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

"hnparakinefs, referred to the same council. 740 His opinion has been rejected by most
scholars. The presence of two councils, a popular assembly and a senate, is a common
feature of the constitutions of Italiote Greek cities. It is also plausible that this
arrangement featured in most Oscan-speaking communities of Campania. In Pompeii,
we have references to two distinct councils. Although at Rome the senate was in control
of finances, it is not certain that at Pompeii the same division of functions existed. I
agree with Campanile that we cannot know which term in Pompeii referred to the senate
and which to a general assembly. 741
We also have evidence for the existence of a vereia at Pompeii. 742 For a list of
vereia known in Campania and other parts of southern Italy and their possible function
see section 4.5. It is probable that this originally military and private form of
organization had become a civic cultural and educational institution at Pompeii by the
second century BC.
One other feature of communal organization in Samnite Pompeii is the poorly-
understood eituns. The word occurs in five Oscan dipinti and is probably to be restored
in a sixth. Since the mid-nineteenth century the meaning and the purpose of these
inscriptions have been the subject of numerous debates. It is now the generally accepted
view that these dipintf were painted during the Social War and recorded arrangements
for the defence of the town in case of attack. It is difficult to translate these inscriptions
because the meanings of three words, fundamental to the understanding of the texts, are
debated: amvianud (abl. sing), eituns and faam(m)a(n)t. To start with, I leave the
problematic words untranslated.
740
Sartori (1953) 71; Salmon (1967). 92-3.
741
Campanile (1979) 25.
742 The institution appears in the inscription ST Po 3. It was studied under the section 6.3.4 because of the
appearance of that magistrate in the text.
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