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

dated to the end of the fourth or beginning of the third centuy BC on the basis of its
archaeological context. This particular hill-fort probably served as the centre of local
administration in the period. The third century BC brought with it a substantial
change in the settlement system in Lucania: fortified centres were abandoned and the
vici in the neighbourhood seem to have transferred their relations to the colony of
Buxentum: an agricultural settlement situated on the plain, near busy roads.
The territory of the Marsi provides us with a slightly different model of
relations between the hill-forts and the rest of the settlement system. 138
The area had
a high number of fortifications, the building of which probably started before the
fourth century BC. Evidence from the sites of the hill-forts implies that most of them
were inhabited before and during the fourth century BC. A study of the hamlets and
villages in the area reveals that the earliest date from the end of the third century, but
that most of them were probably built during the second century BC. It is therefore
probable that before the end of the third century BC the major part of the population
lived in and around the fortifications. They descended to cultivate their lands in the
plain; the necropoleis situated on the plains suggest that they also buried their dead
there. The villages do not seem to have been centred on large hill-forts. Letta argued
that these villages were probably built during the period of political stability that
followed the treaty in 302 BC between the Marsi and Rome. It is not surprising that
the villages depended on the municipal centres supported by Rome rather than the
hill-forts. The only place that has yielded evidence for the office of meddix among
the Marsi is the hill-fort of Antinum. 139
The site later became a seat of a municipium
itself. It is particularly interesting that the hill-forts of the Marsi continued to be
138
Letta (1988) 217-33.
139
ST VM 3, Bo 32, Pi 56, SE 42 (1974) 358.
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