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

the via Appia. The most important town on the via Appia was Capua. An extension of
the via Appia, the via Annia (incorrectly called via Popillia) was built from Capua to
Rhegium, through Nola, Nuceria, Nares Lucanae and so on. The only question is why
Polybius preferred to include Nuceria in his list of coastal towns rather than of inland
towns, in which he was later followed by the elder Pliny (see above).
The fact that Nuceria is listed among the coastal cities was explained by Beloch by
his arguments that Nuceria exercised leadership over the communities of the coast.
Senatore examines Polybius' use of the word F6voS. 701 In Polybius this term appears
almost fifty times in relation to the Achaean League. He also uses a number of other
tenns to refer to the League, such as QvQujµa, xotvöv, m FirtoAt-reia, TroAiTEvµa
and xotvöv rroAiTcvVa. Senatore argues that none of these is used when speaking
about the region of the Sarno, so that the expression r6 Twv NovxtQivwv i=9voS only
has ethnographic value without any political connotations. Scholars of Greek history
now agree that the term ýOvoc in different contexts can be understood both as'league' or
'an ethnic unit without any political meaning'. 702 Beloch and Senatore choose a different
interpretation to accommodate Polybius' passage into their argument, which warns us
how difficult it can be to interpret a term used to describe realities different from the
Greek political system. Hall pointed out that the meaning of the term EOvo; is much
wider than that of an 'ethnic group' and that it can be applied to populations of various
size from the inhabitants of a polls to the population of a larger territory, but that it can
also simply mean 'tribe'. 703 It is important to note that Polybius seldom uses the
expression EOvoc in an Italian context. When he refers to communities organized in a
701
Senatore (2001) 208-10.
702
Bearzot (1994); Sordi (1994); Larsen (1968).
201