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

Modern interpretations of the expression vereia can be divided into three main
groups. The first group emphasizes its military aspects. Bücheler argued that the
function of the vereia was the physical and military training of the young local
aristocrats like the Greek ephebea or the Roman iuventus. 550 Other scholars have
provided archaeological and linguistic support for this thesis. The building into
which the Pompeian inscription attesting the vereis had been walled is thought to
have been a gymnasium during the Samnite period. 551 It has been suggested that the
word derives from the Indo-European root *vero-, `defence' and so `defensive
body'. 552 The identification of the vereia as a military and educational organization
for young aristocrats is the generally accepted view. 553 La Regina was the first
scholar to raise doubts about this thesis. He argued that the helmet bearing the
inscription ST Lu 37 belonged to a group of Lucanian or Hirpinian mercenaries
originally from Compsa of the Lucani or the Hirpini, in the service of Metapontum
at the time of the dedication. 554 Tagliamonte rightly pointed out that, unlike the
terms ephebeia and iuventus, vereia is not etymologically connected either to a
specific age group or to the higher classes. 555 Furthermore, it has been suggested that
the so-called `Palaestra sannitica' of Pompeii was too small for a gymnasium, but
might have served as the seat of this or another organization. 556 Tagliamonte was
also right to criticize La Regina's link of the vereia with the irutcic, the cavalry,
549
Bu 45: Jupiter Versor, Ve 147: Vergarius. Morandi (1982) 167.
sso Biicheler in Nissen (1877) 169. Bacheler believed that the word vereia was related to the Umbrian
veiro, Lat. viro and means `a group of men'.
551 Della Corte (1924) 47-60 strongly claims the identification of the building-complex with a
gymnasium. The building later appeared in modern works as Gymnasium, Palaestra and Porticus
Vicinii.
552 This argument first appeared in Buck (1974, reprint of the 1904 edition) 186 and 240 and was
supported by Pisani (1964) 63.
ss This view is supported by Vetter (1954) nr. 173, Frederiksen (1968) 19, Salmon (1967) 94. Morel,
(1976) 670 suggested that the vereia was founded for the defence of the city-gates, which argument he
presumably bases on the relation of the term vereia to the word for gate in Oscan, veru. Cristofani
(1978) 89-90, Frederiksen (1984) 148.
554 La Regina (1981) 135-7.
154