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

Regina translates the word as afiliatus in the sense of adoptatus. There is one possible
Roman example, involving a Papirius from Picenum, but there the word adoptatus
appears as a second patronymic and does not seem to be a standard way of expressing
adoption. 639
Possibly, however, pukalatüi is a cognomen, Puclatus, or a papponymic.
The inscriptions from Nola studied in the previous section show the ineddix
degetasius making dedications from public fines and defining public land. The guaestor
of Abella is also attested demarcating public space in the town. This is also the role of
these magistrates in the Cippus Abellanus, although as members or commissions of
unknown size. The notion that the meddix degetasius of Nola and the quaestor of Abella
performed similar duties has raised some problems. Camporeale concluded that if they
carried out the same tasks, they must have been of the same rank, which does not
necessarily follow. 64° At Rome, and hence in the Roman-influenced law of Bantia, the
quaestor was a junior magistrate. 641 The position was also similar in Pompeii. On the
other hand, at Iguvinum the Umbrian word kvestur is a late adoption of the title of the
quaestor, which simply replaced the eponymous office of uhtur following
Romanization, and so must have denoted the leading office of the state. 642 Franchi de
Bellis also mentioned the quaestor of Supinum as a possible parallel for a quaestor as
the supreme magistrate of a community. 643 When other Italic peoples adopted the
Roman title of quaestor, they did not necessarily use it to denote a magistrate of
comparably junior rank.
Although the view that the ineddices degetasii of Nola and the quaestor of Abella
were both the supreme magistrates of their respective communities has been accepted by
639
La Regina mentions CIL IX 5523: L. Papiri C. f. Lem. Adoptati f. from Firmum Picenum, near the
river Tenna.
640
Camporeale (1957) 36,52
64'STLu1.
64Z
Camporeale (1957) 54-6.
181