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

A considerable number of tile fragments was found in the sanctuary of
Campochiaro during the excavation of the site begun in 1975 by the Archaeological
Soprintendenza of Molise, which have greatly increased the body of tile stamps from
Samnium. At present the tiles can only be sensibly dated by relating them to the
construction of the building they covered. The sanctuary of Hercules Rani at
Campochiaro was in use from the fourth century BC, and was rebuilt in the early
second century BC. 237 The tiles probably covered the roof of this second building.
The title meddix tuticus was abolished after the Social War. The tiles therefore date
from a period of about 120 years. Only one name, that of ni dek(itius) g(avi) f., can
perhaps be identified. Under 217 BC, Livy describes Numerius Decitius as `a person
of consequence both in family and fortune, not only in his town of Bovianum but in
all Samnium'. 238
If we are dealing with the same person, the tile must be one of the
oldest in the sanctuary, but the man named on the tile could be a later relation.
Numerous tiles also come from several small and unidentified temples around
Boiano. Others were found at Saepinum, Castel di Sangro and Pietrabbondante.
One of the most fundamental questions about the Samnite political system is
whether the office of the meddix tuticus was single or collegial. Most of the
epigraphic evidence from Samnium documents the name of only one meddix tuticus,
thus implying that the office was single. We have twenty-six different stamps which
use the abbreviation M T, that is, meddiz tuticus. They give one or, in a few cases,
two names, also in abbreviated form. Prosdocimi divided the tile stamps into three
groups according to the position of the office on the stamp. 39 In group A of 19
stamps, the office is followed by the name of the office-holder; 240 group B comprises
237 See in section 2.2.3, on Sanctuaries.
238 Livy 22.24.11.
239 Prosdocimi (1980) 209.
240 ST tSa5-23.
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