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

Nocera itself, and Sorrento with the promontory of Minerva that once was the abode of
the Sirens'. 706 This passage is another list of coastal towns. As already pointed out, it
refers to the period of the late Republic to early Principate and cannot be used for
reconstructing relations among the communities in the Samnite period.
What all the previous passages suggest is that Nuceria was an important town of
the region, considered to be coastal, which was in alliance with the highland Samnites
during the Samnite Wars. After having been defeated by the Romans, it became an ally
and remained so until the Social War. During the Second Punic War the town entered
history for its strong resistance to the Carthaginians. Beloch's view that the lack of
mention of the other communities in the region implies their political subordination to
Nuceria is an argumentum ex silentio and does not seem well founded in view of the
literary evidence.
6.3. Political institutions at Pompeii
6.3.1. Introduction
The central tenet of Beloch's arguments about the magistrates of the Italic states is that
the meddix tuticus was a federal magistrate.
707 Beloch based his argument on evidence
mainly from Pompeii and Capua. He noted that there were local officers, such as the
aediles and the magistrates with civic adjectives, for example, in Pompeii, the meddix
706
Pliny NH. 3.62-3.
707
Beloch (1879) 11.
203