhe_Social War, it was in
the interests of theinsurgent allies to emphasize-lheir links through
assertion of myths of common Origins, and even through supplying
Ovid, Fasti 3. 95-6.
 Questions of Identity 217
new details. By the Late Republic and Early Empire, when an anti-
Rome was increasingly sought in Roman ideology, the ideology of the
allies themselves during the Social War surely helped to form the
foundations of this emergent Roman Italian ideology in which all
these peoples could be grouped together. Most strikingly, when the
Samnites no longer constituted a threat to Rome after the actions of
Sulla in the 80s BC, the Romans invented a name—Sahelli—which
realigned their supposed Sabine ancestors with the very much remoter
Samnites, the latter being referred to in their broadest sense. The great
irony is that it is most likely to have been the Roman presence which
had severedjhejinks between Sabines andjSamnites, and between the
individual Samnite tribes, in the first place.
 ♦
Epilogue

Of the Italic peoples the Samnites are the ones who appear
prominently in every account of Roman expansion in Italy.
Indeed they have inspired some of Livy's finest writing and
have evoked generous tribute from him; largely, I suspect,
because the period of their greatness was for him aetas qua
nulla virtutum feracior fuit, the heroic age of Rome. Yet no
attempt has ever been made to describe these fiercest opponents
of Rome from their own point of view.1

How should we write the history of ancient peoples who had no

literature of their own, and what should it mean to describe such a
society 'from their own point of view'? This question is of increas­
ing importance at the moment, as there is growing interest in such
societies, partly due to advances in the study of material culture
particularly in the period after the Second World War, and partly, it
would seem, as the result of contemporary disillusionment with
large nation-states and centres of empire. If we are to escape
Finley's scathing criticism of Regional histories', and are to avoid
writing in an indiscriminate manner 'all we know' about a region or
city, 2 one thing is clear: we need to select and frame our material
with the help of a more sophisticated methodological approach. In
particular, it is well worth considering further how we should
conceptualize relationships between societies which had no literary
tradition and Greek and Roman societies which did have such a
tradition.
In this book, a high level of interaction and interdependence—
cultural, economic, political, and ideological—between the various
peoples of peninsular Italy has been emphasized throughout. This
emphasis on interaction inevitably raises doubts about the conven­
tional understanding of such processes as 'Hellenization' and 'Roma-
1
Salmon, Samnium* p. ix.
2
M. Finley, 'How it Really Was*, Ancient History: Evidence and Models (London,
1985), 47 ff.
 Epilogue 219
nization'. It is no longer acceptable to conceptualize the processes of
cultural interaction that we think of as 'Hellenization' and 'Roma­
nization' as involving passivity on the part of a 'native' society that
gives in to the 'natural' superiority of Greek/Roman culture, adopting
it blindly and in an uncreative manner. The study of 'Hellenization' or
'Romanization' in a region can no longer consist of merely catalo­
guing artistic or political influences, but should address questions of
local social contexts. It is time to stop conceptualizing Greek and
Roman influences as necessarily being in opposition to regional
culture, ainfdnfcTconsider ways in which individual ancient societies
made use of a variety of cultural influences in order to express
thejnselves in "a ujiujue fashion. Recent archaeological advances
have set the material evidence from the Central Apennines squarely
within the context of cultural interchange in peninsular Italy. The
Pentrian Samnites in the second century BC, for example, clearly
made conscious use of precise architectural models from the Helle­
nistic world. On these models they based their monumental rural
sanctuaries which functioned as 'central places' within Samnium,
expressions of a society in which a distinctly non-urban mentality
was predominant. Such a mentality was very different from the urban
ideal of contemporary Greco-Roman society.
The use of precise architectural models from the Hellenistic world
is one manifestation of a sophisticated cultural consciousness. Similar
sophistication is apparent in Alfius' version of the arrival of the
Mamertini in Messana: a Sacred Spring according to Samnite tradi­
tion, but guided not by Mars, the god usually associated with Sacred
Springs, but by Apollo, a god associated with civilization as defined
by Greeks. Here is a myth of origins within which tradition has been
reinvented to reflect contemporary consciousness of cultural identity:
we may also see clear signs of both the desire and the means to appeal
to Greek sentiment on the part of the supporters of the Mamertini. If
we want to write about the Samnites, or any other Italian people that j
had no literature of their own 'from their own point of view', it is \
essential to admit the cultural complexity of such societies, rather
than to attempt to isolate 'regional', 'Hellenized' and 'Romanized'
features.
When we consider the literary sources, portrayals of 'other peoples'
in Greek and Latin literature should clearly not be used in an
indiscriminate fashion in the context of 'writing all we know' about
a region or city. Nor should they be considered at face value, as
220 Epilogue
objects to be 'put to the test' by archaeology, perpetuating a tradi­
tional opposition between the literary sources and the material culture
of a region. Such literary portrayals are obviously always in some
sense reflections of the frames of reference of the society in which
they were written. Nevertheless, it is clear also that such portrayals
are frequently also reflections of relationships that are more complex
and interesting than one in which Society A is supposed to have
projected images of its choice onto a blank screen, Society B. Within
the Greek world, expressions of cultural chauvinism, particularly
acute when Greek identity was perceived to be under threat, should
not be considered to exclude close interaction with other peoples. It
should remain a possibility that what we think of ultimately as
'Greek* traditions, such as those surrounding the Caudine Pontius
Herennius, are in fact the reflections of a shared ideological tradition
that arose out of close contact between Greeks and Samnites. Given
the undeniable material evidence of^glose interaction between the
Samnites and the Greek^ world, it is surely better to keep this
possibility open than to assume that the Samnites were a passive
group that periodically figured unwittingly in Greek fantasies.
Roman literary portrayals of Italians are peculiarly complex. By the
later second century BC, images of barbarians, worthily indigenous
upholders of ancestral custom, subjects and kinsmen coincide in
uneasy tension, tension that reflects attempts to conceptualize a com­
plex and sometimes ambivalent relationship. In the case of peoples of
the Central Apennines, facets of their relationship with Rome before
their incorporation into the citizenship included a long history of
enmity, the provision of large manpower resources on which Rome
relied to fight foreign enemies, and ties of hospitality between local
and Roman élites. After their incorporation into the citizenship, they
retained a position that was to some extent ambivalent: their 'out­
sider' quality could be idealized and exploited once they were safely
incorporated, and at a time when their own cultural distinctiveness
was considerably diminished. The degree and quality of the 'mis­
match' at the intersection between the ideology of the local societies
and that of Roman society is complex and interesting, reflecting such
a multi-faceted relationship. Roman images arejrelatively informed,
focu^in^jon^certain aspects oflocal society which were apparently
important in local ideology,^always viewed through the intellectual
frameworks of Roman society.
Against the background of a comparative abundance of material
 Epilogue 221

evidence for local societies in ancient Italy, and an increasingly

sophisticated treatment of literary sources regarding 'other peoples',
it is time to ask questions about how both types of evidence can be
used together. It has been with such questions that I have been
concerned while writing this book.
 APPENDIX A
Occurrences of the Name Safin-

1. THE PENNA SANT*ANDREA (TERAMO) TEXTS

(a) TE 5 (A. Marinetti, Le iscrizioni sudpicene I: testi (Florence, 1985),
215-17)
s*idom ; safinds • estuf • eéelsft ■ tfom • po /
vaisis ! pidaitüpas j fitiasom • müf qlüm j me
[[n/t]] fistrdf • nemdnef • praistäit j panivü j
meitims • saf/inas • tütas • trejegies • titüf •
praistaklasa • posmüi
(b) TE 6 (Marinetti, Iscrizioni sudpicene, 218)

]nis - safindm/ • nerf • pe/rsukant • p[

(e) TE 7 (Marinetti, Iscrizioni sudpicene 220-3): the relevant lines only are
given here, as there is dispute regarding the sequence of the remainder of the
text.
]rtür j brfmeqltìf • alfntiom • okref • safina[/
]nips - toüta • tefef • p/osmui • praistafnt • a[

2. A MID-SECOND CENTURY TEXT FROM

PIETRABBONDANTE (Ve. 149)
[pjurtam. lffs ( - ) / - - - d safinim. sak - - (-)/
- - upam. fak. ûfn (-)/ [fn]fm. keenstur (-) /(5)
[m]afiefs. maraiiefs. (-)/[p]aam. essuf. ümbn (-)/
avt. pdstiris. esidu (-)/ duunated. fffs[nai - - - - (-)]/
[f]nfm. lefguss. samfp [ fnfm] / (10) - üvfrfkunüss. fff. . .

3. ALLIED COINAGE OF THE SOCIAL WAR (Ve. 200 G 2;

cf. Sydenham, Roman Republican Coinage, 89 ff.)
g. mutfl (R) safinim.
 APPENDIX B
Uses of the Ethnic Sabellus in Latin and Greek

1. VARRO
fr. 17 (Astbury) = Servius Auct. Ad Georg. 2 168
de Sabellis Varro in Age modo sic ait:
terra culturae causa attributa oli m particulatim
hominibus, ut Etruria Tuscis, Samnium Sabellis.

2. HORACE
(a) Sat. 2. 1. 34-9
sequor hunc, Lucanus an Apulus, anceps:
nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus,
missus ad hoc pulsisT vetus est ut fama, Sabellis,
quo ne per vacuum Romano incurreret hostis,
sive quod Apula gens, seu quod Lucania bellum
incuteret violenta.

(b) Sat. 1. 9. 29-30

namque instat fatum mihi triste, Sabella
quod puero cecinit divina mota anus urna:
hunc neque dira venena, nee hosticus auferet ensis,
nee laterum dolor aut tussis, nee tarda podagra:
garni I us hunc quando consumet cumque. loquaces,
si sapiat, vitet, simul atque adoleverit aetas.

(c) Epodes 17. 27-29

ergo negatum vincor ut credam miser
Sabella pectus increpare carmina,
caputque Marsa dissilire nenia.

(d) Epist. 1. 16. 49

'sum bonus et frugi renuit negitatque Sabellus/

(e) Odes 3. 6. 37-41

sed rusticorum mascula militum
proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus
versare glaebas et severae
matris ad arbitrium recisos
portare fustis'.
224 Appendix B
3. LIVY
(a) 8. 1. 7
alteri consuli Aemilio ingresso Sabeiium agrum non castra Samnitium, non legiones
usquam oppositae.

(b) 10. 19. 20

ibi interventu Gelli cohortium Sabellanim paulisper recruduit pugna.

4. VIRGIL
(a) Georg. 2. 167-9

haec genus acre virum, Marsos pubemque Sabellam

adsuetumque malo Ligurem Volscosque verutos
extulit.

(b) Aen. 7. 665

veruque Sabello.

(e) Aen. 8. 510-11:

natum exhortarer, ni mixtus matre Sabella
hinc partem patriae traheret.

5. STRABO
5. 4. 12 = 250 C
elKÒc Sé Sia TOGTO KaiLaßkXXouc aùrovç vnoxopicrtiKOç ano vòvyovkaav KpoaayopsüBr\ya\t
XapLvixaç S'àn*àXXr\ç alxiaç, ovç oi~EXkr\vsq Zavvlzaç Xèyovcn.

6. PLINY
NH 3. 107
Samnitium quos Sabellos et Graeci Saunitas dixere.

7. JUVENAL
Sat. 3. 168-70
fìctilibus cenare pudet, quod turpe negabis
translatus subito ad Marsos mensamque Sabellam
contentusque illic veneto duroque cuculio.
 Appendix B 225
8. MARTIAL
(a) 4. 46
Saturnalia divitem Sabellum
fecerunt: merito turnet Sabellus,
nee quemquam putat esse praedicatque
inter causidicos beatiorem.
hos fastus animosque dat S abello
farris semodius fabaeque fresae

[the list of cheap gifts continues]

Saturnalia fructosiora
annis non habuit decem Sabellus.

(b) 7. 85
quod non insulse scribis tetrasticha quaedam,
disticha quod belle pauca, Sabelle, facis,
laudo nec admiror; facile est epigrammata belle
scribere, sed librum scribere difficile est.

(c) 9. 19
laudas balnea versibus trecentis
cenantis bene Pontici, Sabelle.
vis cenare, Sabelle, non lavari.

(d) 12. 39
odi te quia bellus es, Sabelle.
res est putida, bellus et Sabellus;
bellum denique malo quam Sabellum.
tabescas utinam, Sabelle, belle!

(e) 12. 43. 1-4

facundos mihi de libidinosis
legisti nimium, Sabelle, versus,
quales nec Didymi sciunt puellae
nec molles Elephantidos libelli.

(f) 12. 60. 7-8

natali pallere suo, ne calda Sabello
desit;
226 Appendix B
9. SILIUS ITALICUS
4. 219-21
trahit undique lectum
divitis Ausoniae iuvenem, Marsosque Coramque
Laurentumque decus iaculatoremque Sabellum.

10. USE OF SABELLUS OR SABELLIUS AS COGNOMEN OR

GENT1LICIUM
(a) Earliest known use: Livy 41. 4. 6 (in the context of the Histrian War of
178 BC):
ante omnes insignis opera fuit C. Popili equitis; Sabello cognomen erat.
(Jb) For other uses, see W. Schulze, 'Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigenna­
men', Abhandlungen der Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu
Göttingen: philologisch-historische Klasse, NS 5 (Berlin, 1904); and H. Solin
and O. Salomies (eds.), Repertorium nominum gentilium et cognominum
Latinorum (Hildesheim, 1988).
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADAM, A., 'Remarques sur une série de bronze ou Tarente et les Barbares dans
la deuxième moitié du IV s. av. J.-C.\ MEFRA 94 (1982), 7 ff.
and ROUVERET, A. (eds.), Guerre et sociétés en Italie (V-ÏV s. avant
J.-C.) (Paris, 1986).
AFZELIUS, A., Die römische Eroberung Italiens (Copenhagen, 1942).
ALFÖLDI, A., Early Rome and the Latins Ann Arbor (Michigan, 1965).
ALTER, P., Nationalism tr. S. McKinnon-Evans (London, 1989).
AMPOLO, C , 'Rome archaïque: une société pastorale?' in Whittaker, Pastoral
Economies; 120 ff..
ANDERSON, G. H., 'The Philippines: Reluctant Beneficiary of the Missionary
Impulse in Europe', in Chiappelli et al., First Images of America* i. 391 ff.
ANDREAU, J. 'Il terremoto del 62' in Ward-Perkins, and Claridge, Pompeii
A. D. 79, 40 ff.
APTE, M. L., Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach (Ithaca,
1985).
ARENS, W., The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy
(Oxford, 1979).
ARNOTT, W. G., Menander, Plautus, Terence (Oxford, 1975).
ASHBY, T., Some Italian Scenes and Festivals (London, 1929).
ASTIN, A., Cato tlie Censor (Oxford, 1978).
BACON, H. H., Barbarians in Greek Tragedy (New Haven, 1961).
BADIAN, E., Foreign Clientelae 264-70 B.C. (Oxford, 1958).
4
The Early Historians' in Dorey, Latin Historians, 1 ff.
•Roman Politics and the Italians', DD A 4-5 (1970-1), 373 ff.
BALDRY, H., The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought (Cambridge, 1965).
BANTON, M., Racial Theories (Cambridge, 1987).
Racial Consciousness (London, 1988).
BARKER, G., 'The Conditions of Cultural and Economic Growth in the Bronze
Age of Central Italy*, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 38 (1972)
170ff.
'Prehistoric Society and Economies in Central Italy', in E. S. Higgs
(ed.), Palaeoeconomy (Cambridge, 1975), 111 ff.
'The Archaeology of Samnite Settlement in Molise', Antiquity, 51
(1977), 20 ff.
Landscape and Society: Prehistoric Central Italy (London, 1961).
Review of Gabba and Pasquinucci, Strutture agrarie, JRS 72 (1982),
192 ff.
Prehistoric Farming in Europe (Cambridge, 1985).
228 Bibliography
4
BARKER, G., The Archaeology of the Italian Shepherd', PCPS 215 (1989)
1 ff.
4
Animals, Ritual and Power in Ancient Samnium\ in P. Meniei (ed.),
Animal et pratiques religieuses: les manifestations matérielles, iii/7.
Anthropozoologica 3rd special issue, (Paris, 1989).
LLOYD, J. A., and WEBLEY, D., 'A Classical Landscape in Molise',
PBSR 46 (1978), 35 ff.
BARTH, F., Ethnic Group and Boundaries (Boston, 1969).
BASLEZ, M. F., L'Étranger dans la Grèce antique (Paris, 1984).
BAYET, J., Les Origines de l'Hercule romain (Paris, 1926).
BEAGON, M., Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder (Oxford, 1992).
BEARD, M., and NORTH, J. (eds.), Pagan Priests (London, 1990).
BEAZLEY, J. D., Etruscan Vase-Painting (Oxford, 1947).
Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd edn., (Oxford, 1963).
BELOCH, K. J., Der römische Bund (Leipzig, 1880).
Die Bevölkerung der griechisch-römischen Welt (Leipzig, 1886).
BÉRARD, J., La Colonisation grecque de l'Italie méridionale et de la Sicile
dans l'antiquité, 2nd edn., (Paris, 1957).
BICKERMAN, E., 'Origines Gentium*, CP 47 (1952), 65 ff.
BLAGG, T., and MILLETT, M., The Early Roman Empire in the West (Oxford,
1990).
BOARDMAN, J., The Greeks Overseas, new and enlarged ed. (London, 1980).
BONFANTE WARREN, L., *The Women of Etraria', in Peradotto and Sullivan,
Women, 229 ff.
BRAUDEL, F., The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of
Philip II, Eng. trans. (2 vols.; London, 1972).
BRAUER, G., Taras (New Rochelle, NY, 1986).
BREMMER, J. (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London, 1987).
and HORSFALL, N. (eds.), Roman Myth and Mythography (BICS Suppl.
52, London, 1987).
BRIQUEL, D., Les Pélasges en Italie: recherches sur l'histoire de la légende
(Rome, 1984).
L'Origine lydienne des Étrusques: histoire de la doctrine dans
l'antiquité (Rome, 1991).
BROWN, P., Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine (London, 1972).
BRUNT, P. A., 'The Enfranchisement of the Sabines', in J. Bibauw (ed.),
Hommages à M. Renard (3 vols., Brussels, 1969), ii. 121 ff.
1971: Italian Manpower 225 BC-AD 14 (Oxford, 1971; rev. with a
postscript 1987).
The Fall of the Roman Republic and Related Essays (Oxford, 1988).
BÜCHNER, G., 'Early Orientalizing: Aspects of the Euboean Connection', in
Ridgway and Ridgway, Italy before the Romans, 129 ff.
 Bibliography 229
BUCHNER, G., and Russo, C. F., 'La coppa di Nestore e un'iscrizione metrica
da Pitecusa dell'VIII secolo a.C.\ RAL. 10 (1955), 215 ff.
BUCK, C. D., A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian 2nd edn. (Boston, 1928).
The Greek Dialects (Chicago, 1955).
BURKE, U. P., The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge,
1987).
BURNETT, A., 'Iconography of Roman Coin Types, 3rd Century B C \ NC 146
(1986), 67 ff.
BUXTON, R., 'Wolves and Werewolves in Greek Thought*, in Bremmer,
Interpretations, 68 ff.
CALDERONE, S., 'La conquista romana della Magna Grecia', in La Magna
Grecia nell'età romana (Naples, 1976), 33 ff.
CAMERON, A., and KUHRT, A. (eds.), Images of Women in Antiquity (London,
1989; 2nd edn. updated, 1993).
CAMPANILE, E., 'Le strutture magistratuali degli stati osci', in Campanile and
Letta, Studi sulle magistrature indigene, 15 ff.
CARDONA, G., and LAZZERONI, R. (eds.), Bilinguismo e biculturismo
(Pisa, 1988).
and LETTA, C , Studi sulle magistrature indigene e municipali in area
italica (Pisa, 1979).
CAMPOREALE, G., 'Saghe greche nell'arte etnisca arcaica', PDP 19 (1964),
428 ff.
'Banalizzazioni etnische di miti greci', in Studi in onore L. Banfi
(Rome, 1965), 111 ff.
CANTILENA, R., 'Problemi di emissione e di circolazione monetale', in Sannio
(1984), 90 ff.
CAPINI, S., Campochiaro (Campobasso, 1982).
CARTER, J., The Territory of Metapontum (Austin, Tex., 1983).
CARTLEDGE, P., The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (Oxford, 1993).
CASSOLA, F., / gruppi politici romani nel IH secolo a,C. (Trieste, 1962).
CHAPMAN, M., The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture (London, 1978).
CHERRY, J., 'Pastoralism and the Role of Animals in the Pre- and Protohistoric
Economies of the Aegean', in Whittaker, Pastoral Economies, 6 ff.
CHIAPPELLI, F. (ed.), ALLEN, B. J., BENSON, R. L. (co-eds.), First Images of
America: The Impact of the New World on the Old, (2 vols.; Berkeley and
Los Angeles, 1976).
CHIERICI, U., et al. (eds.), Abruzzo (Milan, 1963).
CiANCiusi, W., IRTI, U., and GROSSI. G. (eds.), Profili di archeologia marsicana
(Avezzano, 1980).
CiANFARANi, V., Culture adriatiche antiche d'Abruzzo e di Molise, (2 vols.,
Rome 1978), i.
CLARKE, D. L., Analytical Archaeology (London, 1968).
230 Bibliography
COARELLI, F., 4I santuari del Lazio e della Campania tra i Gracchi e le guerre
civili', HIM (1976), 217 ff.
Lazio (Guide archeologiche Laterza; Bari, 1982).
and LA REGINA, A., Abruzzo, Molise (Guide archeologiche Laterza;
Rome, 1984)
COHN, N., Europe's Inner Demons: an Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-
Hunt (London, 1975).
COLEMAN, R., Vergil: Eclogues (Cambridge, 1977).
4
The Central Italian Languages in the Period of Roman Expansion',
TCPS (1986), 100 ff.
'Dialectal Variation in Republican Latin, with Special Reference to
Praenestine\ PCPS 216 (1990), 1 ff.
CORNELL, T. J., 4Aeneas and the Twins', PCPS 201 (1975), 1 ff.
Review of Chass., JRS 78 (1988), 212.
CAH(2) vii/2 (Cambridge, 1989), 243 ff.: 4Rome and Latium to 390
BC', 243 ff.; 4The Recovery of Rome*, 309 ff.; The Conquest of Italy',
351 ff.
and MATTHEWS, J. F., Atlas of the Roman World (Oxford, 1982).
COST ABILE, F., Istituzioni e forme costituzionali nelle città del Bruzio in età
romana (Naples, 1984).
COTTON, M. R., The Late Republican Villa at Posto, Francolise (London,
1979).
CRAWFORD, M. H., 1964: T h e Coinage of the Age of Sulla', NC 7th sen, 4
(1964), 141 ff.
Roman Republican Coinage (2 vols.; Cambridge, 1974).
4
Italy and Rome', JRS 71 (1981), 153 ff.
Coinage and Money under the Roman Republic (London, 1984).
'Origini e sviluppi del sistema provinciale romano*, in Storia di Roma
ii. L'impero mediterraneo: /, La repubblica imperiale (Turin, 1990), 91 ff.
CRISTOFANI, M., Ter una nuova lettura della pisside della Pania', St. Etr. 39
(1971) 63 ff.
CRISTOFANI MARTELLI, M., 4Per una definizione archeologica della Sabina: la
situazione storico-culturale di Poggio Sommavilla in età arcaica', CASVT
Hi (1977), 11 ff.
D'AGOSTINO, B., 4I1 mondo periferico della Magna Grecia', PCIA 2 (Rome,
1974).
'Voluptas et Virtus: il mito politico della "ingenuità italica" ',
AION(ArcL) 3 (1981), 117 ff.
DAHL, G., and HJORT, A., Having Herds (Stockholm, 1976).
D'ARMS, J. H., Romans on the Bay of Naples (Cambridge, Mass., 1970).
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, Mass.,
1981).
DAY, J., 'Agriculture in the Life of Pompeii', YCS 3 (1932), 165 ff.
 Bibliography 231
DE BENEDITTIS, G., // centro sannitico di Monte Vairano presso Campobasso
(Salerno, 1974).
Bovianum e il suo territorio (Salerno, 1977).
Monte Vairano: la casa di * LN'; catalogo della mostra (Campo­
basso, 1988).
DE BOUGAINVILLE, L. A., A Voyage Round the World, trans. J. Reinhold Foster
(London, 1772).
DELANO-SMITH, C , Western Mediterranean Europe (London, 1979).
DE NEEVE, P. W., Colonus: Private Farm-Tenancy in Roman Italy during the
Republic and Early Principate (Amsterdam, 1984).
DE NINO, A., Abruzzi: usi e costumi abruzzesi (3 vols., Florence, 1879-83).
DEROW, P. S., 'Polybius' in T. J. Luce (ed.), Ancient Writers, Greece and
Rome 1 (2 vols., New York, 1982), i. 525 ff.
DESCOEUDRES, J. P. (ed.), Greek Colonists and Native Populations: proceed-
ings of the first Australian congress of Classical Archaeology held in
honour of emeritus professor A. D. Trendall, Sydney 9-14 July, 1985
(Oxford, 1990).
DE STE. CROIX, G. E. M., 'Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted?', Past
and Present (1963), 6 ff.
DE SANCTIS, G., Storia dei Romani (4 vols., Turin, 1907-64) i-i v.
DÉTIENNE, M., Crise agraire et attitude religieuse chez Hésiode (Brussels,
1963).
Les Jardins dyAdonis (Paris, 1972).
DEVOTO, G., Gli antichi Italici, 3rd edn. (Florence, 1967).
Dì NIRO, A., // culto d'Ercole tra i Sanniti pentii e frentani: nuove testimo-
nianze (Rome, 1977).
DIXON, S., The Roman Mother (London, 1988).
DODDS, E. R., 'The Ancient Concept of Progress* in E. R. Dodds, (ed.), The
Ancient Concept of Progress (Oxford, 1973), 1 ff.
DOREY, T. A. (ed.), Latin Historians (London, 1966).
DOVER, K. J., Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle
(Oxford, 1974).
DUNBABIN, T. J., The Western Greeks (Oxford, 1948).
EARL, D. C , 1961: The Political Thought of Sallust (Cambridge, 1961).
EDELSTEIN, E., and EDELSTEIN, L. (eds.), Asclepius: A Collection and Inter-
pretation of the Testimonies (2 vols., Baltimore, 1945).
EDER, W. (ed.), Staat und Staatlichheit in der frühen römischen Republik
(Stuttgart, 1990).
EVANS, E., The Cults of the Sabine Territory (Rome, 1939).
FINLEY, M., 'How it Really Was', Ancient History: Evidence and Models
(London, 1985), 47 ff.
FIRMANI, M., 'Panorama archeologico sabino alla luce di recenti acquisizioni',
in PSCS (1985), 99 ff.
232 Bibliography
FORNARA, C. W., Herodotus: An Interpretative Essay (Oxford, 1971).
FRANCHI DELL'ORTO, L., and L A REGINA, A., Culture adriatiche antiche
d'Abruzzo e di Molise, (2 vols., Rome, 1978), ii.
FRAYN, J., Subsistence Farming in Roman Italy (London, 1979).
Sheep-Rearing and the Wool Trade in Italy During the Roman Period
(Liverpool, 1984).
FREDERIKSEN, M. W., 'Campanian Cavalry: A Question of Origins', DDA 2/1
(1968), 3 ff.
Review of Salmon, Samnium, JRS 58 (1968), 224 ff.
'The Contribution of Archaeology to the Agrarian Problem in the
Gracchan Period', DDA 4-5 (1970-1) 330 ff.
'Changes in the Pattern of Settlement', HIM (1976), 341 ff.
Campania, ed. N. Purcell (London, 1984).
FURTWÄNGLER, A., Antiken Gemmen (3 vols., Leipzig, 1900), iii.
GABBA, E., * Urbanizzazione e rinnovamenti urbanistici nell'Italia centro-
meridionale del I sec. a.C.\ Studi classici e orientali, 21 (1972), 73 ff.
Republican Rome: The Army and the Allies, Eng. trans. (Oxford,
1976).
'Considerazioni politiche ed economiche sullo sviluppo urbano in
Italia nei secoli II e I a . C , HIM (1976), 316 ff.
'Il problema dell'"unità" dell'Italia romana', La cultura italica (Pisa,
1978), 11 ff.
'Strutture sociali e politica romana in Italia nel II sec. a . C , Bour-
geoisies (1983), 41 ff.
'La pastorizia nell'età tardo imperiale in Italia', Whittaker, Pastoral
Economies, 134 ff.
and PASQUINUCCI, M. (eds)., Strutture agrarie e allevamento transu-
mante nell'Italia romana (II-I sec. a.C.) (Pisa, 1979).
GAGGIOTTI, M., 'Le iscrizioni della basilica di Saepinum e i rectores della
provincia del Samnium', Athen. 56 (1978), 146 ff.
'Tre casi regionali italici: il Sannio pentro', Bourgeoisies (1983),
137 ff.
GALINSKY, G., Aeneas, Sicily and Rome (Princeton, 1969).
GALLINI, C , 'Che cosa intendere per ellenizzazione. Problemi di metodo',
DDA 7 (1973), 175 ff.
GALSTERER, H., 'Die lex Osca tabulae Bantinae: Eine Bestansaufnahme',
Chiron 1 (1971), 191 ff.
'Urbanisation und Municipalisation Italiens in 2 und l Jh. v. Chr.',
HIM (1976), 327 ff.
GARNSEY, P., 'Where Did Italian Peasants Live?', PCPS (1979), 1 ff.
Non-Slave Labour in the Ancient World (PCPS Suppl. 6, 1980).
'Mountain Economies in Southern Europe: Thoughts on the Early
 Bibliography 233
History, Continuity and Individuality of Mediterranean Upland Pastoral-
ism', in Whittaker, Pastoral Economies, 196 ff.
GARNSEY, P., and SALLER, R., The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and
Culture (London, 1987).
GATTEI, S., 4Una regione piccola e di poche risorse', in Gattei et al., Molise,
11 ff.
et al. (eds.), Molise (Milan, 1980).
GELLNER, E., Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983).
GERBI, A., *The Earliest Accounts on the New World', in Chiappelli et al.,
First Images of America, i. 37 ff.
GIARDINA, A., 'Uomini e spazi aperti', in E. Gabba, and A. Schiavone, (eds.),
Storia di Roma, iv. Caratteri e morfologie (Turin, 1989), 71 ff.
and SCHIAVONE, A. (eds.), Società romana e produzione schiavistica (3
vols., Rome, 1981).
GIUSTIZIA, F., Paletnologia e archeologia di un territorio (Rome, 1985).
GLAZER, N., and MOYNIHAN, D. P. (eds.), Ethnicity: Theory and Experience
(Cambridge, Mass., 1975).
GNOLI, G., and VERNANT, J. P. 1982: La Mort: les morts dans les sociétés
anciennes (Cambridge, 1982).
GOLDSCHMIDT, W. *A General Model for Pastoral Social Systems', in Pastoral
Production and Society/Production pastorale et société (Paris and Cam­
bridge, 1979), 15 ff.
GORDON, M. M., Towards a General Theory of Racial and Ethnie Group
Relations', in Glazer and Moynihan, Ethnicity, 84 ff.
GORDON, R., 'Religion in the Early Empire: The Civic Compromise and its
Limits', in Beard, and North, Pagan Priests, 235 ff.
GOULD, J., Herodotus (London, 1989).
GRAHAM, A. J., 'Pre-Colonial Contacts: Questions and Problems', in Des-
coeudres, Greek Colonists and Native Populations, 45 ff.
GRATWICK, A. S., 'Ennius' Annales1, in Kenney and Clausen, Cambridge
History of Classical Literature, 60 ff.
'Drama', in Kenney and Clausen, Cambridge History of Classical
Literature, 11 ff.
*Prose Literature', in Kenney and Clausen, Cambridge History of
Classical Literature, 138 ff.
'The Satires of Ennius and Lucilius', in Kenney and Clausen, Cam-
bridge History of Classical Literature, 156 ff.
GRECO PONTRANDOLFO, A., / Lucani (Milan, 1982).
GRIFFIN, J., Homer on Life and Death (Oxford, 1980).
GRIMAL, P., Les Jardins romains, 3rd edn. (Paris, 1984).
GROS, P. Architecture et société (Brussels, 1978):
and TORELLI, M., Storia dell'urbanistica: il mondo romano (Rome,
1988).
234 Bibliography
GROSSI, G. (ed.)» // territorio del Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo dell'antichità
(Civitella Alfedena, 1988).
GRUEN, E. S., Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Leiden, 1990).
GUARDUCCI, M., 'Nuove considerazioni sul cratere di Aristonothos', RAL 31
(1976), 145 ff.
GUTHRIE, W. K., A History of Greek Philosophy (6 vols., Cambridge, 1969),
iii.
Guzzo, P. G., 'Myths and Archaeology in South Italy', in Descoeudres, Greek
Colonists and Native Populations, 131 ff.
HALL, E., Inventing the Barbarian (Oxford, 1989).
*Asia Unmanned: Images of Victory in Classical Athens', in J. Rich,
and G. Shipley (eds.), War and Society in the Greek World (London, 1993),
108 ff.
HALSTEAD, P., 'Traditional and Ancient Rural Economy in Mediterranean
Europe: plus ça change?', JHS 107 (1987), 77 ff.
HANKE, L., T h e Theological Significance of the Discovery of America', in
Chi appelli et al.. First Images of America, 363 ff.
HANSEN, P., 'Pithecusan Humour: The Interpretation of "Nestor's Cup"
Reconsidered' Giotto, 54 (1976), 25 ff.
HARRIS, W. V., Rome in Etruria and Umbria (Oxford, 1971). War and
Imperialism in Republican Rome 327-70 B.C. (Oxford, 1979).
'The Italians and the Empire', W. V. Harris (ed.), The Imperialism of
Mid-Republican Rome, Papers and Monographs of the American Academy
in Rome 29 (Rome, 1984), 89 ff.
HARTOG, F., The Mirror of Herodotus, Eng. trans. (Berkeley, 1988).
HATZFELD, J., Les Trafiquants italiens dans l'Orient hellénique (Paris, 1919).
HEAD, B., Historia Numorum (Oxford, 1911; 2nd edn. Chicago, 1967).
HEURGON, J., Trois études sur le ' Ver Sacrum', Collection Latomus 26
(Brussels, 1957).
The Rise of Rome to 264 B.C., Eng. trans. (London, 1973).
HOBSBAWM, E., Bandits (London, 1969).
and RANGER, T. (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983).
HODGES, R., Primitive and Peasant Markets (Oxford, 1988).
HOPKINS, K., Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge, 1978).
ILARI, V., Gli Italici nelle strutture militari romani (Milan, 1974).
IMMERWAHR, H., Form and Thought in Herodotus (Cleveland, 1966).
ISAACS, H., 'Basic Group Identity: The Idols of the Tribe', in Glazer and
Moynihan, Ethnicity, 29 ff.
ISAJIW, W. W., 'Definitions of Ethnicity', Ethnicity, 1/2 (1974), 111 ff.
JASHEMSKI, W., The Gardens of Pompeii (New Rochelle, NY, 1979).
JENKYNS, R., 4Virgil and Arcadia', JRS 79 (1989), 26 ff.
JOHANNOWSKY, W., 'La situazione in Campania', HIM (1976), 267 ff.
 Bibliography 235
JoHANNOwsKY, W., *I1 Sannio', M. Tagliente (ed.), Italici in Magna Grecia:
lingue, insediamenti e strutture (Venosa, 1990), 13 ff.
JONGMAN, W., 4Adding it Up', in Whittaker, Pastoral Economies, 210 ff.
The Economy and Society of Pompeii (Amsterdam, 1988).
JOUDAIN-ANNEQUIN, C , Héraclès aux portes du soir (Besançon, 1989).
JUST, R., 'Triumph of the Ethnos', in Tonkin et al. (eds.), History and
Ethnicity, 71 ff.
JÜTHNER, J., Hellenen und Barbaren (Leipzig, 1923).
KEAVENEY, A., Rome and the Unification of Italy (London, 1987).
KENNEY, E. J. (ed.), and CLAUSEN, W. V. (advisory ed.), The Cambridge
History of Classical Literature, ii. Latin Literature (Cambridge, 1982).
KOUMOULIDES, J. (ed.), Greek Connections: Essays on Culture and Diplomacy
(Notre Dame, Ind., 1987).
KRAAY, C. M., Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1976).
LAFFI, U., 'Problemi dell'organizzazione paganico-vicano nelle aree Abruz­
zesi e Molisane', Athen. 52 (1974), 336 ff.
LA REGINA, A., 'Le iscrizioni osche di Pietrabbondante e la questione di
Bovianum Vetus', Rh.M.f. Philol. (1966), 260 ff.
'L'elogio di Scipione Barbato', DDA 2 (1968), 173 ff.
'Ricerche sugli insediamenti vestini', Memorie dei Lincei, 13, fase. 5
(1968), 361 ff.
'Note sulla formazione dei centri urbani in area sabellica', in Atti del
convegno di studi sulla città etrusco e italica preromana (Bologna, 1970)
191 ff.
'I territori sabellici e sannitici', DDA 4-5 (1970-1), 443 ff.
'Il Sannio', HIM (1976), 219 ff.
'I Sanniti: il sogno di un impero', in Gattei et al., Molise, 25 ff.
'Appunti su entità etniche e strutture istituzionali nel Sannio antico',
in AION(Arch.) 3 (1981), 129 ff.
'Aspetti istituzionali nel mondo sannitico*, in Sannio (1984) 17 ff.
*I Sanniti', in G. Pugliese Carratelli, (ed.), Antica madre: collana di
studi sull'Italia antica; Italia omnium terrarum parens (Milan, 1989),
301 ff.
LARNER, C , Witchcraft and Religion (Oxford, 1984).
LEFKOWITZ, M., 'Influential Women', in Cameron and Kuhrt, Images, 49 ff.
LEPORE, E., 'Da Cicerone a Ovidio: un aspetto di storia sociale e culturale*,
PDP 13 (1958), 80 ff.
'L'Italia nella formazione della communità romano-italico',
Klearchos 5 (1963), 89 ff.
'Roma e le città greche o ellenizzate nell'Italia meridionale', Bour-
geoisies (1983), 347 ff.
LETTA, C , I Marsi e il Fucino nell*antichità (Milan, 1972).
236 Bibliography
LETTA, C , 'Magistrature italiche e magistrature municipali: continuità o
frattura?', in Campanile and Letta, Studi sulle magistrature indigenie,
33 ff.
*I mores dei romani e l'origine dei sabini in Catone', PSCS (1985),
15 ff.
4
"Oppida", "vici", "pagi" in area marsa: l'influenza dell'ambiente
naturale sulla continuità delle forme di insediamento', in Sordi, Geografia e
storiografia, 217 ff.
and D'AMATO, S., Epigrafia della regione dei Marsi (Milan, 1975).
LIEBESCHUETZ, W., Continuity and Change in Roman Religion (Oxford, 1979).
LIEU, J., NORTH, J., and RAJAK, T. (eds.), The Jews among Pagans and
Christians (London, 1992).
LILJA, S., The Roman Elegists' Attitude to Women (Helsinki, 1965).
LiNTOTT, A., 'Imperial Expansion and Moral Decline in the Roman Republic',
Hist. 21 (1972), 626 ff.
LIPOVSKY, J., A Historiographical Study of Livy Books 6-10 (New York,
1981).
LLOYD, G. E. R., Polarity and Analogy: Two Types of Argumentation in Early
Greek Thought (Cambridge, 1966).
Magic, Reason and Experience (Cambridge, 1979).
Science, Folklore and Ideology (Cambridge, 1983).
LLOYD, J. A., 'Farming the Highlands: Samnium and Arcadia in the Hellenis­
tic and Early Roman Imperial Periods', in G. Barker and J. A. Lloyd (eds.),
Roman Landscapes (London, 1991), 180 ff.
and BARKER, G., 'Rural Settlement in Roman Molise: Problems of
Archaeological Survey', British Archaeological Reports, International
Series 102 (Oxford, 1981), 289 ff.
and RATHBONE, D. W„ 'A Classical Landscape in Molise', Conos-
cenza, 1 (Campobasso, 1984), 216 ff.
LUCE, T. J., Livy: The Composition of his History (Princeton, 1978).
MCDONALD, A. H., 'The History of Rome and Italy in the Second Century
B.C.', Camb. Hist Journ. 6 (1938), 125 ff.
MCDONALD, M., 4 We Are Not French!': Language, Culture and Ethnicity in
Brittany (London, 1989).
MACMULLEN, R., Roman Social Relations 50 B.C. to A.D. 284 (New Haven,
1974).
MAINARDI, R., 'Autonomia amministrativa e disgregazione rurale' in Gattei et
al.y Molise, 5 ff.
MAIR, L., Witchcraft (London, 1968).
MALKIN, I., Religion and Colonization in Ancient Greece (Leiden, 1987).
MALLORY, J. P., In Search of the Indo-Europeans (London, 1989).
MANGANARO, G., 'Città di Sicilia e santuari panellenici nel III e II sec. a . C ,
Hist. 13 (1964), 414 ff.
 Bibliography 237
MARIANI, L., 'Aufidena', Monumenti Antichi, 10 (1901), 225 ff.
MARINETTI, A., 'Il sudpiceno come italico: nota preliminare', St. Etr. 49
(1981), 113 ff.
Le iscrizioni sudpicene 1: testi (Florence, 1985).
MARTIN, R., L'Urbanisme dans la Grèce antique (Paris, 1956).
Recherches sur les agronomes latins et leurs conceptions écono-
miques et sociales (Paris, 1971).
MASSA PAIRAULT, F., Iconologia e politica nell'Italia antica (Milan, 1992).
MATTIOCCO, E., 'I centri fortificati nel contesto delle culture pastorali', in
Centri fortificati preromani nel territorio dei Peligni (Sulmona, 1981).
MAUSS, M., A General Theory of Magic, Eng. trans. (London, 1972).
MAZZARINO, S., Il pensiero storico classico (Bari, 1966), ii/1.
MELE, A., TI pitagorismo e le popolazioni anelleniche d'Italia', AION(Arch) 3
(1981), 61 ff.
'La Megale Hellas: aspetti politici, economici e sociali', Mégale
Hellas: Nome e immagine (Atti del ventunesimo convegno di studi sulla
Magna Grecia. Taranto 2-5 ottobre 1981 (Taranto, 1983), 33 ff.
MENICHETTI, M., 'Le aristocrazie tirreniche: aspetti iconografici', Storia di
Roma i. Roma in Italia (Turin, 1988), 75 ff.
'L'oinochóe di Tragliatella: mito e rito tra Grecia ed Etruria',
Ostraka, 1/1 (1992), 7 ff.
MERCANTO, L., 'L'ellenismo nel Piceno', HIM (1976), 160 ff.
MERTENS, J., Alba Fucens (Brussels, 1981).
and LAMBRECHTS (eds.), Comunità indigene e problemi della roma-
nizzazione nell'Italia centro-meridionale (IV-III sec. av. C): Actes du
colloque international organisé à l'occasion du 50e anniversaire de
VAcademia Belgica, Roma 1990 (Rome, 1991).
MILLAR, F. G. B., *The Phoenician Cities: A Case-Study in Hellenization',
PCPS 209 (1983), 55 ff.
'The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200-151
B.C.', JRS 74 (1984), 1 ff.
'Politics, Persuasion and the People before the Social War (150-90
Be)', JRS 76 (1986), 1 ff.
'Polybius between Greece and Rome', in Koumoulides, Greek Con-
nections, 1 ff.
'Political Power in Mid-Republican Rome: Curia or Comitium?', JRS
79 (1989), 138 ff.
'The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora between Paganism and
Christianity', in Lieu, North, and Rajak, Jews among Pagans and Chris-
tians, 97 ff.
1993: 'Hagar, Ishmael, Josephus and the Origins of Islam', Journal of
Jewish Studies 44/1 (1993), 23 ff.
MOELLER, W. O., The Wool Trade of Ancient Pompeii (Leiden, 1976).
238 Bibliography
MOMIGLIANO, A., 'Ancient History and the Antiquarian', Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 13 (1950), 285 ff. = Studies in Histor-
iography (London, 1966), 1 ff.
'Atene nel III secolo a.C. e la scoperta di Roma nelle storie di Timeo
di Tauromenio', Riv. stor. ital. 11 (1959), 529 ff. = Terzo contributo alla
storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico (Rome, 1966), 23 ff.
Alien Wisdom (Cambridge, 1975).
MONTANARI, E., Identità culturale e conflitti religiosi nella Roma repubblicana
(Rome, 1988).
MoRANDi, A., Epigrafia italica (Rome, 1982).
'Iscrizione sabina arcaica nel territorio di Cures', St. Etr. 51 (1983),
595 ff.
MOREL, J. -P., 'Le Sanctuaire de Vastogirardi et les influences hellénistiques
en Italie centrale', HIM, (1976), 259 ff.
MORGAN, P., 'From a Death to a View: The Hunt for a Welsh Past in the
Romantic Period', in Hobsbawm and Ranger, Invention of Tradition, 43 ff.
MOURITSEN, H., Elections, Magistrates and Municipal Elite: Studies in Pom-
peian Epigraphy, Analecta Romana Institut! Danici, Suppl. 15 (Rome,
1988).
MÜHLL, M., Antike Menschenheitsidee (Leipzig, 1928).
MURRAY, O., 'Herodotus and Hellenistic Culture', CQ NS 22 (1972), 200 ff.
Early Greece (Glasgow, 1980).
'Omero e l'etnologia*, Magna Graecia, 14: 9/10 (1989), 1 ff.
MUSTI, D., 'La nozione storica dei Sanniti nelle fonti greche e romane', in
Sannio (1984), 71 ff.
'I due volti della Sabina', PSCS (1985), 75 ff.
'I Greci e l'Italia' in Storia di Roma, i: Roma in Italia (Turin, 1988),
39 ff.
MUZZIOLI, M. P., Forma Italiae, Regio IV, ii: Cures Sabini (Florence, 1980).
NACHTERGAEL, G., Les Galates en Grèce et les Sôtéria de Delphes (Brussels,
1977).
NAGLE, D. B.» 'The Etruscan Journey of Tiberius Gracchus', Hist. 25 (1976),
48 ff.
NAPOLI, M., // museo di Paestum (Naples, 1969).
NICOLET, C , 'Les Equités campani et leurs representations figurées', MEFRA
74 (1962), 463 ff.
'Le Stipendium des alliés italiens', PBSR 46 (1979), 1 ff.
Rome et la conquête du monde méditerranéen i. Les structures de
VItalie romaine (Paris, 1979).
NORTH, J. A., 'Conservatism and Change in Roman Religion', PBSR 44
(1976), 1 ff.
'Diviners and Divination at Rome', in Beard and North, Pagan
Priests (1990), 51 ff.
 Bibliography 239
OAKLEY, S., 'The Roman Conquest of Italy', in Rich and Shipley, War and
Society in the Roman World, 9 ff.
OGILVIE, R. (ed.), A Commentary on Livy Books 1-5 (Oxford, 1965).
OKELY, J., The Traveller-Gypsies (Cambridge, 1983).
PALLOTTINO, M., Genti e culture dell'Italia preromana (Rome, 1981).
A History of Earliest Italy; Eng. trans. (London, 1991).
PARISE BADONI, F., RUGGERI GIOVE, M., BRAMBILLA, C , and GHERARDINI, P.,
'Necropoli di Alfedena (scavi 1974-1979): proposta di una cronologia
relativa', AION(Arch.) 4 (1982), 1 ff.
PARKE, H. W., Greek Mercenary Soldiers (Oxford, 1933).
PASQUINUCCI, M., 'La transumanza nell'Italia romana' in Gabba and Pasqui-
nucci, Strutture agrarie e allevamento transumante, 81 ff.
'Aspetti dell'allevamento transumante nell'Italia centro-meridionale
adriatica', in Sannio (1984), 99 ff.
PATTERSON, J. R., 'The Upper Volturno Valley in Roman Times', in R. Hodges
and J. Mitchell (eds.), San Vincenzo al Volturno, British Archaeological
Reports, International Series 252 (Oxford, 1985).
'Crisis: What Crisis? Rural Change and Urban Development in
Imperial Appennine Italy', PBSR 55 (1987), 115 ff.
Sanniti, Liguri e Romani/Samnites Ligurians and Romans (Circello,
1988).
'Settlement, City and Élite in Samnium and Lycia', in Rich and
Wallace-Hadrill, City and Country, 146 ff.
PATTERSON, O., 'Context and Choice in Ethnic Allegiance: A Theoretical
Framework and Caribbean Case-Study', in Glazer and Moynihan, Ethni-
city, 305 ff.
PEARSON, L., 'Myth and Archaeologia in Italy and Sicily: Timaeus and his
Predecessors', YCS 24 (1975), 171 ff.
The Greek Historians of the West: Timaeus and his Predecessors
(Atlanta, 1987).
PEMBROKE, S., 'Women in Charge: The Function of Alternatives in Early
Greek Tradition and the Ancient Idea of Matriarchy', Journal of the
Warburg and the Courtauld Institutes, 30 (1967), 1 ff.
PENNEY, J. H. W., 'The Languages of Italy', CAH(2), iv. (Cambridge, 1988),
726 ff.
PERADOTTO, J., and SULLIVAN, J. P. (eds.), Women in the Ancient World: The
'Arethusa* Papers (Albany, NY, 1984).
PETROCHILOS, N., Roman Attitudes to the Greeks (Athens, 1974).
PIETELA-CASTRÉN, L., The Victory Monuments of the Roman Generals in the
Era of the Punic Wars (Helsinki, 1987).
PIETRANGELO C , 'La Sabina nell'antichità', Rieti e il suo territorio (1976),
9 ff.
240 Bibliography
PiROVANo, S., 'In margine alla vita del meridione', in Gattei et al., Molise,
17 ff.
POCCETTI, P. Nuovi documenti italici (Pisa, 1979).
(ed.), 'L'epigrafia come fonte per la ricerca etnotoponomistica
nell'Italia antica', AION(Ling.) 4 (1984), 53 ff.
Per un'identità culturale dei Brettii (Naples, 1988).
'Riflessi di strutture di fortificazioni nell'epigrafia italica tra il II ed il
I secolo a.C.\ Athen, NS 66 (1988), 303 ff.
POLLITT, J., Art in the Hellenistic Age (Cambridge, 1986).
and ROUVERET, A., 'Ideologia funeraria e società a Poseidonia nel IV
sec. a . C , in Gnoli and Vernant, La Mort, 299 ff.
POTTER, T. W., The Changing Landscape of South Etruria (London, 1979).
Roman Italy (London, 1985).
POUCET, J., 'Les Origines mythiques des Sabins à travers l'œuvre de Caton, de
Cn. Gellius, de Vairon, d'Hygin et de Strabon', Études Étrusco-ltaliques,
Univ. de Louvain, Recueil de trav. d'hist. et de philol., 4th ser., 31 (1963),
161 ff.
Recherches sur la légende sabine des origines de Rome (Louvain,
1967).
Les Origines de Rome (Brussels, 1985).
POUTHIER, P., Ops et la conception divine de Vabondance dans la religion
romaine jusqu'à la mort d'Auguste (Rome, 1981).
PRONTERA, F., 'Imagines Italiae: Sulle più antiche visualizzazioni e rappre­
sentazioni geografiche dell'Italia', Athen. 64 (1986), 295 ff.
PROSDOCIMI, A., 'Il lessico istituzionale italico: Tra linguistica e storia' in La
cultura italica (Pisa, 1978), 29 ff.
'La lingua tra storia e cultura', Sannio (1984), 59 ff.
'I safini delle iscrizioni sudpicene', PSCS (1985), 35 ff.
'Sabinità e (pan)italicità linguistica' DDA, 3rd ser., 5 (1987), 53 ff.
Pucci, G., *I consumi alimentari', E. Gabba and A. Schiavone (eds.), Storia di
Roma, iv. Caratteri e Morfologie (Turin, 1989), 369 ff.
PUGLIESE CARRATELLI, G. (ed.), Magna Grecia, lo sviluppo politico, sociale ed
economico (Milan, 1987).
PUGLISI S. M„ La civiltà appenninica (Florence, 1959).
PURCELL, N., 'Wine and Wealth in Ancient Italy', JRS 75 (1985), 1 ff.
'Town in Country and Country in Town', in E. MacDougall, Ancient
Roman Villa Gardens (Dunbarton Oaks, 1987), 187 ff.
'The Creation of Provincial Landscape: The Roman Impact on
Cisalpine Gaul', in Blagg and Millett, Early Roman Empire, 7 ff.
RAMAGE, E. S., Urbanitas: Ancient Sophistication and Refinement (Norman,
Okla., 1973).
RATHBONE, D. W., 'The Development of Agriculture in the Ager Cosanus
 Bibliography 241
during the Roman Republic; Problems of Evidence and Interpretation', JRS
71 (1981), 11 ff.
RAWSON, E., The Spartan Tradition in European Thought (Oxford, 1969).
'Theatrical Life in Rome and Italy', PBSR 53 (1985), 97 ff.
Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic (London, 1985).
RICH, J., 'The Supposed Manpower Shortage of the Late Second Century B C \
Hist 32 (1983), 287 ff.
and SHIPLEY, G. (eds.), War and Society in the Roman World (London,
1993).
(eds.), 1993: War and Society in the Greek World (London,
1993).
and WALLACE-H ADRILL, A., City and Country in the Ancient World
(London, 1991).
RICHARDSON, J. S., 'The Ownership of Roman Land: Tiberius Gracchus and the
Italians', JRS 70 (1980), 1 ff.
RICHARDSON, L., Pompeii (Baltimore, 1988).
RIDGWAY, D., 'Italy from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age', CAH{2) iv. (1988),
623 ff.
'The First Western Greeks and their Neighbours, 1935-85', in Des-
coeudres, Greek Colonists and Native Populations, 69 ff.
and RIDGWAY, F. R., Italy before the Romans (London, 1979).
Rieti e il suo territorio (Milan, 1976).
Rix, H., 'Sabini, Sabelli, Samnium. Ein Beitrag zur Lautgeschichte der
Sprachen Altitaliens', Beiträge zur Namensforschung, 8 (1957), 127 ff.
ROBERT, J. N., La Vie à la campagne dans Vantiquité romaine (Paris, 1985).
ROLLIN, S., 'Women and Witchcraft in Ancient Assyria', in Cameron and
Kuhrt, Images, 34 ff.
ROMM, J., The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (Princeton,. 1992).
ROUVERET, A., 'Tite-Live, Histoire Romaine IX, 40: la description des armées
samnites ou les pièges de la Symmetrie', in Adam and Rouveret, Guerre et
sociétés, 91 ff.
and GRECO PONTRANDOLFO, A., 'Pittura funeraria in Lucania e Campa­
nia: puntualizzazioni cronologiche e proposte di lettura', in Ricerche di
pittura ellenistica: lettura e interpretazione della produzione pittorica dal
IVsecolo a.C. alVellenismo (Quaderni dei dialoghi di archeologia 1 (Rome,
1985), 91 ff.
RUDD, N., Themes in Roman Satire (London, 1986).
RYDER, M. L., Sheep and Man (London, 1983).
SAID, E., Orientalism (London, 1978).
SALMON, E. T., 'The Cause of the Social War', Phoenix, 16 (1962), 107 ff.
Samnium and the Samnites (Cambridge, 1967).
Roman Colonization under the Republic (London, 1969).
SALMON, E. T., The Making of Roman Italy (London, 1982).
242 Bibliography
SALMON, E. T., 'The Hirpini: ex Italia semper aliquid novi', Phoenix, 43
(1989), 225 ff.
SARTORI, F., 'Le città italiote dopo la conquista romana*, La Magna Grecia
nell'età romana atti del quindicesimo convegno di studi sulla Magna
Grecia, Taranto, 5-10 ottobre 1975 (Naples, 1976), 83 ff.
SCHULZE, W., 'Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen*, Abhandlungen der
königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen: philologisch-
historische Klasse, NS 5 (Berlin, 1904).
SEAFORD, R. (ed.), Euripides' Cyclops (Oxford, 1984).
SEGAL, C , 'The Menace of Dionysus: Sex Roles and Reversals in Euripides*
Bacchae', in Peradotto and Sullivan, Women, 195 ff.
SEGAL, E., Roman Laughter, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1987).
SEGENNI, S., Amiternum e il suo territorio in età romana (Pisa, 1985).
SHAW, B. D., 'Eaters of Flesh, Drinkers of Milk*, Ancient Society, 13-14
(1982-3), 5 ff.
SHERWIN-WHITE, A. N., The Roman Citizenship, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1973).
SILVESTRI, D. 'Identificazione e interpretazione linguistiche di etnici e to­
ponimi dell'Italia antica*, AION(Ling.) 4 (1982), 65 ff.
SKYDSGAARD, J. Transhumance in Ancient Italy, Analecta Romana Instituti
Danici, Suppl. 7 (Rome, 1974).
SOLIN, H., and SALOMIES, O. (eds.), Repertorium nominum gentilium et con-
gnominum Latinorum (Hildesheim, 1988).
SORDI, M. (ed.), Roma e i Sanniti nel IV sec. a.C. (Bologna, 1969).
(ed.), Geografia e storiografia nel mondo classico (Milan, 1988).
SPIVEY, N., and STODDART, S., Etruscan Italy (London, 1990).
SPURR, S., Arable Cultivation in Roman Italy c.200 B.C-100 A.D., JRS
Monographs 3, (London, 1986).
STAMBAUGH, J. E., The Ancient Roman City (Baltimore, 1988).
STANFORD, W. B., and LUCE, J. V., The Quest for Ulysses (London, 1974).
STARR, C , The Beginnings of Imperial Rome (Ann Arbor, 1980).
STAVELEY, E. S., 'Rome and Italy in the Early Third Century*, CAHÇ1) vii/2
(Cambridge, 1989), 420 ff.
STRAZZULLA, M. J., 4Reperti monetari degli scavi del santuario sannitico di
Pietrabbondante*, Istituto italiano di numismatica. Annali, 20 (1973), 31 ff.
STURTEVANT, W. C , 1976: 'First Visual Images of America*, in Chiappelli, et
al., First Images of America, 417 ff.
SYDENHAM, E. A., The Roman Republican Coinage (London, 1952).
SYME, R., The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939).
Tacitus (2 vols., Oxford, 1958).
TAYLOR, L. R., The Voting-Districts of the Roman Republic: The Thirty-Five
Urban and Rural Tribes (Rome, 1960).
THOMAS, K. V., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971).
 Bibliography 243
THOMAS, R. F., Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical
Tradition (PCPS Suppl. 7, 1982), 1 ff.
THOMPSON, J., 'Pastoralism and Transhumance in Roman Italy', in Whittaker,
Pastoral Economies, 213 ff.
THOMPSON, L., Romans and Blacks (London, 1989).
THOMSEN, R., The Italic Regions from Augustus to the Lombard Invasion
(Copenhagen, 1947).
TIGERSTEDT, E. N., The Legend of Sparta in Classical Antiquity (Lund, 1965),
i. (Uppsala 1974), ii.
TONKIN, E., et al. (eds.), History and Ethnicity (London, 1989).
TORELLI, M., 'Trebula Mutuesca: Iscrizioni corrette ed inedite', RAL 18
(1963), 230 ff.
'Edilizia pubblica in Italia centrale', HIM (1976), 243 ff.
*La romanizzazione dei territori italici: il contributo della documen­
taria archeologica', in La cultura italica (Pisa, 1978), 75 ff.
'Italia: Regio IV (Samnium)', Atti del colloquio internazionale
AIEGL su epigrafia e ordine senatorio, Roma, 14—20 maggio 1981 (2
vols. Rome, 1982), ii. 165 ff.
*Una nuova epigrafe di Bantia e la cronologia dello statuto munici­
pale bantino', Athen, NS 61 (1983), 252 ff.
'Per il Sannio tra IV e I sec. a.C: note di archeologia', in Sannio
(1984), 27 ff.
*Le popolazioni dell'Italia antica: società e forme del potere' in Storia
di Roma, i. Roma in Italia (Turin, 1988), 53 ff.
TORELLI, M. R., Rerum Romanarum Fontes (Pisa, 1978).
TOYNBEE, A. J., HannibaVs Legacy (2 vols.; Oxford, 1965).
TOYNBEE, J., Animals in Roman Life and Art (London, 1973).
TRENDALL, A. D., The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily
(Oxford, 1967).
Gli indigeni nella pittura italiota (Taranto, 1971).
The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum (Rome, 1987).
TREVOR-ROPER, H., 'The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of
Scotland', in Hobsbawm and Ranger, Invention of Tradition, 15 ff.
VAN WONTERGHEM, F., 'Le Culte d'Hercule chez les Paeligni: documents
anciens et nouveaux', L'antiquité classique, 42 (1973), 36 ff.
Superaequum, Corfinium, Sulmo, Forma Italiae iv/1 (Florence, 1984).
VEYNE, P., 'Mythe et réalité de l'autarcie à Rome', REA (1979), 261 ff.
VON FRITZ, K., Pythagorean Politics in Southern Italy (New York, 1940).
WALBANK, F. W., 'Polybius, Philinus and the First Punic War', CQ 39 (1945),
11 ff.
A Historical Commentary on Polybius (3 vols.; Oxford, 1957-79).
WALLACE, R., 4 Hellenization and Roman Society in the Late Fourth Century
BC: A Methodological Critique', in Eder, Staat und Staatlichkeit, 278 ff.
244 Bibliography
WALLACE-HADRILL, A., 'Elites and Trade in the Roman Town', in Rich and
Wallace-Hadrill, City and Country 241 ff.
WALSH, P., Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (Cambridge, 1961).
WARDE FOWLER, W., The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London,
1911).
WARDMAN, A., Rome's Debt to Greece (London, 1976).
WARD-PERKINS, J. B., and CLARIDGE, A., Pompeii A.D. 79 (Bristol, 1976).
WEINSTOCK, S., 'Victor and Invictus', Harvard Theological Review 50 (1957),
211-47.
WEST, M. L. (ed.), Hesiod, Theogony (Oxford, 1966).
WEST, S., 'Lycophron Italicised', JHS 104 (1984), 127 ff.
WHITE, K. D., 'Latifundia', BICS 14 (1967), 62 ff.
Roman Farming (London, 1970).
A Bibliography of Roman Agriculture (Reading, 1970).
WHITEHOUSE, R. D. and WILKINS, J. B., 'Greeks and Natives in South-East
Italy: Approaches to the Archaeological Evidence', in T. C. Champion
(ed.), Centre and Periphery (London, 1989), 102 ff.
WHITTAKER, C. R. (ed.), Pastoral Economies in Classical Antiquity (PCPS
Suppl. 14, 1988).
WICKHAM, C. J., 1982: Studi sulla società degli Appennini nell'alto medioevo:
contadini, signori e insediamento nel territorio di Valva (Sulmona)
(Bologna, 1982).
1988: The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the
Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 1988).
WILSON, A. J. N., Emigration from Italy in the Republican Age of Rome
(Manchester, 1966).
WISEMAN, T. P., 'Viae Anniae\ PBSR 32 (1964), 21 ff = Roman Studies,
99 ff.
'Viae Anniae Again', PBSR 37 (1969), 82 ff = Roman Studies,
116 ff.
'Roman Republican Road-Building', PBSR 38 (1970), 122 ff. =
Roman Studies, 126 ff.
New Men in the Roman Senate 139 BC-AD 14 (Oxford, 1971).
'Domi Nobiles and the Roman Cultural Élite', in Bourgeoisies
(1983), 299-307 = Roman Studies, 297 ff.
Roman Studies (Liverpool, 1987).
'The Temple of Victory on the Palatine', Roman Studies, 187 ff.
'Satyrs at Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica', JRS 78
(1988), 1 ff.
1989: 'Roman Legend and Oral Tradition', JRS 79 (1989), 129 ff.
WUILLEUMIER, P., Tarente (Paris, 1939).
ZANKER, P. (ed.), Hellenismus in Mittelitalien (Göttingen, 1976).
 Bibliography 245
The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Eng. trans. (Ann Arbor,
1988).
ZEVI, F., 'Considerazioni sull'elogio di Scipione Barbato', St. Misc. 15
(1970), 65 ff.
ZiNGARELLi, N., Vocabolario della lingua italiana (Bologna, 1983).
 INDEX
Aborigines 187 aqueducts 9, 152
Abruzzo 4. 7. 98, 192; northern 201; Arcadians, in Italy 32
peoples of 142, 143 Archippe 190
accent: Latin 94; Roman 94; rustic 94, Archytas of Tarentum 12, 58-9, 63
105 areté 57
Achaean League 208 Aristonothos, crater of 39, 41
adultery 67 Aristophanes, Acharnions 72
Aelii Lamiae 42 Aristotle: on Locri 48; on syssitia of the
'Aelius Lampridius* 159, 165 Oenotri 57
Aeneas: ancestor of Romulus and Remus Aristoxenos of Tarentum 52-3, 60-1 ;
42; arrival in Italy 32, 79; as enemy of biography of Archytas 58
Greeks 71; assertion that never left Arpi 15; people of, contrasted with
Troy 69; descendants of 43; marriage Samnites 20, 114
of 37 Asculum 15
Aequi 15 Assyria 171
Aeschylus, Persae 72 Athena 55, 74, 157
Aesculapius 162-3 Athenaeus 58
Aesemia 7, 16, 128, 132. 133. 134. 160, Athens 21; in Herodotus* Histories 4 6 -
164, 209 7; imperial image of in Roman self-
Agathocles of Syracuse 212 definition 74; monuments of Attalos I
Agnone, Tablet of 122, 164 at 70; prestige of 63; self-
agriculture 95, 121, 124, 125; in Cato's advertisement of 45; self-definition
De Agri Cultura 83-5; and people of of 22; and Sparta 57, 59
Arpi 20; Samnite 8 Attalos I 70
Agrios 10-11, 36, 178-9, 182, 187 Augustus, Fourth Region of 2
Alcibiades 62, 68 Ausonians 178
Alexander the Great 62; representation of austerity: of Central Apennine
at Aesemia 133 peoples 6 7 - 8 , 111, 141, 152; of
Alfedena 196; see also Campo Italians 53; in Middle Republican
Consolino; Curino Rome 82, 101, of mountain-
Alfìus 55-6, 185-6, 211-12 people 24; of Persians 184; of
Alps 19 Sabines 58, 85, 86, 88, 90, 105, 155; of
Amazon 66 Samnites 102; of Spartans 57; in
Amiternum 134; Colossus of Cybele Tacitus* Annales 107-8; in tomb-
at 158 paintings 149
Ancona 182, 189
Angitia: cerna 164; in Cn. Gellius 99; Bacchants 163
cult of 24, 137, 154, 159-66, 173; banqueting 61
plural version of her name 164 Barker, G. 7, 123
anthropology, amateur in antiquity 23; Basilicata, see Lucania
modern 177 baths 9, 152
Antiochus the Great 67 Beazley, J. D. 40, 65
Apollo 56, 185-6, 212 Bellante 199, 204
Appian: on Fulvi us Flaccus 102; on benefaction 125, 133
Gracchan reforms 94, 96; on the M arsi Beneventum 16, 128, 134, 209
103, 129 Bickerman, E. 35, 38, 44
Apulia 15, 112, 119, 120; vase-painting Biferno Valley, British School at Rome
of 65 Survey of 7, 123-5, 143, 151
Apulians 143 bilingualism 76-7, 213, 214
248 Index
Boiano, lake-basin 125 Central Adriatic Culture 149, 187, 188-
Bovianum 128, 132, 133, 134 9, 191, 192, 194, 198, 201, 202
Brittany 214 Ceres 162
Brunt, P. A. 143 Cerveteri, see Caere
Bruttians 50, 76-7, 208, 209, 212 Chalcidians 65, 212
Bruttium 181 Chaldaei 169
Brutus 83 character, explained by environment 20-
bull, of Samnites 122,213-15 1 ; see also environmental determinism
Chieti, Museo Nazionale di
Caere 41 Antichità 189
Campani: aid of sought by Sidicini 14; Chinese 183
cavalry of 65; of Decius 78-9; deditio Chiusi 39
of accepted by Rome 14, 20; holding Christians 169, 171
Greek land 54; manpower figures Cianfarani, V. 8, 189
for 142; paintings of 64, 66; receive Cincius Alimentus 88
Roman citizenship 14; and 'Samnite' Circe 10-11, 32, 36, 40, 41, 178;
gladiators 146; as 'Samnites* 208
Campania 86, 136, 158, 191, 196, 207; genealogy of 37; as sister of
inhabited by Opikoi 179-80; plain Angitia 99, 159, 162
of 127; in Strabo's Geography 127; Cisalpine Gaul 16; included in Cato's
tomb-paintings of 148, 149 Or. 19
Campanile, E. 150 cities: of Central Apennine peoples 128,
Campobasso 132 132-3; features of 130-5; Greek 31,
Campochiaro 137 45; mother- 47, 51; see also
Campo Consolino, necropolis 146-9 urbanization
cannibalism: of Cyclopes 37; of Druids citizenship, Roman: and Central
and Christians 169; in Ennius 80; in Apennine peoples 141, 204-5;
Italy 32; of Laestrygonians 42 extended to Italians 16, 19, 68, 177;
Canusium 15 grant of to Latins debated 93; and
Capena, inscriptions of 197 Sabines 93, 127, 140, 155; and
Capracotta 196 Sicily 63; sine suffragio 15
Capua 14, 119, 127, 136, 213; treachery Civita d'Antino, cippus from 159
of 77 P. Clodius Pulcher 128
Caraceni 14 clothing: of Carthaginians 72, 76;
Carovilli 196 Greek 65; of Italian warriors 12, 65;
Carthage 69, 70, 72, 76 •Italic' 65; of Samnite warriors 100,
Carthaginians 72-3, 76, 77; victory over 126; women's 65
celebrated by Sicilians 11 Cocullo 160-1, 164
Cato the Elder 10, 90; De Agri colonists: Greek of Italy 37; Lydian 40
Cultura 83-5, 86, 95; on animal- colonization: Greek discourse of 35, 38,
husbandry 119; background of 86; in 146, 208; Greek of Italy 10, 11, 34, 35,
Cicero's De Senectute 58-9; on M\ 36, 43, 179; Greek and Mamertine
Curius Dentatus 101; on effects of traditions of 212; within ideology of
empire on the Roman élite 81 ; on Central Apennine peoples 208; see
magic 169; on medicine 169; on also colony; Sacred Spring
Opikoi 44-5, 78; Origines 16-19, 30, colony, colonies: Athenian 47; Greek in
43, 53, 86, 87, 98, 183, 184; Pro Italy 31, 32, 33, 47; Latin 209; of
Rhodiensibus 81 Naxos 47; Spartan 54
cattle 122; bones of 123 Columbus, Christopher 35
Caudine Forks 58, 60, 99 Columella 95
Caudini 14, 16, 58, 207, 209 Cook, Captain 36
Caudium 19 Corfinium 131, 214
causation, ancient theories of 20 L. Cornelius Sisenna 215
 Index 249
P. Cornelius Sulla 101, 103, 128, 132, augurs 129, 161; on Latins 80; on
133-^, 173 Pyrrhus 72; on Sabines 91; on
Cornelius Tacitus 101, 106-7, 107-8, warfare 83
126 environmental determinism 68, 113, 117,
Costabile, F. 56 126, 127; and Central Apennine
Crete 34 peoples 111, 114, 141; in Livy and
cruelty, of barbarians 7 2 - 3 Herodotus 2 0 - 1 ; as not responsible for
cult: -centre at Pietrabbondante 55; of the modern state of Molise 8
founder of colony 48 Epicurus 59
Cures 90, 128, 134; pillar of 191, 196-7 Ethiopia 179
Curetés 203, 204 ethnocentrism: of Aristoxenos 53;
Curino 146 Athenian 31 ; difference of from racism
M \ Curius Dentatus 102; boast of 15, 46; Greek 29, 31, 35; modern 52
89; in Cicero's De Senectute 59; ethnography 178-83; ancient traditions
conquest of Sabinum 15, 89, 205; of 10, 17, 18, 1 9 , 2 2 , 2 3 , 113; in
hagiographical traditions of 101 Ennius* Ann. 76-7; 'local* versions
curse-tablets 173 within 18; on Sabines, Samnites, and
Lucanians 5 7 - 8
D'Agostino, B. 8, 58, 60, 195-6 Etruria 96, 97, 158; survey of south 151
Daunitai 181 Etruscan, Etruscans 152, 178-9, 204,
decadence 67, 88, 89, 108, 113, 126; of 206, 207; alphabet 107, 108, 202;
East 170; of Etruscans 141; see also aristocratic society of 39; assimilated
tryphé to Greeks 41; augury 170; conflict
Delphi 47-8, 51, 70; Apollo of 56, 212; with Sicilians 41; eighteenth-century
oracle of 62; recognition of Petelia as a interest in 4; ethnicity of 38; Graeco-
Greek city by 64 Roman representation of 24, 50, 68.
Demeter 162 88, 141; Lydian ancestry of 38, 40;
demons 171 manpower figures for 142-3;
De Nino, A. 4, 195-6 Minerva 157; presence around Salerno
Détienne, M. 158 52; self-representation of 39, 40;
Devoto, G. 198 senators 144; social structure of 141,
Diana 156; Polymastie 158 143; wars with Rome 41
dichotomy, see polarity Eudoxus of Cnidus 181
Di Niro, A. 149 Evans, E. C. 156
Diomedes 184, 211
Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Ant. Q. Fabius Pictor 70, 71, 88, 91
Rom. 180, 181; on ancestry of C. Fannius 93
Sabines 87; on early Italy 178; quotes farming, see agriculture
Hellanicus of Lesbos 44; on
Fasti Triumphales 13
Mamertini 211; on Rhegium 78; on
Feronia 157
Romans and Samnites at Neapolis 54;
Festus: cites Alfius 55, 185-6; on origins
on Rome as a Greek city 73; on
Tarpeia 87-8 of Paeligni 184; on pagi 130
Dionysus: in Italy 32, 38; on South Filippi, G. 191
Italian pottery 43-4 Finley, M. 218
disciplina, of Sabines 58, 89 Forentum 15
Dius Fidius 184 Formiae 42
Dorieus 48 Francavilla Marittima 49
Druids 169 Frayn, J. 115, 116
Frazer, J. _ 167
effeminacy 72-3; of Trojans 79 n. Frederiksen, M. 5, 54, 64
Egypt, Egyptians 34, 46, 170 freedmen 96, 98
Ennius, Ann. 70, 76-7, 88; on Fregellae 14
250 Index
Frentani 15, 121, 127, 142, 181. 204, homophylia 71
207, 208, 209 n., 214 Horace: Epodes 173; Odes 3, 6 5; 6, 67,
Fucine Lake 99, 127, 164, 190 104, 127, 156; Satires 166, 173
Horatius Codes 83
Gaggiotti, M. 145, 146, 147, 151 horse-riding 61, 65, 66
Galen 159 hunting 61, 83, 86
Gauls 70, 142. 209
Gellius, Aulus 159, 165 lapygia 182
Cn. Gellius 86, 99, 159, 183 iconography: of Campania and
Gelon 51 Paestum 64; Greek political 66; of
Gildone 149 Roma 74; southern Italian 12; of
gladiators, 'Samnite' 146 Tyrrhenian Italy 11
Gran Sasso 98 Iguvine Tablets 159, 201
Greco Pontrandolfo, A. 64 immorality 67, 88
greed, Roman 69 imperialism: Athenian ideology of 13;
Grossi, G. 190, 192 Greek theories of 80; Macedonian
Grotius, Hugo 35 ideology of 13
incorporation, Roman ideology of 177
Hadria 15 Indo-European 188, 193, 200, 204, 207
Hall. E. 22 Ireland, Northern 176
Hamilcar 51 Isernia, see Aesernia
Hannibal 77; defeat of by Rome 67; Isocrates 57
invasion of Italy 19; Samnites Italia 177; in ideology of Social
and 210; war with 83, 118, 161 War 213-15; see also Italy
Hartog, F. 2 1 , 2 2 Italic 6; community 175; languages 44,
Hellanicus of Lesbos 11, 44, 50, 122, 197
214-15 Italy: as bounded by northern
Hellenization 13, 218-21 Apennines 18-19; in Cato's Or. 16;
Hellenocentrism 31, 35, 38, 211 not cultural entity 18; cultural
Heraclea 63 interaction in 6, 22, 24, 31 ;
Herakles: on Agnone Tablet 122; as etymologies of 44; geographical and
ancestor of Romans 71 ; and bull- political entity 18; Hellanicus' version
calf 11, 44, 214-15; in Central of the naming of 11 ; juridical concept
Apennines 122, 174; cult of amongst of 18; in Livy 19-21; as a *new
Paeligni 6; Curinus 140, 174; at land* 38; as a noverca 96; Roman
Luco 165; and Minotaur 40; Nemean conquest of 13, 16, 20; in Roman
Lion 132; Pillars of 42; in Plautus 30; ideology 3; Roman transformation of
wanderings of 32, 33 the landscape of 16; second-century
Hercules, see Herakles Roman images of 16; Tyrrhenian 6, 9,
Herodotus 18, 21, 22, 46, 68, 90; on the 3 1 , 3 3 , 3 7 , 5 0 , 111, 122, 134, 140, 151,
Cyllyrii 49; on Cyrus and 152, 153; as wild and primitive 32
Croesus 102; on the Etruscans 38; on Ithaca 34
Gelon of Syracuse 51 ; on the
Magi 171; on panhellenism 46; 50 Jason: Buthrotius 33; and Argonauts 33
Hesiod: Theogony 11 n., 178; Works and Jews 170
Days 9-10, 158 Johannowsky, W. 149
Hesperia 38 Justin 57
Hieron 51
Highlanders, Gaelic 9 1 - 2 Kronos 32
Himera 51
Hirpini 14, 16, 185, 205, 207, 209, 210 Lamius 42
Homer 18, 33; Odyssey 33, 34, 35, 36, Lapps 172
37, 40, 41; in Ennius* Ann. 70 La Regina, A. 116; on future
 Index 251
municipio 131; on manpower figures Etruscans 36, 40, 4 1 , 42; as ancestors
for the Central Apennines 142-3; on of Marsi 99
the 'Sabellic' area 6; on Samnium 6,
7, 9, 137, 138; on South Picene Macedon: fall of 80; helmet of 66;
texts 201; on the Vestini 6 ideology of 6 5 , 73, 74
Larinum 7, 120-1, 124, 134 Magi 167, 168-9, 170, 171, 172
Latin: accent 94; colonies of Beneventum Mamers 186
and Aesernia 16; colonies of Sora, Mamertini: commitment of to Apollo 56;
Alba Fucens, Carseoli 15; colony of favourable account of 55-6; as
Frefellae 14; colony of Luceria 15; homophyloi to Rome 71; name of
language 105; settlement of 338 BC 14 linked to Mars 56; Sacred Spring
Latins 79, 80, 93, 97, 178-9, 182; of 185-6, 205, 211-12; 215; as
manpower figures for 142 Samnites or Campanians 55; seize
Latinus 10-11. 36, 178 Messana 55; used by Syracuse 51
Latium 80, 86, 158, 206 manpower 117; of Central Apennine
legislation, sumptuary 149 peoples 24, 106, 127, 129, 141;
Leonidas 87 Italian 12, 13, 16; of Samnites 152,
Letta, C. 6, 145-6, 163 182
lex: agraria 119; Oppia 82 Mariani, L. 146
linen 100, 101 Marinetti, A. 191, 196-8, 202
Liris 14, 206 C. Marius 93
Livy 10, 101, 114; account of Caudine Marrucini 127, 135, 142, 181, 191, 198,
peace 60, 99; on Campanian 213, 214; naming of 184; senators
deditio 20; on decline of religious of 144; treaty of alliance with
tradition at Rome 161; detail of post- Rome 15
390 BC 20; on pecuarii 119; on L. Mamivium 131, 159
Postumius Albinus* visit to Mars 184, 185, 186, 190,211
Praeneste 75; references to older Marsi 6, 16, 104, 105, 106, 127, 131,
authorities 20; on Sabines 156; on 159-66, 172, 173, 177, 180, 181, 192,
Samnites 5, 6, 9-10, 14, 45, 115, 126, 212, 213, 214; augurs of 161; élite
128, 129, 146, 218; on Samnites as of 24, 144; endogamy amongst 159,
montani atque agrestes 5, 9, 20, 45, 165-6; manpower of 129, 141, 142;
106, 114, 115, 126, 127; on Samnite origins of 99, 159, 162, 190; poverty
Wars 19-21, 100-1, 126, 128, 155, and 128-9; senators of 144; snake-
172, 207; teleological vision of Roman charmers of 24, 99; social structure
conquest of Italy 14; topographical of 144; treaty of alliance with
vagueness of 14 Rome 15
Lloyd, G. E. R. 22 masculinity 67, 68, 106, 127
Lloyd, J. A. 9, 123, 125 Massilia 158
Locri 69 matriarchy 22
love: -elegy 166, 172; -magic 168 Matrice 123, 124, 125, 148
Lucania 15, 119, 120 meddixf meddices 56, 77, 135, 136, 150
Lucanians 143, 2 1 2 - 1 3 , 214; classed as Medea 99, 159, 162
Samnites 58, 2 0 7 - 9 ; and medicine 169
Pythagoras 6 1 ; Spartan values of 57 Mele, A. 58, 60
Luceria 15 mercenaries 55, 60, 146, 211
Lucilius 9 2 - 3 , 94, 99, 159 Mesopotamians 171
Luco 164, 165 Messana 56
Lucus Angitiae 137, 165 Messanians 56, 186
luxury 82; foreign 67; of French 24; Mess api ans 61
goods 49, 96; of Samnites 100, 101; Metrodorus of Scepsis 69
see also tryphé Molise 4, 7, 132, 137; archaeological
Lydians 29; as ancestors of 'discovery* of 8; upland 6, 121, 196
252 Index
Monteleone di Spoleto 195 Ovid: AA 168, 173; Fasti 167, 185, 216;
Monte Vairano 7, 121, 132, 153 De Medicatnine Faciei Liber 162
morality 67-8; exemplary Italian 18; of
'rough' environments 86, 87, 90, 111, Paeligni 16, 104,105, 106,127, 142, 160,
126-7; in Strabo's Geogr. 127, 180 164, 166, 172, 181, 188, 191, 198, 205,
Morandi, A. 191, 196-7 212, 213; mythical origins of 184, 185,
Morel, J.-P. 6, 9 216; senators of 144; treaty of alliance
municipio 131, 134, 140, 165 with Rome 15
Murray, O. 19 Paestum 52, 54, 60; tomb- and vase-
Musti, D. 208 painting 64, 66, 148, 149
myth: charter 34; in early Italy 11, 31, pagus 130, 135, 136, 140
32-4, 36, 39; as elastic 32; as panhellenism 51; in Herodotus 46, 50
ethnocentric 35; 'local* use of 6 1 - 3 ; Panna 128, 132
as moving around 42; of origins 25, Parise Badoni, F. 147, 148
177, 183-6, 206, 211; use of by C. Papius Mutilus 210, 212
Etruscans 41 Pasquinucci, M. 116, 118
pastoralism 95; of Central Apennine
Naevius 80 peoples 111-25; of Cyclopes 37
Naples 54, 62, 63, 68; Kingdom of 116 Patterson, J. 9, 152
nations 2 pecuarii 119, 120
Neapolis, see Naples Pembroke, S. 22
Nero, Emperor 107 Penna Sant.* Andrea, texts 135, 192,
Nerulum 15 199-203, 204, 205
Nestor, 'cup o f 33 Pentri 16, 106, 134, 136, 137, 181, 192,
Nike 65, 73; see also Victoria 196, 204, 207, 208, 209-10, 214, 215;
Nocera Inferior 191, 197 involvement of in Samnite Wars 14;
novitas 67, 85, 93 sanctuaries of 7, 9
Numa 156 Pentria, invention of term 8
Pergamon 70
Odysseus: blinds Cyclops 41; in Etruscan Periplus 208
art 40,41; father of Italian peoples 32; peripoloi 60, 63
father of Tyrrhenian Latinos and Perses 81
Agrios by Circe 10-11, 36, 40, 41, Persia, Persians 1 1 , 2 2 , 2 9 , 4 5 , 4 7 , 50, 57,
178-9; in Plautus 30; relationships 72-3, 89, 170, 171, 184
with Calypso and Nausikaa 37; Pescara 189
relationship with Circe 37; travels Petelia 12, 46, 64, 66
localized in West 10, 33, 34; voyages Peucetii 61
of 34 Phelessaioi 182
Oenotri 57, 58 Philinus of Syracuse 69
Q. Ogulnius Gallus 162-3 Philistus of Syracuse 181
Ombrikoi 181, 185 Phoenicians 52
Opikoi 45, 52, 53, 7 7 - 8 , 106, 179-80, Picentes 15, 185, 188, 200, 203, 204,
182, 186, 187, 188, 191 212, 214; and Sabine Sacred
Orestes 30, 43 Spring 205, 206, 208, 211, 215, 216
Oscan 79, 106, 164, 177, 192, 204, 213; Picentini 181
alphabet 202; language 44, 180; Picenum 157, 182, 191, 195, 199, 200,
magistrates 56; name of Alfius 56; - 201, 204
speaking peoples 11, 45, 50, 52, 53, Pietrabbondante 55; arms at 138-9; bulls
71, 77. 78, 104, 135, 136, 150; texts 6, sacrificed at 122, 215; inscriptions
56, 139, 198 of 136, 199; 'Ionic* sanctuary at 138;
Oscanization 50, 64 necropolis at Troccola 138; temple
Oscus, Opscus, see Opikoi A 136, 138, 139. 192; theatre-temple
ouitoulos 11, 44, 122, 215 B 5, 137-8, 139, 151,210
 Index 253
pig 123, 124, 169 80; and pastoralism 113; of
Pistis 69, 79 Samnites 101
Pitanates 5 n., 53, 63, 129, 184 Prosdocimi, A. 6, 196-8, 202
Pithecusae 49, 50 prosopography 147, 149-50
Plato 5 8 - 9 Protosabellic 187
Platonic Epistle 8 52 Pseudo-Scylax 181
Plautus: Bacchides 75; Poenulus 29, 77; pupiin- 200, 201, 204, 206
on Praenestines 74-6; on Romans as Pyrrhus 59, 70, 71, 72; and Rhegium 78,
barbarians 71; shorthand allusion to 79; Roman conflict with 19-20, 69;
mythology in 30 Roman defeat of 16, 45, 67
pleasure 5 8 - 9 Pythagoras 60, 62, 68
Pliny the Elder, NH: on Alcibiades and Pythagoreanism 12-13. 58-61, 62, 82,
Pythagoras 62; on Augustus' 4th 99, 102, 149
region 2; on Cato the Elder 4 4 - 5 ; on
latifitndia 95; on magic 167, 170, 171; Race 2, 23, 176, 186, 213
on medicine 169; on Mystia 181; on Rapino 151
Sacred Spring 185; on snake- Rathbone, D. 123
charming 159, 165-6; on snakes 162 Reate 134
Plutarch 94, 96, 97 Regional history 3, 218
Poccetti, P. 6 Rhegium 56, 78, 119,212
Poggio Mirteto 158 Rhodes, amphorae of 132
Poggio Sommavilla 192, 194-5. 196-7 Ridgway, D. 34
polarity: between Greek and Roccaspromonte 55
barbarian 2 2 , 2 9 , 4 5 , 5 1 , 5 4 , 6 1 . 6 9 , 7 1 , Romanization 9, 219-21
89; between novus and nobilis 85; Rome: Palatine 128; Palazzo dei
between past and present 82; between Conservatori 41; systematization in
Roman and non- Roman 98; between second century BC 134; Tiber
slave and free peasant 95; between Island 163
Sparta and Athens 57; between town Romulus 69, 70, 155, 210
and country 74 Rouveret, A. 64
Polla, inscription of 119-20 Ruggeri Giove, M. 147
Polybius: on Battle of Cannae 83; on rusticity 67, 74, 75, 76, 94, 126
effect of empire on Romans 8 0 - 1 , 84;
on Locri 48; on the Mamertini 71, Sabellian 145; hoes 67, 104;
211; on manpower figures for Italian landscape 27, 156; manpower 129; in
peoples 141-3; on Rhegium 78, 79; on modern literature 1, 104, 175, 189,
Samnites 209, 210; on Scipio 212; peasant-farmers 5;
Aemilianus 83, 86; sequence of witches 166-73
barbarians in 50 Sabellic 1, 104, 175, 189; see also
Pompeii 64, 134, 150 Sabellian
C. Pontius Herennius 58, 59, 60, 99 Sabellus 1, 53, 103-6, 155, 166, 175,
C. Pontius Telesinus 58, 63 187, 200
Posidonia, see Paestum Sabines 160; as ancestors of
L. Postumius Albinus 75 Samnites 58; as bejewelled 88; and
praefectura 134 M \ Curius Dentatus 15, 45, 205;
Praeneste 75-6, 91, 105 enfranchisement of 15, 204-5;
Praenestines 74—5 ethnicity of 157; having few
Praetuttii 15, 200 cities 128; landscape of in Cato 85-7,
Primitivism 126; of barbarians 17; of 126; language of 196-8; manpower
Capua 77; of Central Apennine figures for 142; piety of 155-6, 184;
peoples 115; of the Gaelic relationship with Samnites 207;
Highlander 91; of Italians 3 2 - 3 , 7 9 - religion of 170; in Roman
254 Index
ideology 16, 141, 204-5; Spartan San Giovanni in Galdo 137
character of 58; Tiberine 205 Santa Anatolia di Narco 195
Sabinum 90. 127, 134. 140-1, 194-8 San Vincenzo 124
Sabinus 87, 184 Saturn 32, 79, 80; see also Kronos
Sabus 87, 184 satyrs 4 3 - 4
Sacred Spring, myths of 2, 56, 87, 105, savages (noble) 36, 80
116, 146, 179, 181, 185-6, 188, 208, Scipio Aemilianus 83, 86, 96
211-12; associated with Mars 56; in Scipiones (tombs and elogia of) 82
ideology of Social War 215; modem C. Sempronius Gracchus 96, 97, 102
use of 189-93, 194, 195. 197, 199, Ti. Sempronius Gracchus 94, 95, 96, 97
205-6; Samnites led by bull in 122 senators 143-5, 153
sacrifice: of bulls 215; of children 72, Seneca the Younger 95
76; of cow 156; of humans and Sentinum (Battle of) 15
animals 100, 126, 172 Servius {Ad Verg. Aen.) 86-7, 183-4,
Saepinum 7, 55, 121, 131, 132. 133, 134, 211
136, 153 Servius Tu Ili us 156
safin- 136, 198-206, 209-10; shepherds 7, 115, 118, 119, 125, 160
culture 190-3; at Sicels 179
Pietrabbondante 139; on Social War Sicilian: expedition 62; slave-wars 96;
coinage 213, 214; touta 136; tuta 135 tradition of victory over Hamilcar 51
Salamis 11 Sicilians 63
C. Sallustius Crispus 85. 93 Sicily 52, 53, 56, 119. 212; Cyclopes
Salmon. E. T. 7. 8, 68, 181; criticized by located in 37, 41, 42; Greek colonies
M. Frederiksen 5; on inequality in in 47; links with Greece 51-2;
Samnite society 145, 146; on location of myth in 33, 34, 38
Opikoi 187; on 'Sabelli' 104; on the Sidicini 14
Social War 212-13; on writing the Silius Italicus 159, 162, 166
history of the Samnites 218 Skutsch, O. 76
Samnites 177; contesting hegemony of slavery 94-8
Italy 20, 54; cultural horizons of 7; snake-charming 24, 99, 106, 154, 159-66
élites of 9; as gladiators 146; and snakes 24, 160-1, 162-3, 164, 166
Greeks 52, 53, 54-5; housing of 7; soldiers 67, 68, 84-5, 96, 113, 127, 163;
identity of 203-12; linked with see also mercenaries
Sabines and Picentes 2; manpower Solinus 99
of 129, 142-3, 152; as South Picene (texts) 191-3, 194, 196-
mercenaries 55; modern images of 6, 201, 204
8, 9; in Roman ideology 16, 45; Sparta: images of 12, 68; morality
sanctuaries of 7, 9; senators of 144; associated with 30; Roman
social structure of 9, 128, 145; and idealization of 53
Social War 212-16; Spartan ancestry Spartans: as ancestors of Sabines 86; as
of 5 3 - 6 1 , 6 3 , 184; territory of 16, 127; ancestors of Samnites 2, 53, 63, 184.
wars with Rome 14-16, 19-21, 62, 68, 207, 208; as ancestors of Tarentines 2,
115, 116, 139, 165, 172. 198.207 13, 87, 129; as models for Rome 68;
Samnium 120, 121. 206 nomoi of 13, 46
sanctuaries 9, 173; of Apollo Archegetes Statius {Silvae) 157
at Naxos, Sicily 47; of the Central stereotypes 23, 72-3, 154, 168, 172
Apennines 64, 112; of Fortuna Strabo 2, 10, 115, 127, 180. 181; on
Primigenia at Praeneste 75; of Picentes 185; on Samnites 57. 181.
Hercules Curinus at Sulmona 140; of 184, 185, 188, 207, 208, 211; on
Pietrabbondante 122. 136; rural of settlement patterns of Central Apennine
Samnium 7, 121. 136, 147, 152 peoples 128. 132. 133; on Sulla and
Sancus 87, 184 Samnites 103
San Domenico Abate 160-1, 164 strega 167
 Index 255
strigae 166, 167, 173 Tusculum 86
strigils 131 Twelve Tables 169
Sulmona 140 tyranny 20, 88, 89
superstitiones 169 Tyrrhenians 10, 36, 5 2 - 3 , 88, 178, 182
Sybaris 49; see also Francavilla Tyrtaeus 57
Marittima
Syracuse 12, 49, 51, 59 Umbria 157, 201
Umbrians 143, 144, 152, 159, 178, 213
Tarchon 41, 42 Umbro 159, 164, 165
Tarentines 12-13, 102; and central and unity (ideas of primitive) 2, 25, 175, 178,
southern Italian peoples 209; helmets 188, 192, 196
of 66; and Samnites 5 3 - 6 1 , 139, 181, Upson, A. 123
207, 211; see also Spartans urbanitas 130
Tarentum, coin-type 63 urbanization 131, 144, 152, 158
Tarpeia 87-8
Tarquinii 14 Van Wonterghem, F. 6
Tarquinius Superbus 20 Varro 193; on agriculture 95; De Lingua
Tarracina 157 Latina 157; on Sabelli 104-5; on
Teanum Apulum 15 Sabine language 91, 92; on Sabine
Teate 135 religion 155, 156-7; on sheep-
Telesia 128, 132 farming 118; on transhumance 120
Teramo 192 Vastogirardi 6, 137
Terni 195 Velleius Paterculus 96, 102
Theokritos (Idylls) 168 Venusia 15, 128, 132
Theseus 40 Ver Sacrum, see Sacred Spring
Thesunti Tauriani 42, 46 Vespasian 107
Thucydides 20, 37, 42, 47, 53, 78, 179 Vestini 6, 45, 127, 135, 142, 160, 181,
Tiber 191 191, 198, 203; and Feronia 157;
Tiberius (Emperor) 133 senators of 144; treaty with Rome 15
Tifata 14 viae publicae 119
Tigerstedt, E. 56 VicoEquense 191, 197
Timaeus 44, 51, 70 Victoria 73, 139
Titus Tatius 88, 90, 155, 205 vicus 135, 140
Torelli, M. 115, 134, 145-9, 202 Virgil: Aen. 80, 90, 106, 159, 164, 165;
touto (also toutal total tuta) 56, 135-6, Eel 168; Georg. 158
151, 204 viteliu, see Italia
trade 7 Volsinii 69
tragedy 20 Volturnus 14, 196
transhumance 112, 117-18, 120
fratturi 121 Wales 214
Trebula Mutuesca 134 warrior (in iconography) 64-6, 147
Trojan War 11, 18, 179, 183; war with Wiseman, T P . 31, 143-4
Pyrrhus 41, 72 wolf: of Hirpini 185, 210; of Rome 122,
tryphé 12, 58-9, 60, 82, 101 213, 214
M. Tullius Cicero: on accents 94; Pro worthiness: of Central A perniine
Cluentio 120, 133; De Divinatione 75, peoples 98, 141; of Sabines 17; see
129; 161; De Domo Sua 128; use of also austerity
Greek words in 63; on novitas 85;
Philippics 129; De Senectute 58-9; 99 Yugoslavia (the former) 176