Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T05:00:08.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CENTURIATED LUCERIA: A LATIN COLONY AND ITS TERRITORY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Yeong-chei Kim
Get access

Abstract

The extensive traces of Roman centuriation and its associated farms identified from aerial photographs near Lucera, ancient Luceria, in the plain of northern Apulia, have generally been attributed to the Gracchan agrarian reforms of the 130s/120s BC. However, the dating of these land divisions, on the basis of the excavation of the farms and centuriation roads by John Bradford and Barri Jones in 1949–50 and 1962–3, is of questionable reliability, and their work at Luceria was never properly published. This study reanalyses the scattered records and dating evidence from the excavation of seven farms of Bradford and Jones and three other sites surveyed by Bradford in the ager Lucerinus. This study argues that the farms and associated grids belong to Rome's establishment of a Latin colony at Luceria in 326 or 315/314 BC during the Second Samnite War, and that the farms were abandoned due to the Hannibalic War. This study therefore presents the earliest certain Roman centuriation for a colony, and it observes the devastating impact of Hannibal's invasion and prolonged occupation on landholding in southeastern Italy, which has been doubted in recent work on Italian agrarian history. In no other part of Italy does there exist a coherent group of nearby excavated small-scale farms, which provides new insight into Roman colonization in Apulia and the consequences of the Hannibalic War.

Le ampie tracce della centuriazione romana e delle fattorie ad essa associate, identificate da fotografie aeree nei pressi di Lucera, l'antica Luceria, nella pianura della Puglia settentrionale, sono state generalmente attribuite alle riforme agrarie dei Gracchi del 130–120 a.C. Tuttavia, la datazione di queste divisioni territoriali, sulla base degli scavi delle fattorie e delle strade della centuriazione ad opera di John Bradford e Barri Jones nel 1949–50 e 1962–3, è di dubbia affidabilità, e il loro lavoro a Luceria non fu mai pubblicato esaustivamente. Questo studio rianalizza dunque i documenti non sistematici e le evidenze di datazione dallo scavo di sette fattorie da parte di Bradford e Jones e di altri tre siti ricogniti da Bradford nell’ager Lucerinus. Si giunge così a sostiene che le fattorie e le centuriazioni ad esse associate appartengono alla costituzione di una colonia latina a Luceria da parte di Roma nel 326 o 315/314 a.C., durante la seconda guerra sannitica, e che le fattorie furono abbandonate a causa della guerra annibalica. Il presente contributo presenta quindi la prima centuriazione romana certa per una colonia, e osserva l'impatto devastante dell'invasione di Annibale e dell'occupazione prolungata sulla proprietà terriera nell'Italia sud-orientale, che è stata messa in dubbio in recenti lavori sulla storia agraria italiana. In nessun'altra parte d'Italia esiste un gruppo coerente di piccole fattorie tra di loro vicine, scavate, che possa fornire una nuova visione della colonizzazione romana in Puglia e delle conseguenze della guerra annibalica.

Type
Articles
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 89 , October 2021 , pp. 41 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This study was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Scholarship. Additional support was provided by Merton College, University of Oxford, with a Gerry Grimstone Travel Award. I wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by the British School at Rome; La Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto; La Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Barletta, Andria, Trani e Foggia; the Ashmolean Museum; the Society of Antiquaries of London; the Oxford University Archives; the Pitt-Rivers Museum; and the National Collection of Aerial Photography. I am indebted to Alastair Small, who read an earlier draft, and Philip Kenrick for sharing with me their expertise in Apulian pottery. I am grateful to Dominic Rathbone and Edward Bispham for reading and commenting on the text. I also thank Michael Crawford, Andrew Wilson, Jonathan Prag, Lisa Lodwick and Thea Lavasi for their help and useful discussions. The Bradford finds stored in the Ashmolean Museum and the Jones finds in the British School at Rome were dated by Roberta Cascino and Barbara Lepri, who also drew the Jones pottery; the Bradford finds in La Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto were dated and drawn by Maria Pina Gargano. Illustrations of the Bradford pottery in the Ashmolean Museum are by Alessandra Esposito. Maps are by Elena Pomar with my modification. Lastly, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments.

References

REFERENCES

Attolini, I., Cambi, F. and Celuzza, M. (1983) Ricognizione archeologica nell'ager cosanus e nella valle dell'Albegna. Rapporto preliminare 1982/83. Archeologia Medievale 10: 439–65.Google Scholar
Bispham, E. (2011). Time for Italy. In Cowan, E. (ed.), Velleius Paterculus: Making History: 17–57. Swansea, Classical Press of Wales.Google Scholar
Bradford, J.S. (1949) ‘Buried landscapes’ in southern Italy. Antiquity 23: 58–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradford, J.S. (1950) The Apulia expedition: an interim report. Antiquity 24: 84–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradford, J.S. and Williams-Hunt, P.R. (1946) Siticulosa Apulia. Antiquity 20: 191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadhead, W. (2007) Colonization, land distribution, and veteran settlement. In Erdkamp, P. (ed.), A Companion to the Roman Army: 148–63. Malden (MA)/Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broughton, T.R. (1951–60) The Magistrates of the Roman Republic. New York, American Philological Association.Google Scholar
Campbell, B. (1996) Shaping the rural environment: surveyors in ancient Rome. Journal of Roman Studies 86: 74–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, B. (2000) The Writings of Roman Land Surveyors. London, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.Google Scholar
Campese, M., De Santis, P. and Foscolo, M. (2018) Archeologia dei paesaggi nella Puglia centrale: il territorio di Terlizzi in età tardoantica e altomedievale. In Volpe, G. (ed.), Storia e archeologia globale dei paesaggi rurali in Italia fra tardoantico e medioevo: 219–51. Bari, Edipuglia.Google Scholar
Castagnoli, F. (1953–5). I più antichi esempi conservati di divisioni agrarie romane. Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 75: 3–9.Google Scholar
Cazanove, O. de (2001) Itinéraires et étapes de l'avancée romaine entre Samnium, Daunie, Lucanie et Étrurie. In Briquel, D. and Thuillier, J.-P. (eds), Le censeur et les samnites. Sur Tite-Live, livre IX: 147–92. Paris, Éditions ENS.Google Scholar
Chouquer, G., Clavel-Lévêque, M. and Favory, F. (1987) Structures agraires en Italie centro-méridionale. Cadastres et paysages ruraux. Rome, École française de Rome.Google Scholar
Compatangelo, R. (1985) L'ager Calenus: saggio di ricognizione topografica. Naples, Arte Tipografica.Google Scholar
Cornell, T. (1996) Hannibal's legacy: the effects of the Hannibalic War on Italy. In Cornell, T., Rankov, B. and Sabin, P. (eds), The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal: 97–117. London, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
Crawford, M.H. (1996) (ed.) Roman Statutes, 2 vols. London, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
De Boe, G. (1975) Villa romana in località ‘Posta Crusta’. Rapporto provvisorio sulle campagne di scavo 1972 e 1973. Notizie degli Scavi 39: 516–30.Google Scholar
Delano Smith, C., Gadd, D., Mills, N. and Ward-Perkins, B. (1986) Luni and the ager Lunensis: the rise and fall of a Roman town and its territory. Papers of the British School at Rome 54: 81–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dench, E. (1995) From Barbarians to New Men: Greek, Roman, and Modern Perceptions of Peoples from the Central Apennines. Oxford, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan-Jones, R.P. (1980) Length-units in Roman town planning: the pes monetalis and the pes Drusianus. Britannia 11: 127–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyson, S.L. (2003) The Roman Countryside. London, Duckworth.Google Scholar
Ellis, F. (1993) Peasant Economics: Farm Households and Agrarian Development. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Finocchietti, L. (2012) Luceria: su alcune questioni di topografia storica del territorio. Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 23: 7–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederiksen, M.W. (1970–1) The contribution of archaeology to the agrarian problem in the Gracchan Period. Dialoghi d'Archeologia 4–5: 330–57.Google Scholar
Fronda, M.P. (2010) Between Rome and Carthage: Southern Italy during the Second Punic War. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabba, E. (1989) Rome and Italy in the second century B.C. In Astin, A.E., Walbank, F.W., Frederiksen, M.W. and Ogilvie, R.M. (eds), Cambridge Ancient History2 VIII: 197–243. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gargola, D.J. (1995) Lands, Laws and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands in Republican Rome. Chapel Hill/London: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. (1979) Where did Italian peasants live? Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 225: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghisleni, M., Vaccaro, E. and Bowes, K. (2011) Excavating the Roman peasant I: excavations at Pievina (GR). Papers of the British School at Rome 79: 95–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffredo, R. and Volpe, G. (2005) Il ‘Progetto Valle dell'Ofanto’: primi dati sulla tarda antichità e sull'altomedioevo. In Volpe, G. and Turchiano, M. (eds), Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali in Italia meridionale fra tardoantico e altomedioevo. Atti del I Seminario sul tardoantico e altomedioevo in Italia Meridionale (Foggia, 12–14 febbraio 2004): 223–40. Bari, Edipuglia.Google Scholar
Hinrichs, F.T. (1974) Die Geschichte der gromatischen Institutionen. Untersuchungen zu Landverteilung, Landvermessung, Bodenverwaltung und Bodenrecht im römischen Reich. Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
Horden, P. and Purcell, N. (2000) The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford, Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jones, G.D. (1962) Capena and the ager Capenas. Part I. Papers of the British School at Rome 30: 116–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G.D. (1963) Capena and the ager Capenas. Part II. Papers of the British School at Rome 31: 100–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G.D. (1980) Il Tavoliere romano. L'agricoltura romana attraverso l'aereofotografia e lo scavo. Archeologia Classica 32: 85–107.Google Scholar
Jones, G.D. (1987) Apulia. Volume I: Neolithic Settlement in the Tavoliere. London, Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Keppie, L. (1983). Colonisation and Veteran Settlement in Italy 47–14 BC. London, British School at Rome.Google Scholar
Lloyd, J. (1991) Farming the highlands: Samnium and Arcadia in the Hellenistic and early Roman imperial periods. In Barker, G. and Lloyd, J. (eds), Roman Landscapes: Archaeological Survey in the Mediterranean Region: 180–93. London, British School at Rome.Google Scholar
Lloyd, J. (1995a) Pentri, Frentani and the beginnings of urbanization (c. 500–80 BC). In Barker, G. (ed.), A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology as Annales History in the Biferno Valley: 181–212. London, Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, J. (1995b) Roman towns and territories (c. 80 BC–AD 600). In Barker, G. (ed.), A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology as Annales History in the Biferno Valley: 213–53. London, Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Marabini Moevs, M.T. (1973) The Roman Thin Walled Pottery from Cosa (1948–1954). Rome, American Academy in Rome.Google Scholar
Marchi, M.L. and Buffo, D. (2010) Tra la valle del Fortore e il subappennino daunio: nuovi dati per la ricostruzione storica del paesaggio antico. In Gravina, A. (ed.), Atti del 30° Convegno Nazionale sulla di Preistoria, Protostoria e Storia della Daunia (San Severo 21–22 novembre 2009): 407–26. San Severo, Archeoclub d'Italia.Google Scholar
Marzano, A. (2007) Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic History. Leiden, Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakley, S.P. (1997) A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X. Vol. 2. Books VII–VIII. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Oakley, S.P. (2005) A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X. Vol. 3. Book IX. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Östenberg, C.E. (1962) Luni and Villa Sambuco. In Boëthius, A. (ed.), Etruscan Culture, Land and People, Archaeological Research and Studies Conducted in San Giovenale and Its Environs by Members of the Swedish Institute in Rome: 313–28. New York, Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Pais, E. (1923) Storia della colonizzazione di Roma antica. Rome, Nardecchia.Google Scholar
Pani, M. (1977) Su un nuovo cippo graccano dauno. Rendicorti dell'Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere 111: 389–400.Google Scholar
Pelgrom, J. (2008) Settlement organization and land distribution in Latin colonies before the Second Punic War. In de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S. (eds), People, Land and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy 300 BC–AD 14: 333–72. Leiden, Brill.Google Scholar
Pelgrom, J. (2012) Colonial Landscapes: Demography, Settlement Organization and Impact of Colonies Founded by Rome (4th–2nd centuries BC). University of Leiden, Ph.D. thesis.Google Scholar
Prag, A.J.N.W. (1992) Grey glaze ware. In Small, A.M. (ed.), Gravina. An Iron Age and Republican Settlement in Apulia, II: The Artefacts: 134–55. London, British School at Rome.Google Scholar
Purcell, N. (1995) The Roman villa and the landscape of production. In Cornell, T. and Lomas, K. (eds), Urban Society in Roman Italy: 151–79. London, University College London Press.Google Scholar
Radcliffe, F.F. (2006) John Bradford and his archaeological research from the sky. In F.Radcliffe, F. (ed.), Paesaggi sepolti in Daunia. John Bradford e la ricerca archeologia dal cielo: 1945–1957: 53–60. Foggia, C. Grenzi.Google Scholar
Rathbone, D. (2008) Poor peasants and silent sherds. In de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S. (eds), People, Land and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy 300 BC–AD 14: 305–32. Leiden, Brill.Google Scholar
Riley, D. (1992) New aerial reconnaissance in Apulia. Papers of the British School at Rome 60: 291–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romano, A.V. and Volpe, G. (2005) Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali nel comprensorio del Celone fra tardoantico e alto medioevo. In Volpe, G. and Turchiano, M. (eds), Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali in Italia meridionale fra tardoantico e altomedioevo (Foggia 12–14 febbraio 2004). Atti del I Seminario sul tardoantico e altomedioevo in Italia meridionale: 241–59. Bari, Edipuglia.Google Scholar
Romano, D.G. (2013) The orientation of towns and centuriation. In Evans, J.D. (ed.), A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic: 253–67. Malden (MA)/Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Roselaar, S.T. (2009) References to Gracchan activity in the Liber Coloniarum. Historia 58: 198–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roselaar, S.T. (2010) Public Land in the Roman Republic: A Social and Economic History of the Ager Publicus in Italy 396–89 BC. Oxford, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstein, N. (2004) Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic. Chapel Hill/London, University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Rossiter, J.J. (1978) Roman Farm Buildings in Italy. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russo, A. (1992a) Mancamasone — Complesso rurale. In De Lachena, L. and Torelli, M. (eds), Da Leukania a Lucania: la Lucania centro-orientale fra Pirro e i Giulio-Claudii: Catalogo della Mostra, Venosa, Castello Pirro del Balzo, 8 novembre 1992–31 marzo 1993: 30–2. Rome, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato.Google Scholar
Russo, A. (1992b) Moltone di Tolve – Complesso residenziale. In Lachenal, L. De and Torelli, M. (eds), Da Leukania a Lucania: la Lucania centro-orientale fra Pirro e i Giulio-Claudii: Catalogo della Mostra, Venosa, Castello Pirro del Balzo, 8 novembre 1992–31 marzo 1993: 39–42. Rome, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato.Google Scholar
Salmon, E.T. (1967) Samnium and the Samnites. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, E.T. (1969) Roman Colonization under the Republic. London, Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Schmiedt, G. (1985) Le centuriazioni di Lucera e di Aecae. L'Universo 65: 260–304.Google Scholar
Scopacasa, R. (2016) Rome's encroachment on Italy. In Cooley, A.E. (ed.), A Companion to Roman Italy: 35–56. Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Small, A.M. (2000) La Basilicata nell'età tardo-antica. Ricerche archeologiche nella valle del Basentello e a San Giovanni di Ruoti. In L'Italia meridionale in età tardo-antica. Atti del XXXVIII Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia: 331–42. Taranto, Istituto per la storia e l'archeologia della Magna Grecia.Google Scholar
Small, C.M. (2005) La valle del Basentello in età tardoantica. In Volpe, G. and Turchiano, M. (eds), Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali in Italia meridionale fra tardoantico e altomedioevo: 196–9. Bari, Edipuglia.Google Scholar
Stein, R. (2014) The Roman Water Pump: Unique Evidence for Roman Mastery of Mechanical Engineering. Montagnac, Éditions Monique Mergoil.Google Scholar
Stek, T. (2017) The impact of Roman expansion and colonization on ancient Italy in the Republican period: from diffusionism to networks of opportunity. In Bradley, G. and Farney, G.D. (eds), The Peoples of Ancient Italy: 269–94. Berlin/Boston (MA), De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tagliente, M. (1990) Banzi. In Salvatore, M. (ed.), Basilicata: l'espansionismo romano nel sud-est d'Italia: il quadro archeologico. Atti del Convegno Venosa 23–25 aprile 1987: 71–7. Venosa, Osanna Edizioni.Google Scholar
Terrenato, N. (2001) The Auditorium site in Rome and the origins of the villa. Journal of Roman Archaeology 14: 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tocco, G. (1990) La villa di Moltone (Tolve). In Salvatore, M. (ed.), Basilicata: l'espansionismo romano nel sud-est d'Italia: il quadro archeologico. Atti del Convegno Venosa, 23–25 aprile 1987: 95–9. Venosa, Osanna Edizioni.Google Scholar
Torelli, M. (1971) Discussione sulla relazione Frederiksen. Dialoghi d'Archeologia 4–5, 2–3: 360–2.Google Scholar
Torelli, M. (1999) Tota Italia: Essays in the Cultural Formation of Roman Italy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Toynbee, A.J. (1965) Hannibal's Legacy: The Hannibalic War's Effects on Roman Life, 2 vols. London, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vera, D. (2007) Essere ‘schiavi della terra’ nell'Italia tardoantica: le razionalitá di una dipendenza, Studia Historica. Historia Antigua 25: 489–505.Google Scholar
Volpe, G. (1990) La Daunia nell'età della romanizzazione: paesaggio agrario, produzione, scambi. Bari, Edipuglia.Google Scholar
Yntema, D.G. (2005) Conspectus Formarum of Apulian Grey Gloss Ware (ceramica a pasta grigia): Inventory of Forms of the Apulian Grey Gloss Wares. Amsterdam, Institute of Archaeology Vrije Universiteit.Google Scholar
Yntema, D.G. (2013) The Archaeology of South-East Italy in the First Millennium BC: Greek and Native Societies of Apulia and Lucania between the 10th and the 1st Century BC. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yntema, D.G. (2017) The pre-Roman peoples of Apulia (1000–100 BC). In Bradley, G. and Farney, G.D. (eds), The Peoples of Ancient Italy: 337–67. Berlin/Boston (MA), De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar