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

Cumae probably joined the rebels against Rome during the Latin War. Livy mentions
that the city received civitas sine suffragio along with Capua, Fundi, Fonniae and
Suessula in 338 BC. 528 This allowed Cumae to retain its customs, laws and language
within the Roman state. Sartori argued that the activities of the praefecti, who were
requested by and granted to Capua in 318 BC, soon extended to Cumae. 529
1 can find
no evidence, literary or epigraphic, which supports this view. Cumae remained loyal
to Rome during the Second Punic War and endured a fierce attack by Hannibal in
215 BC, which was repulsed by the consul Ti. Sempronius Gracchus. 530 The three
hundred Capuan cavalrymen, who were serving in Sicily at the time of the Capuan
revolt from Rome, were pronounced Cumaean citizens to allow them to avoid the
punishments which the Romans were to inflict on their home city. The political and
administrative reorganization of Campania after Capua's surrender had deep effects
on the cities in the region. I have concluded previously that Rome established the
IIIlviri praefecti Capuam Cumas to dispense law in ten Campanian cities after 211
BC. 531 This put an end to the autonomous public institutions of Cumae, since Festus
says that these officers were sent to cities which did not have their own
magistrates. 532
Cumae became a bilingual community with the Samnite occupation.
Epigraphic evidence suggests that the city acquired Oscan political institutions and
the official language became Oscan, but it certainly retained a substantial number of
Greek inhabitants. Strabo noted that the religious and legal practices of his own time
527
Livy 4.52.6
528
Livy 8.14.10.
529
Sartori (1953) 166.
530
Livy 23.36.5.
531
For this argument see the chapter 3.2.3.
532 Festus p. 262 Lindsay: `et erat quaedam earum r(es) p(ublica), neque tarnen magistratus suos
habebant. '
147