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

ecause it is not known whether the mercenary groups of the Lucanians and the
Frentani were cavalry troops. 557 The military connotation of the word, however,
cannot be doubted, because of the etymology of the word and because of the
inscription on the helmet from Metapontum and the sword-shaped plate from the
Frentani. Tagliamonte therefore concluded that the vereia was a military institution,
either public or private. It served its own community and was under public control.
The second group of interpretations considers the vereia to have been an
institution of a social kind. 558 Campanile accepted La Regina's view that vereia
originally meant a group of mercenary soldiers, who might form an autonomous
political entity under the leadership of their general, as happened at Messina and
Entella. 559 They settled in cities, lost their military characteristics and became
predominantly cultural and professional associations.
The third group takes vereia to denote a city, autonomous community or
state. First was Mommsen, who thought it was a res publica. 560 Rix suggested that
the term vereia derives from the proto-Indo-European or proto-Italic stem *werg'-
rya, which means the `act of enclosing', `the result of enclosing', `something
enclosed', `to protect', and which could refer to a community enclosed by palisade
or walls. 561 He noted that a vereia is not attested in states where an okri
(citadel) is
attested, and suggests that the Samnites who colonized the cities of Campania used
vereia to denote a fortified urban settlement. It then came to mean the autonomous
Samnite community, the state, and thus the office of meddix vereks is identical to
that of the meddix tuticus.
555
Tagliamonte (1989) 363
556
De Vos (1982) 72.
557
Tagliamonte 371-2.
558
Devoto (1967) 222-3 and Prosdocimi (1978) 865 and 69;
559
Campanile (1985)13, (1993) 601-11, (1996) 172-3
560 Mommsen (1850) 169,183,258.
155