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

Nuceria by the time of the Samnite Wars. When Pliny mentions the Comini, Tadiates or
Caedici he refers to inhabitants of settlements, so when he refers to the Alfaterni he must
mean the inhabitants of a town of Alfaterna in the territory of the Aequicoli, who clearly
do not have anything to do with the town of Nuceria in the Augustan first region.
Pliny divides his lists of settlements into two parts, listing the coastal communities
separately from inland ones. It is interesting that the ager Nucerinus is listed among the
coastal communities, for Nuceria itself was nine miles from the sea. 680 Pliny the Elder is
probably describing the situation after the Social War. 681
We encounter the Alfaterni for the second time in the list of settlements in the
inland parts of the first region. 682 The passage reads 'the Alfatemi - those that take their
surname from the Latin territory, and from the Hernican, and from the Labican'. Here
again the Alfaterni have no connection to Nuceria. This passage has been interpreted in a
number of ways. Thomsen suggested that Pliny drew his coastal lists from two separate
lists, those of Varro and Augustus. 683 Varro had Nuceria in his list, Augustus Nucerini
Alfaterni. Thinking that he was dealing with two different settlements, he cancelled
Nuceria from Augustus' list but retained Alfaterna. Later Pliny inserted the name
Alfaterni in his list of communities in the internal part of the fourth region. The problem
with this interpretation, as Senatore points out, is how to interpret the second half of the
passage: 'those that take their surname from the Latin territory, and from the Hernican,
680 Plin. NH 3.62.4: 'On the coast stands Naples, itself also a colony of the Chalcidians, named
Parthenope from the tomb of one of the Sirens, Herculaneum, Pompeii with the Mount Vesuvius in view
not far off and watered by the river Sarno, the Nucerian territory and nine miles from the sea Nocera
itself. '
681
App. B. C. 1.42. tells us that Papius Mutilus, the Samnite general occupied Stabiae during the Social
War, while Nuceria remained loyal to Rome. Pliny NH. 3.70., however, mentions that Stabiae was
destroyed by Sulla during the wars in reprisal for its support of the insurgents. Stabiae may have lost its
independence and its land were made part of the ager Nucerinus, which thus extended as far as the sea.
682 Plin. NH 3.63.
693 Thomsen (1947) 61.
195