Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
The area under study comprises the southeastern section of Lucania bounded on the north by the high land separating the Bradano and Basento valleys, on the south by the Agri River, on the west approximately by a line from Vaglio to Grumento and on the east by a line from Tursi to Miglionico. This paper forms a part of a general survey of the ancient routes of Lucania and Apulia.
The literary sources offer in the area under consideration very limited assistance in ascertaining the location of any routes, but they may shed some light on the date and distribution of some settlements and their road networks. The main tools are air photography and autopsy.
The extremely rugged terrain imposes stringent limits on possible locations of the ancient roads, so that many are fairly easy to follow. Erosion, however, has been extensive, and in some areas the precise line of an ancient road is impossible to recover.