Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:34:27.114Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capena and the Ager Capenas: Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

G. D. B. Jones
Get access

Extract

The classical topography of the southern and central Ager Capenas has been described in the preceding volume of the Papers (PBSR, xxx, 1962, pp. 116–207, hereafter referred to as Pt. I). In this, the second section of the report, the field survey is concluded with a description of the northern Ager Capenas. There follows a discussion of the development of settlement within the area as a whole and some of the more interesting archaeological features discovered during the survey. The final section deals with the characteristics of the Roman buildings in the area and incorporates a report on the excavation of a small Roman farm in the central Ager Capenas.

To the list of acknowledgements already made (ibid., p. 117) I would like to add the names of Miss G. D. Jones, Mr. G. Duncan, Mr. W. A. C. Knowles and Mr. D. W. R. Ridgway, who all helped in the preparation of the second part of this report.

Type
Articles
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , November 1963 , pp. 100 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1963

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.)

References

1 The length of these remarks is prompted by Ashby's strange rejection of the correct route in favour of an entirely unproven line closer to Nazzano (Memorie, p. 144). He does, however, quote from the unpublished notes of Pasqui who advocated the M. Grasso–M. Orsolino line and saw much more Roman material on the ridge than is visible today.

2 This cutting alone (pl. XVIII, a) should have been enough to convince Ashby that this route (previously identified by Pasqui) was the correct line of the road. The clear indications of site 306 contradict his statement: ‘Avendola percorsa, non ho visto piu niente sulla collinetta ad ovest di S. Valentino, ove il Pasqui vide una cisterna presso il taglio della via’ (Memorie, p. 145). He appears to prefer an unproven cross-country route past S. Francesco (op. cit., pp. 144–5). It is unfortunate that the exact provenance of a Republican milestone belonging to the Via Tiberina and first noticed at Nazzano remains a mystery (cf. p. 135).

3 The northern tip of the ridge was occupied by a pre-Roman settlement (323), v. p. 105.

4 The river-crossing linked the northern Ager Gapenas with northern Sabinum, in particular the town of Forum Novum at Vescovile near Selci. Probable traces of the Roman route from Forum Novum to the Badia crossing have been found north of Forano.

5 Navium patiens omnesque fruges devehit in urbem, hieme dumtaxat et vere. Ep. 5.6.12. cf. Strabo on the branches of the Tiber down which goods could be shipped to Rome (5.3.7.) and Columella, , R.R., I.2.3Google Scholar.

6 e.g. the Faliscan site of Ponte del Ponte north of Corchiano, v. PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 123, fig. 20Google Scholar.

7 Implied by Ashby, Memorie, p. 165.

8 ‘A tempo mio fu scoperto ivi vicino (presso la chiesa di S. Antimo in territorio di Nazzano) una grotta sepulcrale o ipogeo, e vi fu trovato un scheletro, una lancia, due o tre vasi con pitture vulgarmente chiamati etruschi di disegno pero rozzo e una quantità di rottami di vasi di creta.’ Quoted by Stefani, , Mon. Ant., xvi, 1906, c. 282Google Scholar, n. 2.

9 Peroni, R., ‘Tradizione Subappenninica nella Decorazione Ceramica della Cultura Laziale’, Archeologia Classica, x, 1958, pp. 243–54Google Scholar.

10 Bullettino dell' Instituto, 1870, p. 26.

11 v. esp. Mazzarino, S., ‘Sociologia del Mondo Etrusco e Problemi della tarda Etruscità’, Historia, vi 1957, pp. 98–122Google Scholar. cf. W. Schulze, Zur Geschichte Lateinischer Eigennamen, p. 569.

12 CIL, xi, 3868. n.

13 I am grateful for this suggestion to Dr. S. Weinstock. cf. W. Schulze, op. cit., p. 157. Sepre is found in CIE, 1310 (from Clusium) cf. Sepurius, CIL, xi, 3481 (from Tarquinii).

14 Livy, ix. 36. 1.

15 This process was first shown most effectively in the Ciminian Forest by G. C. Duncan in his survey of the Sutri area, PBSR, xxvi, 1958, p. 94, fig. 7Google Scholar.

15 Ashby, and Fell, , ‘The Via Flaminia’, JRS, xi, 1921, p. 125 ffGoogle Scholar. cf. E. Martinori, Via Flaminia, 1929, p. 67 ff.

16 Ballance, M. H., ‘The Bridges of the Via Flaminia’, PBSR, xix (1951), p. 85Google Scholar.

17 A. Boethius and others, Etruscan Culture: Land and People, fig. 151, p. 174 (cf. fig. 155 for the adaptation of a barrel-vaulted cistern).

18 ix. 36.9. of the M. Cimini.

19 For further discussion v. Ashby, Memorie, p. 152.

20 For Pian Sultano, v. Bulletino di Paletnologia Italiana, N.S.X., 1956, p. 157 ff. The site at Formello, discovered in 1957, will be published in the report on the Ager Veientanus in a forthcoming volume of the Papers. For the Grotte Falische, v. Mon. Ant., xxvi, 1920, col. 5 ffGoogle Scholar. A newly discovered Faliscan site was described by Trump, D. in PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 95Google Scholar.

21 I am particularly grateful for help in this and the preceding section from Dr. F. R. Hodson and from Dr. D. Trump, the author of one of the two recent general studies of the Appennine culture (Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, xxiv (1958), p. 64 ffGoogle Scholar. The other by S. Puglisi appears in his book, La Civiltà Appenninica, published by Sansoni (Firenze) in 1958.

22 Childe Harolde, 4, 76. cf. Horace, , Odes, i, 9, 1Google Scholar, vides ut alta stet nive candidum/Soracte. Snow is in fact a very rare occurence on Soracte; the mountain has matched Horace's description only once (1947) in recent years.

23 Pliny, , N. H. VII. 19Google Scholar. Strabo also records the cult and describes it as belonging τινὶ δαίμοτι, I. 226.

24 So Varro: see Serv., in Aen., xi, 787.

25 Serv. in Aen., xi, 785.

26 Ovid, , Fast. 1, 2, 267 ffGoogle Scholar. (v. Frazer's commentary). The deity in question at the Lupercal was either Faunus or Inuus, a little-known fertility god.

27 nam lupi Sabinorum lingua vocantur hirpi. Serv., loc. cit. cf. P–Festus 93 L (106 M): Irpini appellati nomine lupi, quem irpum dicunt Samnites; eum enim ducem secuti agros occupavere.

28 For recent discussions of the subject v. Hubaux, J., Rome et Veiés, Chap, ix, p. 286 ffGoogle Scholar. (‘Les Loups du Soracte’); M. J. Gagé, Apollon Romain, p. 84 ff.

29 Varro, , R. R., ii. 3. 3Google Scholar.

30 Dennis, G., The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, i, p. 134Google Scholar.

31 Mazzarino, S., ‘Sociologia del Mondo Etrusco e Problemi della Tarda Etruscità’, Historia, vi, 1957, pp. 98–122Google Scholar.

32 Lucus Feroniae existed during this period but its character differed from that of other settlements (Pt. I, pp. 189–197).

33 8, 15, 17, 49, 50, 52, 53, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 120, 122,

34 8, 15, 57, 59, 62.

35 cf. Livy ix. 36. 9 of the M. Cimini.

36 The forest on M. Soracte was cut during the first world war. cf. Ashby, Memorie, p. 131.

37 All the evidence for dating is drawn from Taylor, D. M., ‘Cosa: Black-glaze Pottery,’ MAAR, xxv (1957), pp. 65–193Google Scholar. I am very grateful to Miss Taylor who examined the pottery and made this section possible. Her work at Cosa forms one of the two basic studies of this type of pottery. The other is by N. Lamboglia, “Per una classificazione preliminare della ceramica campana”, Atti del Primo Congresso Internazionale di Studi Liguri, 1950, 139–206, based mainly on excavations at Albintimilium in 1938–40.

38 cf. PBSR, xxix (1961), p. 56Google Scholar.

39 For the detailed evidence of the date v. p. 156.

40 Liber Coloniarum, 216.L.

41 Frontinus, De Controversiis Agrorum, A164=K. Lachmann, , Die Schriften der Römischen Feldmesser, i. p. 47Google Scholar, 1. 19 (cf. p. 46, 1. 17).

42 Ibid: p. 41, 11. 11–12.

43 Since the map is based entirely on surface finds, it cannot claim to be comprehensive.

44 Lamboglia, N., Rivista di Studi Liguri, vii, 1941, pp. 7–22Google Scholar; also xxiv, 1958, pp. 257–330, esp. p. 295.

45 PBSR, xxvi (1958) p. 94Google Scholar, fig. 7. cf. Ward-Perkins, J. B., Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, lxiv (1959) pp. 18–20Google Scholar.

46 de reditu suo, i. 414.

47 Not. Scav., 1937, p. 7 ff.

48 CIL. xi, 6616; ILS. 5802 (cf. p. 103 and Ashby, Memorie, p. 144).

49 Broughton, T. S., Magistrates of the Roman Republic, ii, p. 467Google Scholar.

50 CIL. i. 22, 21; Eph. Epigr., viii, 676.

51 CIL. vi. 31585; Huelsen, , Röm. Mitt., x, 1895, p. 298Google Scholar.

52 Following the chronology of CAH, viii, p. 43.

53 Livy x. 47. 4.

54 Dig., xliii. 11.2.

55 At one point (961640) a kilometre above Fontanile di Vacchereccia it appears to have been built with a central rib.

56 PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 189Google Scholar.

57 Cato, , de agr. cult., xxiiGoogle Scholar. records that a wagon laden with an olive-crusher took six days to make the journey to Suessa (25 Roman miles) and back.

58 PBSR, xxv, 1957, p. 186Google Scholar.

59 Lib. Col. 217. L, ceteris autem locis vias cavas, itinera, coronas (ridgec rests) et antenomin ata. cf. 255.L. habet ripas, vias et rivos finales.

60 A feature of this kind can now only be located by large-scale earth-moving and recently the widening of the cutting in which the modern Via Cassia crossed the southern tip of the Baccano crater has revealed another example.

61 The initial report of this excavation (by S. Pagliari) appears in Not. Scav., 1959, pp. 102–11.

62 14, 41, 51, 70, 80, 88, 101, 112, 116, 118, 119, 129, 130, 132, 154, 176, 183, 192, 204, 205, 209, 214, 220, 277.

63 Lugli, G., La Tecnica Edilizia Romana, 1, p. 506Google Scholar; M. E. Blake, Ancient Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus, pp. 253–75.

64 41, 214, 217 (the Giardino Villa), 229 (the M. Gupellone site), 237 (Fiorano) and 241 (the villa above Fiano).

65 e.g. 246, 256, 266, 272, 273 and 277, at which a few blocks of travertine opus reticulatum were found.

66 In the main shopping street on the northern side of the forum. For the town v. de Visscher, F. and De Ruyt, F., Antiquité Classique, xx (1951), pp. 47–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 A detailed discussion of cuniculi by A. Kahane and S. Judson will be found on pp. 74–99 of this volume. For previous discussion of the cuniculi of the Roman Campagna v. Fraccaro, P., ‘Di alcuni antichissimi lavori idraulici di Roma e della Campagna’, Opuscola (Pavia, 1957), vol. iii, pp. 1–36Google Scholar, being a reprint with four added appendices from Bullettino della Società Geografica Italiana, V, viii, 1919, pp. 186–215Google Scholar. Fraccaro makes the important point that many cuniculi were for the collection, not the disposal of water. He is wrong, however, in criticising Ashby's statement that much of the area north and east of Veii was drained by an elaborate series of cuniculi (The Roman Campagna in Classical Times, pp. 239–40).

68 The Legacy of Rome (ed. C. Bailey) p. 470.

69 Examples occur at sites 70, 210, 211, 278 and 345.

70 At least three are known in the Veientanus, Ager (PBSR, xxix (1961), p. 48Google Scholar) and from personal observation others are to be found near Prima Porta and the site of Fidenae on the south bank of the Tiber.

71 Lugli, G., Bull. Comm. li (1923), p. 53Google Scholar, fig. 7: Not. Scav., 1939, p. 358. For another instance found by Ashby at a site on the Clodia, Via v. PBSR, xxiii, 1955, p. 71Google Scholar.

72 Bull. Comm. xlii (1914), p. 281Google Scholar; ibid. li (1923), p. 55, fig. 8.

73 Colini, A. M., Bull. Comm. lxix (1941), pp. 83–5Google Scholar.

74 Given in the order as described on p. 141, i.e. Capena, site 98, site 220.

75 Judging from Arretine ware found in the soil above. It is, in any case, the most sophisticated example from the Capena area.

76 Ab urbe condita per annos CCCCXXXXI contenti fuerunt Romani usu aquarum quas aut ex Tiberi aut ex puteis aut ex fontibus hauriebant. Front., de aqu. 4.

77 23, 38, 49, 51, 56, 71, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 94, 97, 100, 104, 105, 112, 114, 116, 122, 127,128, 130, 136, 139, 179, 181, 192, 205, 214, 216, 217, 221, 239, 241, 277, 292, 319, 363.

78 38, 49, 51, 56, 70, 71, 75, 112, 114, 130, 132, 139, 174, 182, 192, 193, 210, 217, 239, 241, 322, 326.

79 71, 112, 174, 241.

80 cf. an inscription from the Nazzano, area: via privata L. Occi. M.F. (CIL. xi, 3949Google Scholar).

81 Col., R. R. I. v. 7Google Scholar.

82 Col., R. R. I. ii. 3Google Scholar. For river transport, cf. M. Rostovtzeff, Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, pl. XXX, 1 and 5.

83 The climate too is best suited to mixed farming. The chief feature of the weather is the difference in direction between summer and winter, between outblowing winds in winter and inblowing winds in summer. In winter the mean temperature of the Campagna is 4–8° C. (39.2° –46.4° F.). In July the temperature reaches an average of 24–28° C. (75.2° –82.4° F.). The area has between sixty and a hundred rainy days per annum, the rain mostly falling in heavy showers, and one or two days of snowfall. Cloud cover varies from 5 to 6 tenths in winter to 2 or 3 tenths during the summer months. On the average the Rome area has ten days of frost a year, while most of the rain falls in the autumn. Torrential thunderstorms often accompanied by hailstones that damage the vines are most frequent in spring and early autumn. Information from Italy, Geographical Handbook Series (Naval Intelligence Division) Vol. I, p. 406.

84 Varro, , R. R. III. 2, 14Google Scholar.

85 Col., R. R. I. vi, iGoogle Scholar. cf. Vitruvius, , De Arch., VI. 6Google Scholar; Varro, , R, R. I. 11Google Scholar.

86 Col., R. R. I. vi, 11Google Scholar. For the torcularium v. I. vi, 18.

87 De Agr. I. 7.

88 … cum balineo et aedificis quae iuncta ex utraque parte secus viam cum aquae ductu ex fundo Cutuleniano. CIL. x. 3932. For an example of a more elaborate aqueduct serving a villa in the Viterbo area v. CIL. xi, 3003, a. b. (=ILS. 5771).

89 Columella, , R. R. I. vi, 11Google Scholar and I. vi, 21.

90 For representations of Roman ovens, v. M. Rostovtzeff, op. cit., p. 32.

91 cf. Komemann, , ‘Bauernstand’ in PW, Supp. 4. 103Google Scholar, following Kromayer, , Neue Jahrb., 17, 1914, pp. 160–4Google Scholar.

92 at videmus … agrum Praenestinum a paucis possideri. Cicero, , de leg. agr. II. 28, 78Google Scholar.

93 Tac., Ann., XIV. 27, 3Google Scholar.

94 Lib. Col. 76.L, 243.L.

95 Badian points out that among other factors, the influx of booty and tribute from victorious wars in the second century B.C. had led to considerable building activity which helped to depo ulate the countryside by attracting people to Rome (Historia, Band XI, 2., 1962, p. 200). Over-expenditure on building programmes in fact seems to have created, an urban economic crisis for Tiberius Gra chus to overcome. Boren, H. C., ‘The Urban side of the Gracchan economic crisis,’ AHR, 1957–1958, p. 890 ffGoogle Scholar.

96 cf. habet ripas, vias et rivos finales. Lib. Col. 255.L. referring to the Capena area.

97 I would like to express my sincere thanks to the two bodies that granted permission for the excavation to take place, the Soprintendenza dell'Etruria Meridionale and the Commune of Rignano Flaminio.

98 Not. Scav., 1923, p. 276 ff., fig. 3.

99 ibid., figs. 1, 5.

100 For the evidence v. M. E. Blake, Ancient Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus, pp. 253–75 (esp. p. 274); Lugli, G., La Tecnica Edilizia Romana, I, p. 506Google Scholar.

101 Ad Fam. IX. 17. 2 cf. Pt. I, pp. 124, 194.

102 Lamboglia, N., Rivista di Studi Liguri, vii, 1941, pp. 7–22Google Scholar; xxiv, 1958, pp. 257–330, esp. p. 295.

103 S. Reinach, Rep. de Peinture, p. 390. 1. M. Rostovtzeff, op. cit., pl. XLVII.

104 S. Reinach, op. cit., p. 392. 3.

105 Rostovtzeff, M., ‘Die Hellenistisch-römische Architektur-landschaft,’ Rom. Mitt., xxvi, 1911, p. 95, pl. XI, 1Google Scholar.

106 S. Aurigemma, I Mosaici di Zliten, p. 88, fig. 54. cf. T. Précheur-Canonge, La Vie Rurale en Afrique Romaine, p. 27 ff.