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

1. He argued that the expression r6 Twv NovKEeivcov i OvoS in Polybius should be
interpreted in a political sense, as a state organisation rather than an ethnographical
situation 660 2. The gens Sittia, who appear frequently in inscriptions in Roman Africa,
held important offices in several towns of the supposed 'league', but were not important
elsewhere in Italy. 3. Livy mentions that a Roman fleet disembarked in the port of
Pompeii and that the soldiers proceeded to lay waste to the ager Nucerinus in 310
BC. 661 Beloch suggested that this passage proves that Pompeii formed part of the ager
Nucerinus at .
that time. 662 4. Livy says that Rome made a foedus with Nuceria in 307
BC, and Beloch argued that because the passage does not mention Pompeii, Surrentum,
Stabiae or Herculaneum, the foedus applied to all the settlements, which, therefore, were
part of an organisation headed by Nuceria. 663 5. Only Nuceria produced coins in this
region in the Samnite period, from which Beloch concluded that the coastal settlements
were economically dependent on Nuceria. 6. In Campania only Nuceria, Pompeii,
Herculaneum and Surrentum were attributed to the Menenia voting tribe after the Social
War. 7. The Nucerian P. Sittius, member of the gens Sittia, founded three colonies in the
territory of Cirta in north Africa supposedly on the analogy of the Nucerian League: the
capital was Cirta, the three colonies were dependent on it, and they were named after
the patron gods of three of the members of the Nucerian Confederation.
Over a century after Beloch's article, Senatore questioned the existence of the
Nucerian confederation. 664 On the basis of a re-evaluation of the literary sources and
numismatic data and examination of recent epigraphic evidence from the region, he
659 Sartori (1953) 154-5, Salmon (1982) 12, Frederiksen (1984) 141.
660 Beloch (1877) 290.
661 Livy 9.38.2-3.
662 Beloch (1877) 289.
663 Beloch (1877) 290.
664 Senatore (2001) 185-265.
188