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

Rix's argument is unconvincing. First, the identification of meddix v with
meddix vereks is not certain. Second, if the term vereia were normal in Campania,
why do we have evidence for the office of meddix tuticus in several Campanian
cities and only in Cumae for the meddix v? If the okri remained subordinate to the
touta elsewhere, why should the supposedly equivalent term vereia replace touta in
Campania?
The precise etymology of the term vereia remains open to interpretation, but
all linguists agree that it has something to do with defense. The military relations of
the word are confirmed by the fact that one text was inscribed on a helmet, and
another on a sword-figured bronze plate. The verefa seems to have been a military
group, perhaps originally private, which might undertake mercenary service. Armed
bands of warlords in the early history of Rome may provide a parallel for the Oscan
vereia such as the sodales of Publius Valerius making an offering to Mars in an
inscription from Satricum around 500 BC. 562 Coriolanus and the Fabii were noted
for their large number of armed followers. 563 Cornell notes that in the early Republic
armed bands might have operated independently from state governments, moved
freely across state frontiers and may have changed their allegiances frequently. 64
Groups of mercenaries could also emerge from communities, as in the case of the
vereia of Campsa, which served at Metapontum. We have two attestations for the
vereia in the third century BC in Capua and Cumae, and in both cities they appear
under public control: in Capua a meddix represents the vereis in one of the iüvilas
inscriptions, at Pompeii the quaestor acts on behalf of the city council in supervising
building works for the vereia. By that time both Capua and Cumae were allies of
561
Rix (2000) 217-8.
562
Lintott (1999) 30.
563
Dion. Hal. 7.21.3 and 9.15.3.
564
Cornell (1995) 144. CAH 7.2.157-8.
156