Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

supervise the introduction of new regulations following the acceptance of the city
into civitas sine suffragio. 373 Sherwin-White also pointed out that our sources do not
attest Roman interference in Capuan internal affairs. Both scholars agreed that the
passage in Festus refers to the completely new situation after 211 BC, when four
praefecti were sent out from Rome every year, who were elected officials numbered
among minor Roman officers. A passage in Velleius Paterculus seems to confirm
this. 374 The importance of the praefectura in Capua withered with the Social War,
especially with the establishment of a Roman colony at Capua after Caesar's
legislation of 59 BC. Perhaps after this date the title became honorific, until its
abolition in 13 BC. 375
3.2.4. Territory
It seems that Capua was a leading city in the region already before the
Samnite conquest, but it is impossible to determine how large its territory was.
Roman and Greek sources imply that before the Samnite Wars the civic territory of
Capua included the ager Falernus as far as Mons Massicus and the ager Stellas as far
as the lands that belonged to Cales on the east side of the river Voltumus, which
constituted the border between Cales and Capua (see map III). On the west side of
the river the large plain, called the ager Campanus in Latin, formed the core of the
city's territory. The limits of this land can be fixed with fair precision. With the
372
Frederiksen (1984) 228-9, Sherwin-White (1973) 43-5.
373
The view, which probably derives from De Sanctis, that the activities of praefecti sent to Capua in
318 BC were extended also to Cumae, looks mysterious. I could find no literary evidence to support
this argument.
374 Vell. Pat. 2.44.4.
375 Cass. Dio 54.26.7.
108