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

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

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

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Pompeii appears in Appian's list <strong>of</strong> Italic peoples who revolted from Rome during<br />

the Social War. 748 The troops <strong>of</strong> Sulla began to lay siege to the town in April 89 BC,<br />

which probably surrendered in the autumn <strong>of</strong> the same year. 749 Sulla punished the<br />

community <strong>for</strong> revolting by establishing a Roman colony, the Colonia Cornelia Veneria<br />

Pompeianorum, under the leadership <strong>of</strong> his nephew, P. Cornelius Sulla. These historical<br />

events have influenced the dating <strong>of</strong> the inscriptions. It is certain that the establishment<br />

<strong>of</strong> the colony resulted in the introduction <strong>of</strong> Latin as the <strong>of</strong>ficial language in Pompeii.<br />

The year 80 BC is there<strong>for</strong>e the tenninus ante quem. It has been suggested that<br />

inscriptions were painted on the eve <strong>of</strong> the, siege <strong>of</strong> 89 BC, because this is the only<br />

significant military event <strong>of</strong> the period we know about. However, the period from the<br />

Social War down to the establishment <strong>of</strong> the Roman colony was very insecure in the<br />

whole <strong>of</strong> Italy, as Mouritsen notes. 750<br />

The inscriptions there<strong>for</strong>e could have been painted<br />

at any time between 90 and 80 BC. The fact that they were painted indicates that they<br />

were intended to last only <strong>for</strong> a short period <strong>of</strong> time, so we might expect them to relate to<br />

the last military threat faced by Oscan-speaking Pompeii.<br />

I turn now to the problem <strong>of</strong> translation <strong>of</strong> the expressions amvianud (abl. sing),<br />

eituns and faam(m)a(n)t. Most scholars take eituns in a military context. Nissen<br />

interpreted it as itus or iter, `way', and argued that the dipinti were set up <strong>for</strong> allied<br />

soldiers to help them to find their way to their posts, perhaps among barricades. 751 This<br />

view was rejected both by Ribezzo and Buck. 752 Buck believed that e{tuns should be<br />

rendered in Latin as eunto, an imperative, meaning `they must proceed'. 753 Later Buck<br />

modified his view and suggested that eftuns relates to a verbal noun, *eit or *ei-to,<br />

748<br />

App. B. Civ. 1.39 and 50.<br />

749 Oros. 5.18.22-3, Ve11. Pat. 2.16.2.<br />

750 Mouritsen (1988) 85.<br />

751<br />

Nissen (1877) 498-9.<br />

752<br />

Ribezzo (1917) 55-63; Buck (1922) 111-8.<br />

223

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