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

2.3.3. Settlement patterns
The ancient Greek and Roman sources do not provide us with a coherent picture of
the settlement system of the central Apennines, but imply in incidental references
that the general pattern of settlement was based on villages. Appian mentions the
destruction of eighty-one villages as result of the wars with Rome in 322 BC. 167
When he comments that the Samnites lived in scattered villages (vicalim), Livy
describes the peoples of the central Apennines as `uncouth mountain-dwellers'. 168
The prevalence of scattered farmsteads and small villages in the settlement
pattern of Samnium after the Samnite Wars is confirmed by archaeology. Evidence
for this comes from the Biferno Valley Project conducted by Barker and others in the
1970s, which looked at several sections of that river valley, which runs from the
Samnite heart-land down into the Adriatic Sea, through the territories of the Pentri
and the Frentani. 169 The survey found that the number of farmsteads and hamlets
located in well watered areas of the upper valleys increased considerably in the
period between 350 and 80 BC. 170 Barker also found evidence for at least two
villages, one at San Martino, near Campochiaro, and one near Colle Sparanise.
The Sangro Valley Project was begun in 1994 to study the changes in
economy, society, and settlement pattern of this valley. '7' It focused on the
predominantly pastoral zone between Opi and Villetta Barrea in the Upper Valley,
'67 Appian Samn. 4.1
168 Livy 9.13.7. 'montani atque agrestes'. Dench (1995) 21 and 114-5 suggested that Livy followed
the tradition of `geographical determinism' which categorises the character of the inhabitants of a
particular territory according to their environment. Saying that the Samnites lived in villages is part of
the standard picture of the `rough highlanders' or barbarians, as opposed to the city-dwellers. This
approach is used ideologically by Hellenistic authors in order to justify the conquest of other peoples.
169 Barker (1981).
170
Barker (1981) 181-8.
171
The Project is a joint programme of the Archaeological Soprintendenze of Abruzzo and Molise, the
Universities of Oxford and Leicester and Oberlin College, United States.
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