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

and from the Labican' 684 Beloch noticed that in several manuscripts the verb
cognominantur is missing. He suggested that we should cancel the conjunction 'et' and
insert Nucerini after the Alfaterni. The scholar also tried to identify the three
communities, the Latinienses, the Labici and the Hernici. I agree with Senatore's
objections to Beloch's argument, that this addition disturbs the strict alphabetical order
of the list.
In my opinion there is a further problem with Beloch's interpretation. Pliny clearly
says ex agro Latino, using the adjective Latinus, therefore we should look for the
settlement of the Latini and not Latinienses, which seems as problematic as the
identification of the settlement of the Hernici. The only settlement which can
be' firmly
identified is that of the Labicani. 685 Senatore argues that Pliny's passage should be
understood as Alfaterni Latini, Alfaterni Hernici and Alfaterni Labicani. 686 Logically,
the text has to refer to three different settlements called Alfaterna, one in the territory of
the Latins, another in that of the Ilernici, and the third in the territory of Labicum. But
no settlements with such names are known in the territory of any of these peoples. He
concludes that previous interpretations are insufficient to explain the problems arising
from the text, and due to inherent uncertainties in the text, it does not provide us with
valid information about problems concerned with Nuceria and the interpretation of the
adjective Alfaterna.
In conclusion, the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax suggests that the territory stretching
from the Tyrrhenian sea to the Adriatic was occupied by the Samnites, who were
ethnically distinct from the Greeks inhabiting the coasts of southern Italy. In the list of
the five glossai of the Samnites, 'Laternioi' has been emended to Alfaterni, but this is not
694
Senatore (2001) 204.
685
Cic. Paradoxa Stoicorum 23.4; 50.6.
196