ROMAN CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION

According to tradition the 4th century BC marked the end of a phase of military and territorial turmoil in the Pontine region that was won decisively by the expanding Roman Republic. In the early decades of the century, Rome rapidly ensured its grip on its southern neighbours and their land, founding or reinforcing a series of colonies at strategic points in the Pontine landscape. However, the two southern regions central to our project, the Sibaritide and the Salento peninsula, would still remain outside the tentacles of Roman expansion for more than a century. According to the records of the Fasti Triumphales Capitolini, Roman victories over the Salento Messapii were not celebrated until 267/265 BC. At the time, again according to literary tradition, the Messapii were allied with the polis of Taras that had become one of Rome’s major adversaries. Indeed, the political histories of our southern Italian regions diverge significantly from that of our central Italian one during this phase. Whilst political history in itself is not the theme of our research, we must also discuss the Roman conquest of Italy in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC since this is often assumed to have triggered far-reaching transformations in the settlement and landscape of Italy.

For the early phase of Roman expansion, the disruptive consequences of the wars of conquest and their aftermath are often highlighted. In particular in southern Italy these wars are reported to have caused dramatic losses to the vanquished, of people and material resources as well as of community land, the best of which was usually confiscated by the Romans as ager publicus. In addition, Roman colonization intensified considerably in this phase; colonies were established all over the Italian peninsula, including the three regions central to the RPC project. Examples range from the fortress of Norba perched on the inaccessible cliffs of the Lepine mountains in the Pontine region (fig. 8.1; founded 492 BC), via the incipient trading port of Brundisium on the Salento Adriatic coast (ca. 245 BC) to Copiae, built on the ruins of ancient Sybaris/Thurioi (194 BC). These colonies proved powerful instruments not only of Roman military conquest, but also of socio-economic integration of the conquered communities, most of which had by then become allies of Rome.