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CENTURIATED LUCERIA: A LATIN COLONY AND ITS TERRITORY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Yeong-chei Kim
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Abstract

The extensive traces of Roman centuriation and its associated farms identified from aerial photographs near Lucera, ancient Luceria, in the plain of northern Apulia, have generally been attributed to the Gracchan agrarian reforms of the 130s/120s BC. However, the dating of these land divisions, on the basis of the excavation of the farms and centuriation roads by John Bradford and Barri Jones in 1949–50 and 1962–3, is of questionable reliability, and their work at Luceria was never properly published. This study reanalyses the scattered records and dating evidence from the excavation of seven farms of Bradford and Jones and three other sites surveyed by Bradford in the ager Lucerinus. This study argues that the farms and associated grids belong to Rome's establishment of a Latin colony at Luceria in 326 or 315/314 BC during the Second Samnite War, and that the farms were abandoned due to the Hannibalic War. This study therefore presents the earliest certain Roman centuriation for a colony, and it observes the devastating impact of Hannibal's invasion and prolonged occupation on landholding in southeastern Italy, which has been doubted in recent work on Italian agrarian history. In no other part of Italy does there exist a coherent group of nearby excavated small-scale farms, which provides new insight into Roman colonization in Apulia and the consequences of the Hannibalic War.

Le ampie tracce della centuriazione romana e delle fattorie ad essa associate, identificate da fotografie aeree nei pressi di Lucera, l'antica Luceria, nella pianura della Puglia settentrionale, sono state generalmente attribuite alle riforme agrarie dei Gracchi del 130–120 a.C. Tuttavia, la datazione di queste divisioni territoriali, sulla base degli scavi delle fattorie e delle strade della centuriazione ad opera di John Bradford e Barri Jones nel 1949–50 e 1962–3, è di dubbia affidabilità, e il loro lavoro a Luceria non fu mai pubblicato esaustivamente. Questo studio rianalizza dunque i documenti non sistematici e le evidenze di datazione dallo scavo di sette fattorie da parte di Bradford e Jones e di altri tre siti ricogniti da Bradford nell’ager Lucerinus. Si giunge così a sostiene che le fattorie e le centuriazioni ad esse associate appartengono alla costituzione di una colonia latina a Luceria da parte di Roma nel 326 o 315/314 a.C., durante la seconda guerra sannitica, e che le fattorie furono abbandonate a causa della guerra annibalica. Il presente contributo presenta quindi la prima centuriazione romana certa per una colonia, e osserva l'impatto devastante dell'invasione di Annibale e dell'occupazione prolungata sulla proprietà terriera nell'Italia sud-orientale, che è stata messa in dubbio in recenti lavori sulla storia agraria italiana. In nessun'altra parte d'Italia esiste un gruppo coerente di piccole fattorie tra di loro vicine, scavate, che possa fornire una nuova visione della colonizzazione romana in Puglia e delle conseguenze della guerra annibalica.

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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 89 , October 2021 , pp. 41 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2021

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Footnotes

1

This study was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Scholarship. Additional support was provided by Merton College, University of Oxford, with a Gerry Grimstone Travel Award. I wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by the British School at Rome; La Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto; La Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Barletta, Andria, Trani e Foggia; the Ashmolean Museum; the Society of Antiquaries of London; the Oxford University Archives; the Pitt-Rivers Museum; and the National Collection of Aerial Photography. I am indebted to Alastair Small, who read an earlier draft, and Philip Kenrick for sharing with me their expertise in Apulian pottery. I am grateful to Dominic Rathbone and Edward Bispham for reading and commenting on the text. I also thank Michael Crawford, Andrew Wilson, Jonathan Prag, Lisa Lodwick and Thea Lavasi for their help and useful discussions. The Bradford finds stored in the Ashmolean Museum and the Jones finds in the British School at Rome were dated by Roberta Cascino and Barbara Lepri, who also drew the Jones pottery; the Bradford finds in La Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto were dated and drawn by Maria Pina Gargano. Illustrations of the Bradford pottery in the Ashmolean Museum are by Alessandra Esposito. Maps are by Elena Pomar with my modification. Lastly, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments.

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