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

plunder, and even slew a part of them; those who escaped the massacre were driven, a
disordered rabble, to their ships'. 692
Beloch argued that Pompeii must have formed part of the supposed Nucerian
league if the Roman fleet disembarked there to lay waste the territory of Nuceria.
Neither Senatore nor Zevi are convinced by Beloch's argument on the grounds that if
Pompeii had been subordinate to Nuceria it would have opposed the Romans. 693 In my
view all these scholars infer too much from Livy's abbreviated and unclear account of a
minor operation. It was probably a small raiding party of Roman soldiers on ships
provided by Greek allies. 694 To attack Nucerian territory, they had to land at Pompeii,
the nearest port. However, the territory which they plundered and farmers who resisted
them may have been Pompeian. The passage proved nothing about the relations between
Pompeii and Nuceria..
The attack of Fabius Maximus Rullianus on Nuceria is traditionally dated to 308
BC. 695 Again, the passage concerns only Nuceria and does not mention other
communities in the region. After 307 BC Nuceria became an ally of Rome and remained
so until the end of the Social War. In his account of the Second Punic War, Livy says
that Hannibal attempted to turn Nuceria to his side without any success.
696 Eventually,
Nuceria was made to surrender through starvation. Its inhabitants left and dispersed to
Naples and Nola, the bases of Roman garrisons in Campania during the Hannibalic wars.
Thirty senators, apparently the city council, tried to enter Capua but were refused
692 Livy 9.38.2-3.
693 Zevi (1994) 11. Senatore (2001) 222-5.
694 Thiel (1954) 11 argued that Rome did not have a fleet at the time of the attack and that Nuceria must
have been attacked by a small duumviral squadron, set up in the previous year
695 Livy 9.41.2-3: "The consuls cast lots for the commands, Etruria falling to Decius and Samnium to
Fabius. The latter marched against Nuceria Alfaterna, and rejecting that city's overtures of peace because
its people had declined it when it was offered them, laid siege to the place and forced it to surrender'.
696
Livy 23.15.1-5.
199