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Kar[is] Brit[tius]: a reinterpretation of Vetter No. 112*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Kathryn Lomas
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Extract

One of the great mysteries of the history of southern Italy, if studied from a purely literary point of view, is the ethnic composition of the Greek cities in the era of the Oscan and Roman conquests. Ancient authors paint a most gloomy picture of those cities which were conquered by the Oscan peoples at the end of the 5th century B.C. or later, saying in some cases that the entire Greek population was slaughtered (Cumae, 421 B.C.), in others that the entire elite was slaughtered (as happened during the capture of Rhegium by Campanian mercenaries in 275 B.C.), and in yet others that the remainder of the Greek population was kept in a state of dire subjection (Paestum, 410 B.C.). While not wishing to minimize the horrors of war, these lurid tales must be an over-simplification of the actual situation. It is not readily plausible that entire Greek populations disappeared so abruptly.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1995

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References

1 Livy 4.37.1, 44.12; Diod. 12.23.2, 76.4, 14.101–3; Front. Strat. 2.3.12; Polyaenus 2.10.2.

2 App, . Samn. 9.1–3, 12.1Google Scholar; Front. Strat. 4.1.38; Livy 28.28.1–7, 31.31.6–8, Per. 12, Per. 15; Pol. 1.6.8, 7.1; Dion. Hal. 20.4.1–5.5; Dio 9.40.7–12.

3 Aristox. ap. Athen. 14.632a–b. See Carratelli, G. Pugliese, ‘Sanniti, Lucani, Bruttii e Italioti dal secolo IV a.C.’ Atti di 8° Convegno di Studisulla Magna Grecia (1972), 3754Google Scholar; Fraschetti, A., ‘Aristosseno, i romani e la “barbarizzazione” di PoseidoniaAION 3 (1981), 97115Google Scholar; Pedley, J., Paestum (1990), 97112Google Scholar.

4 On the problems of the disappearing Greeks see Costabile, F.Municipium Locrensium (Naples, 1978)Google Scholar.

5 Pedley, J., Paestum (1990), 97112Google Scholar.

6 Maiuri, A., ‘Cuma—Altre stele sepolcrale con iscrizione Osca’ NSc 1913, 53–4Google Scholar, Vetter, E., Handbuch der halischen Dialekte (Heidelberg, 1953), No. 112Google Scholar.

7 Ribezzo, F., ‘Studi e scoperte di epigrafia osco-lucano nell'ultima decennioRIGI 8 (1924), 83100Google Scholar, Poccetti, P., ‘Un Brettio a CumaPdP 39 (1984), 43–7Google Scholar.

8 CIL 9.3050, 9.6086 and 10.1158.

9 Vetter, No. 112, Poccetti, 43–7, Maiuri, 53–4; Conway, R. S., The Italic Dialects (Cambridge, 1897), 222Google Scholar.

10 Vetter, 112; Poccetti, 43–7.

11 On the development of cognomina see Kajanto, I.The Latin Cognomen (Helsinki, 1970)Google Scholar.

12 Poccetti, 43–7.

13 Caratelli, G. PuglieseI Brettii a RodiASCL 17 (1948), 17Google Scholar.

14 Lejeune, M., Onomastique Latine (Paris, 1981), 3541Google Scholar. For examples cf. Buck, C. D.A Grammer of Oscan and Umbrian (Boston, 1904), No. 40Google Scholar.

15 Lejeune, , OL 3541Google Scholar; Kajanto, ibid, 63–70. Very few of the 2nd- and lst-century B.C. names at Cumae include cognomina and some of the examples which do occur are dubious. In at least one instance, that of G. Eburis Pomponius (Warmington, H., Remains of Old Latin, 4, No. 1614Google Scholar), the apparent cognomen seems more likely to be an Oscan patronymic, taken from the nomen of the father, and with the filiation or libertination omitted.

16 SEG 32.921 and 922. SEG 16.583. Data from Cumae, Naples, and the Aegean, indicates that the form name + ethnic is much less common than name + patronymic or name + patronymic + ethnic.

17 One of the few examples is Dekis Hereiis Dekieis Saipinaz (Buck, No. 40), a native of Saepinum.

18 Poccetti, 43–7; Pugliese Caratelli, 1–7.

19 Hatzfeld, J.Trafiquants Italiens dans l'Orient Hellenique. (Paris, 1919)Google Scholar, and Les Italiens Residents a DelosBCH 36 (1912), 5218Google Scholar.

20 Livy 24.1.1–3.15; App, . Ham. 9.57Google Scholar.

21 Brunt, P. A.Italian Manpower 225 B.C.–A.D. 14 Oxford 1971, 353–75Google Scholar.

22 Diod. 12.23.2, 76.4, 14.101–3.

23 Livy 24.1.1–3.15.

24 Livy 40.42.13, Varro ap. Gell. 11.1.5.

25 IG 14.660, AE 1912, 218, Levi, , Mon. Ant. 1926, 378402Google Scholar, IG 14.615.

26 Levi, , Mon. Ant. 1926, 378402Google Scholar.

27 IG 7.417. A second Cumaean, Abris Kaikou, appears on the same victory list. For other examples amongst South Italians in the east cf BCH 36, 84–6 (including the Herakleote Titos Satyrionos, his son Titos Titou, and his grandchildren Theodora, Satyros and Posidippos; or the Tarentines Demetrios Dazou and Parmenion Dazymou, whose patronymics indicate Messapian connections) and IG 12.3.1233 (Noumerios Leontos of Tarentum).