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

Nola and Abella regarding the borders of the sacred land of the sanctuary of Hercules
common to the two settlements, and where each community could erect buildings (for
reconstructions of the sanctuary and its surroundings see map V). Although the Hercules
sanctuary in question has not yet been identified, two sanctuaries have been found at
Cimitile (north of Nola) and San Paolo Belsito (south of Nola), which are thought to
have been built in the fourth or third centuries and probably restructured in the second
century BC. 632 This text, which envisages new buildings, fits the picture of the second
century BC as a time of building and restoration at extra-urban sanctuaries in the central
Apennines. The two communities probably celebrated common cults in the Hercules
sanctuary. Joint ownership of sanctuaries was widespread in antiquity: for instance the
temples of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium and the one built by Servius Tullius on the
Aventine were built for the common use of the Romans and Latins. Similarly, the
sanctuary at Hiamae was common to Cumae and Capua. 633
The Cippus Abellanus begins with a list of the civic magistrates who made the
agreement. Abella was represented by a quaestor, Nola by a meddix deketasius, both
with other unnamed legates. The quaestor and meddix degetasius may be the only
legates named because the stonemason could not be bothered to give the list in full, or
possibly because the other legates were not magistrates in office. They were probably
the senior members on each side. The name of the quaestor is the same as that of the
quaestor Maius Vestiricinus son of Maius attested in the boundary inscription, ST Cm 8,
discussed above. Here his name is followed by `str', which might be an abbreviated
cognomen, papponymic or perhaps a word linked to the next two words. 634 Between his
631
Franchi de Bellis (1988) and Pulgram (1960) 16 date to the mid-2nd BC; La Regina (2000) 214 dates it
to 120-110 BC.
632 Albore Livadie-Vecchio (1996) 256.
633 Livy 23.35.3. See also sections 3.2.4 and 3.5.
634 Different readings of the possible filiation Ve I str; Cm 1 siil; in La Regina sta;
179