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

the region. 183 Livy uses the term urbs in relation to two places, Bovianum and
Saepinum, in the late fourth to early third century. 184
According to Livy, both cities
were occupied by the Romans after long, exhausting sieges. It is difficult to
determine what he meant by urbs in a Samnite context, especially since his usage is
not consistent. A Graeco-Roman city was generally characterized by the presence of
some of the following features: city wall, defined streets, public
buildings including
temples, porticoes and baths, and solid private houses. 185
The use of the word orbs is
more natural in the case of Bovianum, because of its status in Livy as the capital and
the richest city of Samnium, well fortified and populous. Appian, apart from calling
Bovianum a polls, tells us that it was the seat of a rebel council in the Social War. 186
At present we have no archaeological evidence for fourth/third century urbanization
at Bovianum or Saepinum.
The emergence of urban centres in Samnium was until recently usually linked
to the impact of Rome in the region. The accepted view was that the prospect of
becoming municipia after the Social War prompted the settlements of Aufidena,
Terventum, Fagifulae, Bovianurn, and Saepinum to develop into urban centres.
However, scholars have recently found evidence that the first signs of urban
development are visible in almost all of these settlements well before the Social War.
Larinum probably had a regular city-plan in the third century BC. 187 The fort at
Terravecchia reveals signs of inhabitation, and Colonna has suggested that this was
actually the settlement besieged by the Romans in 293 BC during the Samnite Wars.
It is usually thought that after the hill-fort was destroyed by the Romans its
183
Strabo 5.4.11. Dench (1995) 133-4 notes that Strabo's emphasis on the reduction of important
Samnite cities to mere villages was part of a post-Sullan ideology which tried to justify Sulla's acts in
the region. The archaeological records of Saepinum seem to contradict Strabo's description of the
Samnium of his time.
84 Livy 9.44.14; 10.45.12-14.
185
Poccetti (1988) 318.
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