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

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

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

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the name <strong>of</strong> the town. 566 Justin, who epitomized the Philippic Histories <strong>of</strong> Pompeius<br />

Trogus, asks rhetorically 'are surely not ... the Nolans and Abellans colonies <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Chalcidians? '567 The inhabitants <strong>of</strong> Chalcis in Euboia are thought to have been the<br />

founders <strong>of</strong> Cumae and Naples. We may suppose that authors <strong>of</strong> imperial times were<br />

happy to attribute Greek founders to settlements in the neighbourhood <strong>of</strong> important<br />

Greek cities. It is true that a great number <strong>of</strong> Ionic cups and black-figured vases have<br />

been found in Nolan tombs, but they are probably due to the contacts <strong>of</strong> the town with<br />

the coastal Greek cities, rather than evidence <strong>for</strong> a substantial Greek community. 568<br />

Velleius Paterculus attributes the foundation <strong>of</strong> Nola to the Etruscans. 569 Polybius also<br />

mentions that the Etruscans were the first inhabitants <strong>of</strong> the Phlegraean fields near<br />

Capua and Nola. 570 Other ancient sources attribute an Etruscan origin to the cities <strong>of</strong><br />

Capua, Nola, Surrentum, Pompeii and Herculaneum. The material provided by the<br />

Ronga necropolis, one <strong>of</strong> the necropoleis situated north <strong>of</strong> Nola, covers most <strong>of</strong> the<br />

historical period <strong>of</strong> the town. 71 The earliest tombs date from the third quarter <strong>of</strong> the<br />

seventh century BC. Finds include imported bucchero pottery, typical Etrusco-<br />

Corinthian ceramic material from the orientalizing period, also found in Latium and<br />

Etruria, and their local imitations, Italo-geometric vases, numerous fibulae and belts.<br />

The material culture <strong>of</strong> this necropolis reveals close affinities with the finds in tombs at<br />

Capua, and also with the finds at Pontecagnano and Vico Equense <strong>of</strong> the same period 572<br />

566 Sil. Ital. 12.161. The dates are deduced from the traditional dating found in Livy, who also describes<br />

Marcellus' campaigns in Campania and Apulia.<br />

567 Just. 20.1.13.<br />

568 Mustilli (1962)182.<br />

569 Velleius Paterculus 1.7.2:<br />

570 Polyb. 2.17.<br />

57 Bonghi Jovino-Donceel (1969).<br />

572 Frederiksen (1971) 206.<br />

160

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