Pompeii may have had a theatre
already at the time of the arrival of the Samnites in the fourth
century BC, Superintendent Massimo Osanna said Thursday after
the discovery of a concave area next to the second-century BC
theatre that was preserved by the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius.
The new digs at the famed archaeological site have "raised
this hypothesis", he said.
There are archaeological remains in Pompeii for Greeks,
Etruscans, Samnites, and an unnamed indigenous Italic population
in addition to the Romans.
The foundation of the city, and the exact phases of each
cultural group, are a bit murky but are believed to date back to
the sixth century BC.
It is however clear from the archaeological record in Pompeii
and in other towns of southern Italy that sometime in the fourth
century BC the people of Samnium moved down from the mountains
and into some of the more urban areas.
Just in Campania, there is evidence of Samnite populations in
Capua and Nola in addition to Pompeii.
The tomb of a Samnite woman was found in Pompeii three years
ago, while a recent dig uncovered a Samnite temple.
Archaeologists said the temple dated to the third century
BC and was probably devoted to Mefitis, a Samnite version of
Venus worshipped in volcanic areas and swamps. She was the
personification of the poisonous vapours of the earth.
The Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people who once humiliated
the Romans, were a tribe which controlled much of Italy
south of Rome before the fourth century BC.
They fought three losing wars with Rome for the control
of the region around Naples and later helped Rome's great
Carthaginian enemy Hannibal before finally being crushed in
82 BC.
The discovery of the temple revolutionized archaeologists'
concepts of the Samnites, showing them to be far more advanced
than previously thought.
Samnites had largely been considered mountain warriors,
whose settlements thrived due to a military pact with Rome.
But the temple dedicated to the swamp goddess showed that the
Samnite culture was more sophisticated than realized.
The name Samnite comes by way of Greek and alludes to the
point of a javelin. It suited the warlike tribesmen who fought a
series of wars with the Romans and even defeated them soundly in
the Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 B.C., but who were
eventually beaten back into their Apennine fastness, only to be
absorbed by the Roman State.
A large amount of votive material was found at the temple
site including lamps, terra cotta work, sea shells, coins and
various kinds of bones.
Next to the temple archaeologists found the ruins of
baths which may have been used for so-called "sacred
prostitution," in which betrothed maiden were given a coin
before losing their virginity in the temple prior to
marriage.
Archaeologists said the find provided further evidence
that Pompeii was a full-fledged city before it was taken over
by the Romans.
Emmanuele Curti of London's Birkbeck College said the
find was "of enormous interest" in a key area of the city
between the Roman Forum and port.
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