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

about the material culture of the settlement before the arrival of the Samnites. 332 A
necropolis found at Sant'Angelo in Formis on the slopes of Mount Tifata suggests
that the territory was inhabited continuously from the tenth century BC. 333 The
indigenous peoples of Campania, to whom most ancient sources refer as Ausoni, had
to face an increasing number of settlers. 334 Cumae, a colony founded by the Greek
inhabitants of Pithecussa in the mid-eighth century BC, became the dominant city in
Campania and until the fifth century BC directed the economic and cultural relations
both of settlements on the coast and of those situated in the inner parts of Campania.
The archaeological material of tombs around Capua in this period shows mainly
Greek and an increasing Etruscan influence.
3.2. Historical background
3.2.1. Foundation myths
Several ancient sources recount the foundation of Capua. Some relate the name
of the city to Capys, who appears in the Iliad as the father of Anchises. 335 The
earliest is Hecataeus from the middle of the sixth century BC, whose brief note on
331
Polyb. 3.91.
332 For necropoleis see Cerchiai (1995) 142 for finds of the so-called `tomba Dutuit' and p. 144
necropolis of Fornaci. For votive terracottas: the `Capua preromana' series published from 1965.
333
Cerchiai (1995) 41-2.
334 Ancient sources suggest that large parts of central and southern Italy were occupied by the Ausoni:
Stat. Silv. 4.5.37, Strabo 5.3.6 and Pliny NH 10.95. Some argued for their identification with
Aurunci, some others with the Osci or Opici. We have only literary evidence for the existence of this
little known ethnic, but attempts have been made to relate them to the pre-Etruscan material culture of
Campania.
335
Hom. Il. 20.239.
99