Urban and Rural Landscapes of the Pontine Region (Central Italy) in the Late Republican Period, Economic Growth Between Colonial Heritage and Elite Impetus
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BABESCH 93 (2018), 143-164. doi: 10.2143/BAB.93.0.3284850 Urban and rural landscapes of the Pontine region (Central Italy) in the late Republican period, economic growth between colonial heritage and elite impetus Peter A.J. Attema Abstract In this paper a concise overview of the Republican to Early Imperial urban and rural landscape of the Pontine region is presented as a prelude to a discussion of the historical conditions that had enabled economic prosperity. In Archaic times, still characterized by extensive wetlands and marginal coastal areas, the Pontine region increasingly urbanized in the course of the Republican period. Gradually the settled landscape became character- ized by a variety of urban and rural settlement forms, partly continuing those from the Archaic period and partly constituting new ones in reclaimed territory. On hilltops surrounding the Pontine plain some of the early Roman colonies had by the late Republic grown into sizeable towns. In their productive territories villae and farmsteads now dotted the landscape, extending into the uplands and onto the plain. Along the via Appia, newly founded settlements served the inhabitants of reclaimed and allotted lands in the former marsh, while on the coast the cities of Tarracina and Antium flourished. We may well ask what previous developments had created this favourable demographic and economic climate of increasing urbanization, specialized land use and overseas and inland trading, and what constituted the main contemporary triggers of economic growth. The complex archaeological scenario that is now emerging is far removed from the literary image of the Pontine region as a marginal landscape and the traditional image of Central Italy’s ‘empty’ landscapes dominated by large slave-run estates. INTRODUCTION region and indicate that the Late Republican period indeed was characterized by major invest- In a paper delivered in 1985 during the confer- ments in agricultural estates by the elite.2 ence ‘La Valle Pontina nell’antichità’, F. Coarelli While ancient sources refer to an ‘empty’ coun- posed the rhetorical question what ‘flourishing’ tryside in parts of Italy, especially in the south - according to him a much favoured word among but also in coastal Etruria, archaeological find- archaeologists - actually means in the societal ings in contrast indicate overall economic success context of Late Republican Italy: ‘Che significa along this part of the Tyrrhenian coast.3 How- fiorire’?1 In modern ideology, he stated, it would ever, rather than viewing the literary perception imply a period of accumulation of economic of the ‘empty’ countryside as a physical empti- goods and as such the 1st century BC arguably ness, Coarelli interprets this as a social emptiness: was the most rewarding period for the Pontine there would simply have been fewer free citizens region of all antiquity (fig. 1). To illustrate his than before and labour would have increasingly point, Coarelli referred to the textual sources that been provided for by slaves.4 The modes of pro- report on the wine production in the territory duction that a historian as Livy had in mind in between Setia and Tarracina. Prominent Romans the 1st century BC were different from those of not only exported wines to Rome but also traded the Archaic and mid-Republican periods: ‘altre them elsewhere in the empire, especially in its strutture, altre forze produttive, altre divisioni western parts. This is but one example he gives della terra, altre situazioni sociali ed econom- in order to demonstrate how the Pontine region iche’. According to Coarelli, in the paper cited in had become an economically interesting area to note 4, the simple characterization of the Late those willing and able to invest in market-ori- Republican period as one of ‘fioritura’, as archae- ented agricultural production. Current archaeo- ologists give, is not useful; ‘ci serve di capire le logical studies corroborate the textual evidence situazioni storiche nel concreto’. put forward by Coarelli for economic success in In this paper a concise overview will be pro- the 1st century BC in at least part of the Pontine vided of the substantial Late Republican to Early 143 Fig. 1. Roman settlements discussed in the text and main infrastructure in the Pontine region during the Late Republic (map by T.C.A de Haas, Groningen Institute of Archaeology). Imperial urbanization in the Pontine landscape, archaeological data do not support the ancient ca 60 km south of Rome, based on previous and notion of an empty countryside dominated by a current archaeological research on urban centres, few large elite estates, not even in Coarelli’s sense rural settlement, land use and infrastructure. of ‘social emptiness’. Aside from certain areas, Innovations during the mid-Republican period that according to recent archaeological surveys (ca 350-150 BC) are viewed as the fundament for seem to have been increasingly abandoned, the Late Republican and Early Imperial develop- rural landscape of the Pontine region remained, ments (ca 150 BC-AD 100), in which considerable in general, well inhabited and socio-economically elite investments in urban and rural contexts took stratified. Continuity in the presence of modest place but alongside which peasant farming per- farmsteads alongside new villae remained. This is sisted, as suggested by the archaeological data.5 in line with the observations of A. Launaro, who Along the lines of Coarelli’s 1985 paper, I will sees an overall rising trend for the rural free pop- argue on the basis of archaeological data that the ulation of Roman Italy in Latium and Campania.6 conditions for economic growth were rooted in In the first part of this paper I give a short over- the region’s mid-Republican colonial past when view of the archaeological evidence for urban set- investments in infrastructure were realized and it tlement under three headings: the coastal cities, received colonists to exploit new land. Late Repub- the towns on the foothills of the Monti Lepini and lican socio-economic change, notably the availabil- the secondary settlements in the plain along the ity of increased capital and slaves favoured urban via Appia. Also a review is given of rural settle- and rural elite investment triggering economic ment, both elite and non-elite.7 On the basis of growth. However, I will also argue that the the available archaeological evidence it will be 144 argued that the Pontine region witnessed a period tively Rome and the Alban Hills. It became of economic growth during the Late Republican equipped with a new harbour in Early Imperial period, although more thorough quantitative times. Volpi in a publication of 1726, shows, for research still has to be done on the topic to pro- example, a suggestive image of Antium with the so- vide more reliable figures with a higher chrono- called Porto Neroniano of early imperial date in the logical and spatial resolution.8 In the second part foreground and monumental ancient remains on of this paper the historical conditions and con- the seaboard with in the back the Vignacce hill.16 temporary triggers of economic growth will be As is clear from recent surveys within the discussed with due attention to the mid-Republi- framework of the Pontine Region Project, rural can ‘colonial’ heritage. settlement in its territory reached a peak in the Late Republican and Early Imperial period, stim- URBANIZATION IN THE PONTINE REGION IN THE LATE ulated by an effective local infrastructure serving REPUBLIC the countryside around the town.17 The same period witnessed the development of a wider Around 150 BC, the Pontine region, here defined range of settlement types in the countryside. as the area from Antium to the slopes of the Alban Remarkable among these are the larger and archi- Hills near Velletri and from the foothills of the tectonically more elaborate sites, especially along Monti Lepini and Ausoni up to the Monte Leano the coast between Antium and Astura. The latter near Terracina, counted six towns of old; Antium, is a settlement of as yet uncertain size located at Circeii and Tarracina located on elevated positions the mouth of the homonymous river near the along the coast and inland Cora, Norba and Setia famous villa maritima of Torre Astura that dis- on pronounced foothills in the Monti Lepini. posed of a harbour of almost 8 ha.18 Archaeological surveys indicate that by this time Moving along the coast to the southeast, the these areas without exception were surrounded next Roman town was Circeii located on a more by a densely settled rural landscape served by a or less rectangular limestone plateau on the well-developed network of roads and other infra- Monte Circeo.19 In the present-day street plan the structure.9 Along the via Appia there were smaller orthogonal lay-out of the mid-Republican colony nucleated settlements.10 Also there were modest is preserved. On the basis of the limited size of nucleated settlements along the coastal road of the limestone plateau, the surviving town walls the via Severiana (fig. 1).11 and monumental gates the surface of the town is calculated to have been only slightly over 1.5 ha The coastal towns (fig. 3). As Circeii is overbuilt, we have little detailed evidence of the town’s civic and public Of the three late Republican coastal settlements architecture, whereas the historical sources do not mentioned, we start with the northernmost one: Antium. Founded in the Iron Age on the sandstone outcrop of the Vignacce hill, Antium had by the Republican period expanded