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

magistri first, and then records that the officials purchased a slave for Juno Gaura by
the decree of the pagus (pagi scita)502. These two inscriptions have prompted
scholars to propose that, with the abolition of the central control in 211 BC, the
Campanian plain reverted to ancient, pre-urban territorial units, the pagi, out of
which the Capuan state had been formed by 503
synoikismos. Capogrossi Colonesi
notes that this reconstruction is based on two preconceptions about the pagus: its
rural nature, and the belief that there was continuity between the pre-Roman and
Roman administrative form s. 504 Both suppositions seem to be founded more on the
authority of Mommsen and Kornemann than on epigraphic or textual evidence. The
first criticism of Heurgon's scheme came from Frederiksen, who found it hard to
believe that previous village and tribal communities were revived and entrusted with
administrative duties. 505
I have discussed already in the previous section the view
that pagi were introduced by the Roman administration in the Central Apennines 506
The term pagus is mentioned only in Latin inscriptions and no ancient source
provides evidence for its existence at Capua before 211 BC. Furthermore, Pobjoy has
shown that the cults to which the activities of the magistri of the pagi are related
were clearly Roman. 07 On the basis of these arguments, I conclude that the pagi of
Capua, like the pagi attested in the central Apennines, must have been established by
the Roman authorities.
502
Nr. 20 = CIL 12 686 = CIL X 3783 = ILS 6303 = ILLRP 722.
503
Mommsen CIL X p. 367 and Heurgon (1942) 115.
504 Capogrossi Colognesi (2002) 159-70.
505 Frederiksen (1984) 266-7.
506
Section 2.4.1.
507
Pobjoy (1998) part IV, 192-5.
141