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

The tile stamps raise other fundamental questions. If we take the stamps as a
single corpus, we find that occasionally the same name appears in several
sanctuaries. Lucius Cleppius son of Lucius is attested at Campochiaro, Colle
d'Anchise and Saepinum. 256 Stamps of Gaius Numerius son of Herennius have been
found at Campochiaro and Bovianum. 257 Mitulus Papius son of Lucius appears on
tiles at Campochiaro and Bovianum. 258 The same is true for Trebius Satrius son of
Trebius and Lucius Staius son of Ovius grandson of Mitulus. 259 Pacius Laius son of
Pacius is known at Castellone, Colle d'Anchise and Campochiaro. 260 One
straightforward conclusion is that the sanctuaries around Bovianum and Saepinum
were subject to the same public office and belonged to the same political unit in the
period between the end of the third and the beginning of the first centuries BC.
Unless we suppose that these two settlements formed one administrative unit
separate from other settlements in the region, this is strong evidence for the view that
the meddix tuticus was the chief magistrate of a larger political unit, the Pentrian
state. 261
The vast majority of the stone inscriptions show meddices tutici building,
dedicating or embellishing sanctuaries. Most of the stone inscriptions have been
found in or in the vicinity of the sanctuary at Pietrabbondante. Temple A was
256
ST tSa 10. One of the tiles was found by Cianfarani in the area of the Forum of Saepinum, as
reported by La Regina (1966) 269, n. 16.
25 ST tSa 8.
258 ST tSa 6.
259 ST tSa 7 and ST tSa 20.
260STtSa5.
built in
261 The only alternative interpretation is that the tiles in the small sanctuaries around Bovianum were
made in Bovianum and were dated by the annual magistrate of that settlement. But the fact that the
same tile stamps were also found at Campochiaro, Colle d'Anchise, and Saepinum cannot possibly
explained this way.
76