The Aurunci and Sidicini

Christopher J. Smith The Aurunciand Sidicini IGeography The Aurunci/Ausones and the Sidicini occupied the area between the Garigliano and the Volturno rivers (for amap of the region,see Map 2, p. 7; alsosee Fig. 2, p. 388). The area is formed of plainsinterrupted by two mountain ranges, the Monti Aurunci and the Monti Ausones(the latter dominated by the extinct but once powerful volca- no Mt.Roccamonfina), and the Massico rangewhich runs down to the coast.They are all part of the Anti-Apennines, which wereformedbetween seven and five million years agoasaresult of the African tectonic plate being carried underthe European plate. Predominantlyfriable limestone, they represent aboundary between Latium Adjectum and the fertile Ager Stellas and the Campanian plain. Post-volcanic activity is demonstratedbythermal springsatSuoi Terme (Aquae Vescinae)and Bagni Sul- furei (Thermae Sinuessanae), and earthquake activity is well-attested archaeological- ly. The upland parts of the area wereprobablyheavilyforested in prehistory,but partiallydeforestedinclassicaltimes. Thelower ground was well-watered and had considerable agricultural potential, becominginclassical times famous for viticul- ture. The close juxtaposition of hill and plain mayhavepermitted local movement of flocks without the need for long distance transhumance, as could be observed until quite recently. Thecoastline was further inlandthan today, and there werea series of lagoons and grottoes, which encouraged fishing,but also harboured malar- ia, at least in Late Antiquity. The combination of this potential, and the highstrategic significanceofthe area, especiallyonce communications between Etruria, Latium and Campania begantoincrease, is the background to the complex history of this area (seeFrederiksen 1984,1‒53;Arthur 1991;Zannini2012). II Sources What is so fascinating about this areabetween the Apennines and the Tuscanian Sea, is the number of ethnic groups,manyquite fleeting.The Aequians, Hernicans Iamextremely grateful to Maria CristinaBiella,Massimiliano di Fazio,FrancescoMaria Ciffarelli, Alessandra Pagliaraand the editors for helpful adviceand gentle corrections; all remaining errors aremyown. Christopher J. Smith: British School at Rome and School of Classics, University of St Andrews, Fife,Scotland KY16 9AJ; Email: [email protected] DOI 10.1515/9781614513001-022 Bereitgestellt von | De Gruyter / TCS Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am | 30.04.18 11:37 448 Christopher J. Smith and Volscians just to the northare treated elsewhereinthis volume. The Ausones/ Aurunci and the Sidicini have asignificant role in Livy’saccount of the fourth century BC,and playedarole in the Hannibalic Wars, but are then largely the subject of learned yetunreliable speculation on their origins.Itisnonetheless striking that the sources maintainedaclear awareness of diversity in this area, which leadsBourdin (2012,667‒700) to describe the area as a “société multi-ethnique.” The Sidiciniare the most straightforward.AsStrabopointsout,their name was preserved in the town Teanum Sidicinum, which is on the southern slopes of Mt.Roc- camonfina. Coinageand inscriptions from the town are in Oscan. Strabo(5.3.9) calls the people Oscans, and “an ethnos of Campani thathas disappeared.” Livy’sdetailed account of fourth century contests with the Sidicini has acounterpart in the FastiTri- umphales for 340/339: “[T.] Manlius L.f. A.n. Imperiosus Torquatus, consul {III}, over the Latins, Campanians, Sidiciniand Aurunci, 15 k. Jun.” If we believethat the Fasti, at least for the laterfourth century onwards,are reliable, this givesusaclear historical starting point. The position with the Aurunci is much more complicated because thereisaper- sistent identification of the Aurunci with the Ausones. Ausonia, however,was also used as ageneralised term for an earlyItalic people. The developed mythographyre- fers to ason of Odysseus called Auson, and Ausonia is used poeticallytorefer to all of Italy. (This is then mapped on to the archaeological phenomenon of “Ausonian culture” which was coined by Bernabò-Brea 1964‒1965todescribe the Late Bronze Agecultureofthe Lipari islands and north-eastern Sicily, which is very similar to the Subappenine cultureofthe mainland). The connection of Auson with his son Li- paros is recounted in Diodorus Siculus (5.7). The idea that the Ausonians spread from Campania all across Italymay also underlie Festus’sabbreviated comment (16L)that Auson began in the area around Cales and Beneventum, and foundedSuessa Aurun- ca. However,the tradition is extremelyconfused. Hecataeus of Miletus, as mediated through Stephanus of Byzantium, is our first sourcefor Ausonians in Campania;atBNJ 1F61 he says that Nola was acity of the Ausones. This securelyplaces earlyGreek knowledge of the Ausonesinthe right area, though Nola would not be considered part of Auruncan territory in historical times. Aristotle also puts the Ausonians on the west coast of Italy(Pol. 7. 10. 1329b8‒22),but it was not universal – when Pindar(F140 Maehler)refers to the Au- sonian Sea it is in the context of Italian Locri. Lykophron is inconsistent,asisApol- lonius of Rhodes, with locationswandering from the straits of Messina as far as Cer- veteri. Plinythe Elder (NH 3.75,3.151 and 14.69, and 3.95 citing Varro) has amore reducednotion of the Ausonian Sea, but amore expansive one at NH 3.56. By far the largest number of references to the Ausonians and Auruncanscome from Silius Italicus, but his usageispoetical and imprecise. Virgil and Livy are more important for our purposes. Virgil perhaps more clearlythan previous authors has adivision between the Aurunci who werespecificallylocated to the south of Lat- ium, and the Ausonii who had ageneralised role in the prehistory of Italy. Thecom- mentary tradition on Virgil represented in Servius reverts to aless nuanced version, Bereitgestellt von | De Gruyter / TCS Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am | 30.04.18 11:37 The Aurunciand Sidicini 449 summarised by the view thatAusoneswas simplythe Greek name for Aurunci (Zan- nini 2012; see Pagliara2008 and 2014bfor more sophisticated readings). It is onlyinLivywherewehaveareallyclear and different view and that is because he is dealing with the historical period. Herethe Aurunci are confined to the other side of Massico range, and concentrated around the Garigliano valley;the Ager Falernus is on the Campanian side of the mountainrange; and the territory of the Sidicini extends inland from Roccafina towards Cales. Yetitisimportant to be clear thatthese boundaries wereatnostagestable, and the description of Frederik- sen (1984,40) of a “shifting tessellation of administrative regions” nicelycaptures the situation. Untangling this collection of sources into asingle coherent historical thread is not possible; Pagliarahas identified four different traditions, and thereisanaddi- tional derivation of the Ausonians from ahalf-man half-horse figure called Mares, mentioned by Aelian (Var. Hist. 9.16;see Pagliara2002, 2006,2008 and the classic statements of Lepore1989). It is clear thatthe majority Greek view was that there was an earlyItalic people of broad extent called the Ausoni, and that this is reflected in the wayLatin writers use Ausonia, poetically, for all of Italy. There is aminority sceptical view that the Ausonians werenone other than the Aurunci, who occupied no more than the coastal strip between the Volscians and Campanians (Dio Cassius F2.1 Boissevain, cited by the commentator Tzetzes). The more widelyheld view may have originated from the rhotacism thatturned Aurunci into Ausoni, but there is little reason to believethat the Aurunci of the classicalperiod, in northern Campania, werethe wellspringofanItalic movement.How far,ifatall, the Aurunci themselves exploitedorpromoted the story is not recoverable.Whilst it does seem clear that they did not see themselvesascomparable to the Sidicini (and vice versa), the ethno- graphic tradition of abroad Ausonian culturearose elsewhere. To understand more about these groups we have to turn to archaeology.Howev- er,itmust be noted immediatelythat there is no clear list of which towns and settle- ments belonged to the Aurunci and Sidicini. Some mayhavebeen overtaken by the Volscians; di Fazio has suggested that acorrupt passageatLivy8.22may reveal that Fregellae,along wayupthe Liris valley was once Sidicine territory (di Fazio 2014, 248), which would suggest both that Sidicine territory was much largerthan we have tended to think, and that it was drasticallyreduced perhapsfrom the late sixth centuryon. With the cases of TeanumSidicinum and Suessa Aurunca, we can clearly identify them from theirnamesaskey centres,but the latter is a Roman colonyand the exactlimits of the respective territories are never defined in antiquity,nor is the evidence sufficientlydifferentiated to permit us to distinguish on grounds of material culture alone (the allegedlynational ceramic of the late ori- entalising period which Johannowsky very confusingly called buccherorosso is in- stead aform of impasto with ared slip: Johannowsky 1983, 291‒293; Chiesa 2011). It is also the case that there are alot of gaps in our knowledge.Recent work around the two key sites in the Auruncan territory of Formiaeand Fondi has begun to change Bereitgestellt von | De Gruyter / TCS Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am | 30.04.18 11:37 450 Christopher J. Smith this, but Pallottino’sevocative description of this area as azone of silence remains partiallytrue (Pallottino 1984,51). III Prehistory The pace of discovery of prehistoric finds has picked

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