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

wanting to join Hannibal, who was already in the region. 583 Similar crises were recorded
in other Campanian and southern Italian towns such at Capua, Nola, Nuceria, Compsa
and Croton, with the leading classes defending the Roman alliance and the common
preferring to join Hannibal. 584 Nola's strategic importance during the Second Punic War
was due to its location in the heart of Campania. From Nola one could easily reach the
ports of Naples and Pompeii or follow the communication lines to the inner parts of the
Italian peninsula. 585 Nola's strategic importance to Rome was further strengthened by
the fact that, by 216 BC, both Capua in the north and Nuceria in the south were in
Hannibal's hands. M. Claudius Marcellus, the Roman praetor, whose army was
stationed at Casilinum, arrived promptly and defeated Hannibal at Nola. 586 Hannibal
tried again in 215 and in 214 BC, but he suffered only more defeats at the hands of
Marcellus and eventually gave up the hope of gaining control of the town. 587
Nola became the base of a strong Roman garrison in the years 216-214 BC. Livy
says that the proconsul Marcellus, probably from his base at Nola, raided the territories
of the Samnite Hirpini and Caudini, who joined Hannibal in 215 BC. 588 During his
campaign in Campania, Hannibal stationed his army at Tifata, above Capua. Cities on
the Roman side attracted those driven from their homes by Carthaginian attacks: the
citizens of Nuceria, after their town was sacked by Hannibal's army, took refugee in
582
Livy 9.28.6.
583 Livy 23.14.1
- 8. The senate is mentioned on other occasions too: Livy 23.14.5,23.16.7,23.39 7.
and 24.13.8. The Cippus Abellanus of the mid- or late second century BC, studied later, shows that both
Nola and Abella had councils called senate.
584
Livy 23.43.9,23.44.1 and 23.15.7.
585 Strabo 5,4,8: `Pompeii, on the river Samus -a river which both takes the cargoes inland and sends
them out to the sea - is the port town of Nola, Nuceria and Acerrae'. Although this passage refers to
Strabo's own time, commercial relations certainly existed among the Oscan towns of the region well
before.
586
Livy 23.16.16.
587
Livy 23.44. - 45. and 24.17.8
588
Livy 23.41.13.1-14.2.215 BC.
163