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

admission, so they made their way to Cumae. 697 Nuceria was burnt and looted according
to Silius Italicus and Valerius Maximus, who mentions the execution of some Nucerians
by suffocation in the vapour of the public baths. 698
Polybius, describing Hannibal's invasion of Campania in the Second Punic War,
includes a short passage about the inhabitants of the Bay of Naples: 'On the coast lie
Sinuessa, Cyme and Dicaearchea and, following on, Naples and finally Nuceria. In the
interior we find on the north Cales and Teanum, and to the east and south Caudium and
Nola, while in the very middle of the plain lies Capua, once the wealthiest of the
cities'. 699 Polybius lists the urban communities of Campania in two groups, coastal and
inland. Both lists are selective and the choice of towns is not easy to explain. The list of
the coastal towns begins with Sinuessa, in the ager Falernus. However, the ager
Falernus had another, strategically more important port, Minturnae, founded by the
Romans in the same year as Sinuessa, 295 BC. The list omits Volturnum, Literrum and
Misenum. It is therefore no surprise that two minor harbours, Herculaneum and Pompeii,
are left out of the list of coastal towns. The inland list is even less complete. Polybius
omits many important and well-known Campanian towns, such as Calatia, Suessula,
Atella, Acerrae and Abella. The mention of Caudium is also puzzling for it did not
belong to Campania. 70° The only possible explanation for the inland list is that Polybius
only included towns situated on roads. The via Latina was built in 127 BC, but the route
was already in use from the sixth century BC. It crossed the Liris valley, went through
Venafrum, Teanum Sidicinum, Cales and Volturnum to Casilinum where it merged with
697
Livy 23.15.6.
698
Sil. It. Pun. 12.423-5; Val. Max. Mem. 9.6 ext. 2. Senatore cites Pomeroy's study, who suggested that
the baths, equipped to allow to suffocate people were built at the beginning of the Ist century BC at the
earliest. See Senatore (2001) 229.
699 Polybius 3.91.4.
70° Several manuscripts also mention the Daunii, instead of Caudii, but we do not know about any
settlement with this name in Campania, so that the text has been emended to Caudium.
200