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Crisis: What Crisis? Rural Change and Urban Development in Imperial Appennine Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

John R. Patterson
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 55 , November 1987 , pp. 115 - 146
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1987

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References

1 This paper began life as the concluding chapter of an Oxford D.Phil, thesis, most of which I researched during tenure of a Rome Scholarship at the British School. I am very grateful for help and advice to Prof. M. H. Crawford, who supervised the thesis; Profs. F. G. B. Millar and G. E. Rickman, who examined it; and to the editor of the Papers. Subsequent versions were read to seminars in London, Cambridge and Naples. I am grateful to audiences on those occasions for their valuable comments, and especially to Profs. K. Hopkins, C. Franciosi and W. Johannowsky. None of these has any responsibility for the errors which remain.

2 Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1926; ed. 2, 1957) 199Google Scholar.

3 Giardina, A. & Schiavone, A. (eds.), Società Romana e Produzione Schiavistica, (Rome/Bari, 1981)Google Scholar. For the import of wine into Italy, see especially the article by Pannella, C., ‘La distribuzione e i mercati’, in vol. II, 55–80Google Scholar. The principles and viewpoints expressed in the volumes are discussed by Rathbone, D. W., ‘The slave mode of production in Italy’, JRS LXXIII (1983) 160–8Google Scholar, and Spurr, M. S., ‘Slavery and the economy in Roman Italy’, CR XXXV (1985) 123–31Google Scholar.

4 Purcell, N., ‘Wine and wealth in ancient Italy’, JRS LXXV (1985) 3 fGoogle Scholar.

5 Le vin de l'Italic romaine (Rome, 1986)Google Scholar.

6 Finley, M. I., Ancient History: Evidence and Models (London, 1985) 61 ffGoogle Scholar.

7 Suetonius, Domitian 7.2: ‘ad summam quondam ubertatem vini, frumenti vero inopiam existimans nimio vinearum studio neglegi arva, edixit, ne quis in Italia novellaret utque in provinciis vineta succiderentur, relicta ubi plurimum dimidia parte; nee exequi rem perseveravit.’ Domitian 14.2: ‘ut edicti de excidendis vineis propositi gratiam faceret, non alia magis re compulsus creditur, quam quod sparsi libelli cum his versibus erant: .

8 Corn: see Hopkins, K., ‘Models, ships and staples’, in Trade and Famine in Classical Antiquity (ed. Garnsey, P. & Whittaker, C. R., Cambridge, 1983) 91Google Scholar; wine: see Purcell, ‘Wine and wealth’ (note 4) p. 3; Tchernia, Le vin (note 5) 221–7.

9 Tchernia, A., ‘I vigneti italiani da Augusto a Domiziano: continuità e cambiamenti’, Opus III (1984) 477–85, esp. 481 ffGoogle Scholar; Le vin (note 5) 230–3.

10 CIL VIII 25902 = FIRA I, 100; S.H.A. Probus 18.8; Philostratus, Vit. Soph. 520.20, with Millar, F. G. B., The emperor in the Roman world (London, 1977) 391–2Google Scholar.

11 See Pliny, , Ep. X 34, 93, 96.7, 116Google Scholar.

12 Levick, B. M., ‘Domitian and the Provinces’, Latomus XLI (1982) 50–73, esp. 69 ffGoogle Scholar.

13 Wallace-Hadrill, A., Suetonius: the scholar and his Caesars (London, 1983) 134Google Scholar; Purcell, ‘Wine and wealth’ (note 4).

14 Sirago, V. A., L'Italia agraria sotto Traiano (Louvain, 1958)Google Scholar; Ford, G. B., ‘The letters of Pliny the younger as evidence of agrarian conditions in the principate of Trajan’, Helikon V (1965) 381–9Google Scholar. This quote: 388–9. Compare Martin, R., ‘Pline le jeune et les problemes economiques de son temps’, REA LXIX 1–2 (1967) 62–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 On this and the other letters discussed, see Sherwin-White, A. N., The Letters of Pliny (Oxford, 1966)Google Scholar. I have followed Sherwin-White's dating of the letters.

16 Ep. X, 8.5.

17 See Duncan-Jones, R. P., The economy of the Roman Empire: quantitative studies (ed. 2, Cambridge, 1982) 33Google Scholar.

18 For further discussion of Pliny's estates at Comum, see Syme, R., ‘Transpadana Italia’, Athenaeum LXIII (1985) 32Google Scholar.

19 On Pliny's estates, see Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 17–20. The general area in which Pliny's Laurentine villa was located is known, but which of the numerous villas identified there belonged to Pliny is still not certain. See: Lanciani, R., ‘Le antichità del territorio Laurentino nella reale tenuta di Castelporziano’, Mon. Ant. XIII (1903)Google Scholar coll. 192–196, and for recent work on the problem, Ricotti, E. Salza Prina, ‘La Villa Magna a Grotte di Piastra’, Castelporziano I (1985) 53–66Google Scholar.

20 A villa on ‘Colle Plinio’, some 10 km. from Città di Castello, the modern town on the site of Tifernum Tiberinum, has been identified as Pliny's villa ‘in Tuscis’ on the grounds that brickstamps bearing the legend ‘CPCS’ were found there. Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus? See Ville e insediamenti rustici di età romana in Umbria (Soprintendenza Archeologica per l'Umbria, Perugia, 1983) 18–23Google Scholar.

21 Ep. VI, 20.5: Stoic ataraxia?

22 ILS 212; Tac., Ann. XI, 23Google Scholar ff, with Griffin, M. T., ‘The Lyons Tablet and Tacitean hindsight’, CQ, XXXII (1982) 404–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 See Hopkins, K. & Burton, G., Death and Renewal, Cambridge, 1983, 120–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Moore, Barrington, Social origins of dictatorship and democracy (London, 1967) 491 ffGoogle Scholar. For further discussion of the ideology promoted by Trajan in the context of the alimenta, see below, p. 127.

25 SHA Marcus 11.8.

26 Duncan, R. P.–Jones, , ‘The purpose and organisation of the alimenta’, PBSR XXXII (1964) 123–46Google Scholar; a revised version of this work appears in Economy (note 17) 288–319.

27 Garnsey, P. D. A., ‘Trajan's alimenta: some problems’, Historia XVII (1968) 367–81Google Scholar.

28 CIL XI 1147 (Veleia, A.D. 98–113); IX 1455 (Ligures Baebiani, A.D. 101). There is a vast bibliography on the Tables and the problems they raise, outlined by Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 295. Fundamental are: de Pachtère, F. G., La table hypothecate de Veleia (Paris, 1920)Google Scholar and Veyne, P., ‘La table de Ligures Baebiani et l'institution alimentaire de Trajan’ in MEFRA LIX (1957) 81–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MEFRA LX (1958) 177–241Google Scholar; in addition to the work by Duncan-Jones and Garnsey (notes 17 and 27) the following seem to me to be the most significant recent contributions: Cascio, E. Lo, ‘Gli alimenta, l'agricoltura e l'approvvigionamento di Roma’, Rend. Line. VIII 33 (1978) 311–51Google Scholar; Champlin, E., ‘Owners and neighbours at Ligures Baebiani’, Chiron XI (1981) 239–64Google Scholar.

29 Aurigemma, S., Velleia (Rome, 1940) 5Google Scholar.

30 De Agostini, M., I Liguri nel Sannio (Benevento, 1984) 69 ffGoogle Scholar; Mommsen, T., Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IX (Berlin, 1883) 126Google Scholar.

31 Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 290.

32 Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 318–19.

33 SEHRE (note 2) 199.

34 Another interesting possibility is that its importance is more symbolic than practical: see Beard, M., ‘Writing and ritual: a study of diversity and expansion in the Arval Acta’, PBSR LIII (1985) 114–62, esp. 139–41Google Scholar.

35 Garnsey, ‘Trajan's alimenta’ (note 27) 380.

36 Pliny, Ep. VII 18: Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 296.

37 Garnsey, ‘Trajan's alimenta’ (note 27) 377 ff.

38 Pliny, Ep. VII 18.

39 XI 5395 = ILS 6620 (Asisium); XI 5956 (Pitinum, A.D. 139); VI 1492 = ILS 6106 (Ferentinum, A.D. 101).

40 Pueri puellaeque alimentari: XIV 4003 = ILS 6225 (Ficulea, A.D. 162); IX 5700 (Cupra Montana: reign of Antoninus Pius). Pueri puellaeque Ulpiani: XI 5395 = ILS 6620 (Asisium); XI 5956 (Pitinum, A.D. 139); XI 4351 (Ameria, Trajanic); XI 5989 = ILS 328 (Tifernum Mataurense, A.D. 137).

41 VI 1492 = ILS 6106 (Ferentinum, A.D. 101).

42 Helvius Basila X 5056 = ILS 977 (Atina, pre-Nero); cf. XI 1602 (Florentia, Flavian).

43 Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 341.

44 Encouragement to munificence by Nerva: Pliny, Ep. X 8.1.

45 Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 336.

46 Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 157.

47 Panegyricus 28.

48 VI 1492 = ILS 6106 (Ferentinum, A.D. 101) line 10.

49 Levick, B. M., ‘Pliny in Bithynia—and what followed’, Greece and Rome XXVI (1979) 119–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A statue-group commemorating the alimenta was erected in the Forum Romanum, and is depicted on the so-called Anaglypha Traiani, a sculptured relief found there. See Hammond, M., ‘A statue of Trajan represented on the Anaglypha Traiani’, MAAR XXI (1953) 119–31Google Scholar, and Torelli, M., Typological structure of Roman historical reliefs (Ann Arbor, 1982) 91Google Scholar.

50 On Mussolini's demographic policy, see: Salvatorelli, L. and Mira, G., Storia d'ltalia nel periodo fascisto (Turin, 1964) 569 ffGoogle Scholar; Tannenbaum, E. R., Fascism in Italy: society and culture 1922–1945 (London, 1975) 157–8Google Scholar.

51 Il Popolo d'ltalia (22 Dec. 1937) quoted in Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini XXIX (Florence, 1959) 37Google Scholar.

52 Salvatorelli Mira, Storia d'ltalia (note 50).

53 Il Popolo d'ltalia (30 Jan. 1938) = Opera omnia (note 51) 51–2.

54 Forni, G., Il reclutamento delle legioni da Augusto a Diocleziano (Rome, 1953) 66 ffGoogle Scholar.

55 Tannenbaum, Fascism (note 50) 158.

56 Lo Cascio, ‘Gli alimenta’ (note 28) 339 ff; but note the criticisms of Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 382–4.

57 See Fig. 1. The inscriptions are listed in Duncan-Jones, Economy (note 17) 337–41.

58 Birley, A., The fasti of Roman Britain (Oxford, 1981) 87 ffGoogle Scholar.

59 IX 2472 = ILS 6519: the inscription is set up by a public slave of the town of Saepinum, an alimentarius, to his deceased father, a freedman of the city. For the Neratii, see: Saepinum: Museo documentario dell'Altilia (Campobasso, 1982) 41–9Google Scholar.

60 For an account of the importance of patronage to the cities of Africa, see Sailer, R. P., Personal Patronage under the early Empire (Cambridge, 1982) 145 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Suetonius Domitian 6; PIR (ed. 1: ed. Dessau, H., Berlin 1897Google Scholar) ‘O’ no. 77.

62 IX 5833 = ILS 1059; PIR (ed. 1) ‘O’ no. 78.

63 IX 5830.

64 IX 5831–2 = ILS 6572–3.

65 IX 5826–7.

66 IX 5825. IX 5849 attests the career of C. Oppius Pallas as praetor (i.e. chief magistrate, see CIL IX p. 559), quaestor and quaestor of the alimenta. In IX 5859 Resitutus, actor ali[mentarius] dedicates to his late wife Octavia Prisca.

67 Some aqueduct costs: 130,000 HS at Antium (170 B.C.: Livy, XL, 4.6–7); 400,000 HS for maintenance at Pola (first century A.D.: CIL V 47 = ILS 5755); 600,000 HS at Verona (V 3402 = ILS 5757); 3,318,000 HS for an (uncompleted) aqueduct at Nicomedia in Bithynia (early second century A.D., Pliny, Ep. X, 37.1); 8,000,000 HS for the Aspendos aqueduct (? 2nd/3rd century A.D.: IGRR III 804, with Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘The aqueduct of Aspendos’, PBSR XXIII (1955) 115–23Google Scholar); 28,000,000 HS for an aqueduct at Alexander Troas (mid second century A.D.: Philostratus, , Vit. Soph. II 548Google Scholar).

68 See Keppie, L., Colonisation and veteran settlement in Italy (London, 1983) 114–23Google Scholar. Brixia: CIL V 4307 = ILS 114; Venafrum: X 4842 = ILS 5743.

69 At Potentia, for example, the censors Q. Fulvius Flaccus and A. Postumius Albinus built an aqueduct in 174 B.C. (Livy XLI 27.11); the colony had been founded ten years previously by M. Fulvius Flaccus (Livy XXXIX 44.10).

70 Bononia: CIL XI 720 = ILS 5674. Octavian exempted Bononia from swearing an oath of allegiance to him during the Actium campaign (Suetonius Augustus 17, Pliny, NH XXXIII 83Google Scholar), and subsequently gave the colony a new charter—to give the impression that it was he, not Antony, who had been the deductor, according to Dio (L 6.3).

71 CIL XI 3595, 3596. For the dereliction of the town, Strabo, Geog. V 2.3. Perhaps the consistent interest in the town displayed by the emperors is a legacy of the ‘special relationship’ which Rome enjoyed with Caere in the fourth century B.C.?

72 AE 1939, 151; see D'Arms, J., Romans on the Bay of Naples (Harvard, 1970) 79–80Google Scholar; I. Sgobbo, ‘L'acquedotto romano della Campania’, NSc. 1938, 75–97.

73 Dio LXIX 5.3.

74 Implied by Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus 8.2. Further implications of this pauperisation are discussed below, p. 142.

75 Pliny, Panegyricus 28.

76 For conditions there (with evidence drawn mostly from the imperial period) see Yavetz, Z., ‘The living conditions of the urban plebs in Republican Rome’, Latomus XVII (1958) 500–17Google Scholar = The crisis of the Roman Republic (ed. Seager, R., Oxford, 1969) 162–79Google Scholar.

77 On which see now Thomas Ashby: un archeologo fotografa la campagna romana tra '800 e '900 (Rome, 1986)Google Scholar.

78 For an overall analysis of the South Etruria survey and further bibliography, see Potter, T. W., The Changing Landscape of South Etruria (London, 1979)Google Scholar.

79 Morel, J. -P., Céramique Campanienne: les formes (Rome, 1981)Google Scholar; Oxé, A. & Comfort, H., Corpus Vasorum Arretinorum (Bonn, 1968)Google Scholar; Hayes, J., Late Roman Pottery (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Late Roman Pottery: supplement (London, 1981)Google Scholar.

80 See Snodgrass, A., ‘La prospection archéologique en Grèce et dans le monde Meditérranean’, Annales ESC XXXVII (1982) 800–12Google Scholar.

81 For a discussion of the problems posed by sampling strategy, see Cherry, J. F., ‘Frogs around the pond: perspectives on current archaeological projects in the Mediterranean region’ in Archaeological Survey in the Mediterranean area (ed. Keller, D. R. and Rupp, D. W., Oxford, 1983) 375–416Google Scholar.

82 See Fig. 2.

83 Barker, G., Lloyd, J. and Webley, D., ‘A classical landscape in Molise’, PBSR XLVI (1978) 42–3Google Scholar; See also Lloyd, J. and Barker, G., ‘Rural settlement in Roman Molise: problems of archaeological survey’, Archaeology and Italian Society (ed. Barker, G. and Hodges, R., Oxford, 1981) 289–304Google Scholar.

84 See Patterson, J. R., ‘The upper Volturno valley in Roman times’, in San Vincenzo al Volturno: the archaeology, art and territory of an early medieval monastery (ed. Hodges, R. and Mitchell, J., Oxford, 1985) 213–26Google Scholar.

85 Kahane, A., Threipland, M. and Ward-Perkins, J., The Ager Veientanus, north and east of Veil (PBSR XXXVI (1968)) 150 ffGoogle Scholar; Liverani, P., ‘L'ager Veientanus in età repubblicana’, PBSR LII (1984) 43Google Scholar.

86 Sutri: Duncan, G., ‘Sutri (Sutrium); notes on Southern Etruria, 3’, PBSR XXVI (1958) 94Google Scholar. Capena: Jones, G. D. B., ‘Capena and the Ager Capenas II’, PBSR XXXI (1963) 133Google Scholar.

87 Hemphill, P., ‘The Cassia-Clodia survey’, PBSR XLIII (1975) 157Google Scholar.

88 Potter, Changing landscape (note 78) 133.

89 Dyson, S. L., ‘Settlement patterns in the Ager Cosanus’, JFA V (1978) 251–68Google Scholar, esp. 260; Attolini, I. et al. , ‘Ricognizione archeologica nell'Ager Cosanus e nella valle dell'Albegna. Rapporto preliminare 1981’, Archeologia Medievale IX (1982) 371Google Scholar.

90 Attolini et al., ‘Rapporto 1981’ (note 89) 374—5; Attolini, I. et al. , ‘Ricognizione archeologica nell'Ager Cosanus e nella valle dell'Albegna. Rapporto preliminare 1982–3’, Archeologia Medievale X (1983) 444Google Scholar.

91 Attolini, ‘Rapporto 1981’ (note 89) 377.

92 Attolini et al., ‘Rapporto 1982–3’ (note 90) 458.

93 Wightman, E. M., ‘The lower Liri valley; problems, trends and peculiarities’, in Archaeology and Italian Society (ed. Barker, G. and Hodges, R., Oxford, 1981) 284 ffGoogle Scholar.

94 See Crawford, M. H., Keppie, L., Patterson, J., Vercnocke, M. L., ‘Excavations at Fregellae 1978–1984: part III’, PBSR LIV (1986) 40–68Google Scholar.

95 N. Mills, ‘Settlement and Landscape in the Ager Lunensis’ in Archaeology and Italian Society (note 93) 261–68; B. Ward-Perkins, ‘Luni, the prosperity of the town and of its territory’ in Archaeology and Italian society (note 63) 179–90; Ward-Perkins, B., Mills, N., Gadd, D., Smith, C. Delano, ‘Luni and the Ager Lunensis: the rise and fall of a Roman town and its territory’, PBSR LIV (1986) 81–143Google Scholar.

96 See Liverani, P., ‘L'ager Veientanus in età repubblicana’, PBSR LII (1984) 36–48Google Scholar.

97 See Ward-Perkins, J. B., Veii, the historical topography of the ancient city = PBSR XXIX (1961) 57 ffGoogle Scholar.

98 The number of inscriptions dated to the late second century and early third century surviving from the site of ancient Capena is remarkable even taking into account the fact that the site was not occupied after Roman times. See G. Mancini, ‘Capena: iscrizioni onorarie di età imperiale rinvenute in località Civitucola’, NSc.. 1953, 18–26. AE 1953, 164: dedication to Julia Augusta (A.D. 198); AE 1953, 165: dedication to Julia Paulina (A.D. 256); AE 1953, 168: benefaction by M. Gellius Servandus (A.D. 172). XI 3896–3909, 3910–3913: Fasti ludorum, benefaction of decuriones and seviri (A.D. 199); XI 3873: dedication to Pertinax (A.D. 193); IX 3867a: dedication to Septimius Severus (A.D. 198); XI 3936: monument to L. Pacatius Tyrannus (A.D. 162).

99 XI 3936 (A.D. 162); AE 1954, 166, 167 (late second century A.D.), 168 (A.D. 172).

100 AE 1953, 167 (late second century A.D.).

101 Bartoccini, R., ‘L'anfiteatro di Lucus Feroniae’, Rend. Pont. Acc. XXXIII (1960–1961) 183Google Scholar (plate 9: text not properly published).

102 F. E. Brown, Cosa I = MAAR XX (1951) 73–5Google Scholar; Cosa: the making of a Roman town (Ann Arbor, 1980) 73 ffGoogle Scholar.

103 Purcell, ‘Wine and wealth’ (note 4).

104 See A. Carandini (ed.), Settefinestre: una villa schiavistica nell'Etruria Romana (1985) 172.

105 XI 7265 = ILS 6596 (second century A.D.).

106 Compare Hopkins, ‘Models, ships and staples’ (note 8) 102 ff.

107 De Pachtère, La table (note 28) 59; Dio 56.28.4–6.

108 Veyne, La table 1958 (note 28) 182.

109 Champlin, ‘Owners and Neighbours’ (note 28) 245–6.

110 Ad Q. Fr. III 1.3.

111 CIL XI 6528 = I 1418 = ILS 7846 = ILLRP 662.

112 Abbott, F. F. and Johnson, A. C., Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (Princeton, 1926) 330Google Scholar

113 See Frederiksen, M. W., ‘Changes in the pattern of settlement’, Hellenismus in Mittelitalien II (ed. Zanker, P., Göttingen, 1976) 348–9Google Scholar.

114 A striking example is provided by the Fundi Iulianus Tursianus Cambelianus Lucilianus Naevianus Varianus Vippunianus in the territory of Veleia. (XI 1147, 4.58.)

115 See Garnsey, P., ‘Where did Italian peasants live?’, PCPS XXV (1979) p. 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

116 See Ep. VI, 25, with B. Shaw, D., ‘Bandits in the Roman Empire’, in Past and Present CV (1984) 3–52 esp. 10 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

117 I am grateful to Prof. K. Hopkins for pointing this out to me.

118 Siculus Flaccus 146L; 164–5L. See Frederiksen, ‘Changes’ (note 113) 346.

119 Pagus Vetanus: CIL IX 1503 = ILS 6508; Lucullanus, Pagus: CIL IX 1618Google Scholar = ILS 6507.

120 See above, p. 138.

121 See Hayes, J. and Wightman, E. M., ‘Interamna Lirenas: risultati di superficie 1979–1981’, Archeologia Laziale VI (1984) 137–48Google Scholar.

122 Torelli, M., ‘Ascesa al senato e rapporti con i territori d'origine. Italia: regio IV (Samnium)’, Epigrafia e ordine senatorio II (1981) 165–99Google Scholar, esp. 165–78, stresses variation in the pace of urbanisation within the central Appennines: he points out that urban development and involvement of the local elite in senatorial politics occurs much earlier in the territory of the Paeligni than in that of the Pentri, for instance.

123 CIL IX 3305 = ILS 932: ‘primus omnium Paelign(orum) senator factus est’.