De Martino, Gianluca

English

Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto

https://helda.helsinki.fiDe Novis Libris Iudicia: Grelle, Francesco-Silvestrini, Marina:La Puglia nel mondo romano. Storia di una periferia dalleguerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale (review).De Martino, Gianluca2016De Martino , G 2016 , ' De Novis Libris Iudicia: Grelle, Francesco-Silvestrini, Marina: LaPuglia nel mondo romano. Storia di una periferia dalle guerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale(review). ' , Arctos : Acta Philologica Fennica , vol. 2016/50 , pp. 231-232 .http://hdl.handle.net/10138/328030publishedVersionDownloaded from Helda, University of Helsinki institutional repository.This is an electronic reprint of the original article.This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail.Please cite the original version.231De novis libris iudiciathe military units (alae, cohortes, legiones) commanded by the equestrians from S. Italy. Ch. III (p. 349ff.) deals with municipals careers and the "rapporti con le città d'origine" (with lists of various patrons and activities – building, offering of games, etc. – coming under the heading "evergetism"; there is also a section on "munificenza nota da espressioni encomiastiche" (p. 381f., with a list of phrases of the type ob munificentiam, ob amorem, etc.). In chapter IV, the closing chapter (p. 383ff.), the author analyzes land ownership and economic activities attested for the equestrians from the regions under discussion; the chapter also contains a section on grand funerary monuments situated in the countryside (p. 389). This part of the book, too, strikes me as being of a very solid quality.The whole is concluded by more than 30 pages of very detailed indexes and (as mentioned above) by more than 40 pages of photos of inscriptions; this is a fine book which will be of great service not only to scholars dealing just with S. Italy but also researchers dealing with the Roman world in general. Olli Salomies Francesco Grelle – Marina Silvestrini: La Puglia nel mondo romano. Storia di una periferia dalle guerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale. Collana Pragmateiai. Edipuglia, Bari 2013. ISBN 978-88-7228-705-7 (hb). 296 pp, 8 maps. EUR 45.The modern region of Apulia covers two-thirds of the territory of the regio secunda of the Augus-tan administrative organization of Italy. The regio was later to be named Apulia et Calabria. The arrangement unified under the same administrative unit different geographical areas inhabited by populations who did not share the same ethnic background, such as the Iapygians, the Messapians and the Greeks of Tarentum. In this book, Grelle and Silvestrini follow and analyse the long process which brought the modern region of Apulia into the Roman state, from the Samnite Wars until the Social War. The work is divided into four chapters, following chronologically the history of the region during this time span. In the first chapter the authors treat the Roman expansion through the Tavoliere plain in the lands of the Iapygian Daunians and Peucetians, the former inhabiting the area of the modern province of Foggia, the latter the area around modern Bari. Despite having to rely on sometimes inaccurate information handed down by ancient written sources such as Livy, the authors point to the foundation of the Latin colony of Luceria in 314 BCE as a decisive moment for the beginning of Roman control in the Tavoliere plain. Luceria was also strategically important from an anti-Samnite point of view, since it was located on the road from Daunia to Samnium. In this chapter, the authors also offer a description of Daunian society, exploiting archaeological, epigraphic and literary mate-rial. From this discussion it becomes evident that "…nella seconda metà del quarto secolo, all'avvio della penetrazione romana in Puglia, fosse oramai piuttosto diffuso presso i Dauni lo sviluppo di modalità insediative e organizzative protourbane, più o meno complesse" (p. 19). The authors also extensively treat the role of the polis of Tarentum, which sought hegemony in southern Italy, but was torn between hostilities towards Iapygians, Lucanians and Bruttii and the suspicion and fear of the increasing role of Rome in the region. 232 Arctos 50 (2016)Chapter two is concerned with the Pyrrhic War and the subsequent entrance of Tarentum in alliance with Rome in 272 BCE as well as the Roman conquest of the Messapian territories in the Salento region, with the foundation of the Latin colony of Brundisium in the mid-3rd century BCE. Particularly interesting in this chapter is the discussion of Messapian society, whose elite had at least partially become Hellenized, due to the vicinity of Salento to Tarentum. In this context frame, the presence, as attested by epigraphic evidence, of a local cult of Demeter influenced by the Eleusinian Mysteries should be noted. The third chapter describes the dramatic events of the Hannibalic War, during which Taren-tum and most of the Apulian settlements supported the Carthaginians. The Roman victory caused the loss of autonomy of almost all of the centres which had defected to the enemy, with the immediate arrival of Roman and Latin colonists and the expropriation of land, which was then annexed to the Roman ager publicus. Nevertheless, the authors prove convincingly that in many places the locals who had not defected continued to play a part in the public life of the centres in which they lived. The fourth and final chapter is concerned with the Social War and its aftermath. The chapter is considerably shorter than the previous ones, due to the inadequacy of sources regarding the mili-tary operations on this front of the war, only Appian treating the subject at any length. Furthermore, it seems that the hostilities were confined to the northern part of the region, with the defection of the Daunians and Peucetians, while Tarentum, Brundisium and the Salento remained out of the conflict. The authors admit that there is not enough archaeological evidence to shed light on the administra-tive and political arrangements in the region after the Roman victory. In particular, it is impossible to tell at the moment whether the indigenous aristocracies played a role in local politics, as was the case prior to the conflict, or whether were they eliminated and replaced by non-indigenous officials. Grelle's and Silvestrini's work is an important contribution to the understanding and study of the area covering modern Apulia in a decisive time of its history, from the Samnite Wars to the Social War. The events are analysed with the use of different literary, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic sources. Most interesting is the discussion of the networks of roads in the region at the end of both chapter two and three, showing them to be means of transportation for armies, goods and herds, as well as routes for cultural influences. Also of major importance is the vast amount of information given by the authors on the indigenous societies of the area, and their interaction with Roman and Greek cultures. Thanks to this latter information, we have a picture of an indigenous aristocracy which absorbed some Greek cultural elements, while maintaining its local traditions. This local aristocracy, or at least the elements which backed Rome in the wars fought in the area in this period, eventually also assumed Latin cultural features and was allowed to play an important role on the political stage even when Roman control became tighter. This arrangement lasted at least until the Social War, when information about the subject becomes scarcer. Other features of the book worthy of remark are the useful bibliographical reference indexes at the end of each chapter, and the vast general bibliography concerning the subject.Gianluca De Martino

De Novis Libris Iudicia: Grelle, Francesco-Silvestrini, Marina: La Puglia nel mondo romano. Storia di una periferia dalle guerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale (review).

https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/10138/328030/1/Review_22_De_Martino_231_232_1_.pdf

De Novis Libris Iudicia: Grelle, Francesco-Silvestrini, Marina: La Puglia nel mondo romano. Storia di una periferia dalle guerre sannitiche alla guerra sociale (review).

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Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto