Naples: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (part 4)

The term Magna Graecia is used to indicate those regions in Southern Italy and on Sicily that were colonised by Greek migrants from the eighth century BCE onwards. The Greeks obviously did not stumble upon areas that were completely uninhabited. Everywhere they encountered other peoples, with whom they fought wars, made alliances and traded. Contacts with the Greek language and culture led to a process of Hellenization, which saw the native peoples copying elements from Greek culture. Conversely, the Greeks themselves also copied elements from other cultures. The archaeological museum of Naples has a separate section on the second floor that is dedicated to Magna Graecia. Naples itself – Neapolis or “new city” in Greek – and her predecessor Parthenope were of course also part of Greater Greece. In the section we may admire important objects discovered during excavations first launched in the nineteenth century. Visitors may only enter the rooms if they agree to wear plastic shoe covers. Apparently in this way the museum hopes to protect the floor.

Ruvo

Hellenization was a two-way process, so the items in the section on Magna Graecia are certainly not exclusively Greek. Typically Greek objects are the large kraters or mixing vessels. The ones in the museum have been beautifully painted with mythological scenes. One of the kraters comes from Ruvo in modern Puglia. A tomb was also discovered here, the so-called “Tomb of the Dancing Women”, which is definitely not typically Greek. The murals of the dancing women date from the late fifth or early fourth century BCE and appear to have been influenced by Etruscan painting. The women surrounded the deceased (a high-ranking warrior) on all four sides. Three men are also part of the procession. Ruvo was a settlement of the Peuceti, who were themselves a tribe of the Iapyges. Their settlement must have been a prosperous town in Antiquity and part of a trade network that ran from the Baltic region to the eastern Mediterranean.

Egnatia

Egnatia was a settlement of the Messapii, who were also members of the Iapyges. In 267-266 BCE they were subjugated by the Romans. A mural featuring a man with a horse, which also comes from a tomb, warrants closer inspection. In the top left corner is a – barely legible – text in Greek, an indication that the Messapii had copied the Greek alphabet. The man is wearing a short red tunic and a yellow cloak. He has a whip in his left hand and is holding the reins of the horse in his right. Another mural features a sword, which has been painted with great attention to detail. It hangs from a nail in the wall. The sword looks like it might be a Greek kopis. Note the pommel (cap of the handle) of the handgrip, which has the shape of an animal head (a horse perhaps?).

Paestum

Of great importance are the frescoes from the tombs discovered in the vicinity of Paestum. Paestum was founded by the Romans in 273 BCE on the site of Poseidonia, a Greek colony that had been captured by the native Lucani. The town is world-famous for its temples from the sixth and fifth century BCE, two for Hera and one for Pallas Athena. But the town is also famous for the frescoes that have been found there and that feature men in single combat. Accompanied by musicians the men attack each other with their fists or fight duels with spears and shields.

The frescoes are the strongest evidence that Roman gladiator shows were ultimately based on the funerary games of the Lucani and not – as many have long believed, including the Romans themselves – copied from the Etruscans. In Rome too gladiatorial combat was originally part of the funerary games. When in 264 BCE the former consul Decimus Junius Brutus was the first to organise gladiatorial games in Rome on the occasion of the death of his father, the images in the tombs of Paestum had already been painted. The frescoes in the museum date from the second half of the fourth century BCE.

Nola

And then we have Nola. This town in Campania was influenced by many different cultures, especially by the Greeks of Cumae and Etruscans of Capua. In the late fifth century BCE the Campanians had even taken Cumae from its Greek inhabitants but not much later they were themselves attacked and subjugated by the Samnites. The Samnites were an Oscan-speaking people that lived in the hills and mountains of southern Central Italy. In 423 BCE they also managed to capture Capua. In all these cases the conquerors were quickly assimilated by the populations of the towns they captured. And so a particularly rich hybrid culture was born, comprising native, Greek, Etruscan and Samnite elements. As a consequence, the fully assimilated Samnites of Capua would later face their former kinsmen who lived elsewhere. It was, in fact, such a conflict that led to a Roman intervention in Campania that became known as the First Samnite war (343-341 BCE).

Nola was originally mainly under Etruscan and later especially under Samnite influence. This is evident from the murals in two tombs that were found in the vicinity of Nola. The paintings date from ca. 330-320 BCE and ca. 340-330 BCE. The style is Etruscan but the arms and armour of the foot soldiers and horsemen appear to be predominantly Samnite. We see cuirasses, shields, javelins and helmets. The foot soldier with the colourful banner is handed a drink by a woman. This is a clue that we are witnessing the return of soldiers from a war. One of the murals features a horseman with a very conspicuous helmet with truly enormous horns. Back when the murals were painted the inhabitants of Nola initially fought against the Romans. Some 2,000 men from Nola for instance defended the town of Parthenope when it was besieged by the Romans in 326 BCE. Their aid could not prevent the town from falling. Thirteen years later the Romans captured Nola itself. The town played a pivotal role during the Second Punic war (218-201 BCE). In 216 BCE, 215 BCE and 214 BCE the Carthaginian general Hannibal tried to take the town. All three attempts were thwarted by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

Cales and Velitrae

The Aurunci (or Ausones) lived in the border region of Latium and Campania. Not long after the founding of the Republic the Romans had already waged war against the Aurunci. These wars were in 503-503 BCE and 495 BCE respectively. In both cases the Romans had managed to repulse the attacks, and after their defeat the Aurunci disappear from our sources for 150 years. In 345 BCE there was a new conflict, and this had everything to do with Roman eastward expansion. The Aurunci pillaged Roman territory, after which the Romans struck back hard and cut their enemies to pieces. It was the beginning of the end for the Aurunci. Ten years later a Roman army captured Cales, where a Latin colony was founded in 334 BCE. Another twenty years later the Romans conquered the towns of Ausona, Minturnae and Vescia, and their campaign was so violent that the Aurunci were almost massacred to the last man. With the founding of the Latin colony of Suessa Aurunca in 313 BCE the Aurunci were basically eliminated as an independent nation. The archaeological museum of Naples possesses a nice terracotta statue of a young man in a toga. It was made after the Roman conquest, in the first half of the third century BCE.

And then last but not least: Velitrae (Velletri), a town in the territory of the Volsci. The Romans founded a colony here in 494 BCE but this of course does not mean that the area was unpopulated before that. On the contrary, in the museum we find the remains of the decorations of a temple that was built in Velitrae around 530 BCE. Part of these decorations is a relief of horsemen with large round shields. The style is interpreted as Italo-Etruscan. The colony at Velitrae ultimately proved to be a burden to the Romans rather than a blessing. In the fourth century BCE they regularly faced troops from Velitrae on the battlefield. After the inhabitants of the town had also fought against Rome during the Latin war (340-338 BCE), the Romans decided to punish Velitrae severely by deporting its senators and sending new colonists. This seems to have finally pacified the town. The family of the future emperor Augustus, the gens Octavia, came from Velitrae.

Sources: website MANN Napoli|Museo Archeologico di Napoli, Capitol travel guide for Naples (2018 edition), p. 90-93 and a reader from my high school years!