This volume is the second of two surveying the large and diverse territory of Puglia, ancient Apulia, in the Roman period. The first volume, Dalle guerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale (2013), covered the period from the Hellenistic era to the end of local autonomy during the Social War in 89 b.c.; this volume opens with the return of Sulla from the First Mithridatic War in 83 b.c. and the effects of these events on Italian communities. Various geographic regions are examined, from the Gargano peninsula and the Tavoliere region of northern Puglia to the southern peninsula of Salento, with some consideration also of central Puglia near the border with Basilicata (ancient Lucania). The authors of this volume are well-known specialists with a proven track record of publications on many aspects of the history and archaeology of Puglia.
The focus across the book's seven chapters is on various themes and types of evidence. The opening chapter (M. Silvestrini) handles not only the effects of Sulla's conquest on the society and economy of Apulia, but also outlines other turbulent events of the first century b.c., such as the Roman campaigns against Spartacus and his slave band in the Gargano peninsula and near Brundisium, and the conflicts between Pompey and Caesar as played out in this arena. Using primarily historical and epigraphic sources, the themes of civil war, appropriation of land and the influx of different population groups are discussed.
In the second and third chapters (F. Grelle), the focus shifts to the political and civic repercussions of Roman involvement for Apulian communities in the first century b.c. The Lex Julia de Civitate Latinis Danda in 90 b.c. ordered the admission to the Roman citizenship of the allies who did not join or had withdrawn from the secession of the socii, inducing a generalised re-organisation of communities into municipalities and a new administration. Roman colonies and indigenous communities underwent an assignment and partial re-assignment to voting tribes. Most of the municipalities once belonging to the territory of the Peuceti, for example, were probably entered into the tribus Claudia, although direct evidence is lacking for some towns, such as Rubi, Caelia and Bari. In 28 b.c., Octavian and Agrippa completed a new census and formally confirmed this municipal reorganisation.
Ch. 4 (M. Silvestrini) moves on to an examination of society, ranging from government and the military to the servile and freed population. Most of the discussion is based on epigraphic evidence. The influence of Gnaeus Pompeius in Taranto in the mid-first century is well outlined here, as is the evidence for other high-ranking individuals, some with close ties to Caesar and later Octavian. Silvestrini also provides us with interesting insights into those involved in economic life in coastal Apulia, particularly the region around Brundisium. Brundisian wine (vinum Philonianum) was shipped by the merchant family of the Laenii all the way to the court of Herod the Great in Judaea, as a titulus pictus on an amphora with a consular date of 19 b.c. at Masada indicates. The epigraphic evidence in Brundisium for merchants and shippers from Bithynia, Cilicia and Syria clearly demonstrates that wine and oil from this region were important commodities exchanged with the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. Other epigraphic sources document professions associated with transhumance and wool textile production. It is evident that maritime routes and drove-ways linking the coast with the interior both helped to foster economic growth and expansion in and beyond the Adriatic.
The evidence for commercial activity is further pursued by G. Volpe in ch. 5, who utilises archaeological evidence, some of it retrieved in his own excavations at the agricultural estate at Giancola and other sites. Grain, oil and wine formed the staples of the agrarian economy, although the latter two probably never succeeded, at least in central-northern Apulia, in completely counteracting the primacy of wheat. Nevertheless, the amphora-borne liquid commodities of Apulia were indeed circulated widely, as the map in fig. 52 makes abundantly clear.
Ch. 6 (R. Goffredo) focuses on cities and the morphology of towns. It is clear that only a few settlements emerged after the Social War that could be thought of as urban. Furthermore, settlements in central Apulia, such as Monte Sannace, Altamura and Botromagno/Silvium, held on to life on a smaller scale than in previous centuries and had a decidedly pastoral or agrarian character. The chapter outlines the organisation of communities from the second century b.c. into the Augustan period, with surviving archaeological and epigraphic evidence suggesting a real floruit of building and construction in towns, especially in the forum area, as a result of local elites emulating the programme of benefaction initiated and prompted by Augustus.
Goffredo deals with the countryside in ch. 7, flagging up the complexity of land-use and the varying forms of rural settlements. Archaeology has played a crucial role here in revealing villas and farms in some areas, and aerial photography also has proven to be a valuable tool in revealing features such as rows of olive trees and vines in the landscape. But some areas remain very under-studied. Unlike the coast regions or the Tavoliere plain, for example, central Apulia is known only superficially, notable exceptions being the excavated rural settlements at Botromagno/Silvium and in the Basentello valley at San Felice in the first century b.c. and Vagnari in the Roman imperial period. Goffredo proposes that the villa built in the first century b.c. at San Felice may have included the nearby vicus at Vagnari before both entered imperial possession in the first century a.d., but as so often in archaeology, ongoing fieldwork by the University of Sheffield at Vagnari is already challenging this interpretation both chronologically and materially.
In general, this volume represents a useful source of information on ancient Apulia after it ceased to be independent and forever became a part of Roman Italy, and it is a welcome addition to the first volume on the region from the Samnite Wars to the Social War. The book relies heavily on historical and epigraphic evidence, which is a rather traditional approach to understanding this region. The patchiness of our knowledge based on archaeological exploration means that we do have to rely on this kind of evidence for some areas. It is clear, however, that wherever archaeological fieldwork has been conducted, it has deepened our understanding of the physical, social and economic development of Apulia and offered a whole range of information that written sources cannot. For that reason, one would have wished for more coverage of archaeology in this volume. One aspect entirely lacking here, for example, is burial evidence and the information it can provide on population, social customs and identities.
The title of the book refers to Puglia as a peripheral region. But given its connections across and beyond the Adriatic, and the political and social ties to Rome and its influential elite families in the late Republic and early Empire, Apulia seems to have been rather more well connected and integrated than the book title suggests.
