Recent excavations and survey at the Roman and late antique city of Aeclanum provide important insights into developments across the fourth and fifth centuries CE at this site. Located in the inland region of Hirpinia, on the border of Apulia et Calabria and Campania, Aeclanum was insulated from some of the disasters that plagued the coastal regions in this period. It was, however, struck by two natural disasters: an earthquake in the mid-fourth century and the eruption of Vesuvius in 472 CE. Despite these events, new work suggests that the city remained a vital urban center even into the sixth century. In light of this new evidence, this article explores what the built remains, ceramics, and epigraphy reveal about the changing cityscape, economy, and society of Aeclanum. It further situates this evidence within its regional context to demonstrate how urban living was upheld, even in the face of significant environmental, religious, and administrative change. Our focus is on how human agency—of different forms—is manifest in the material evidence, and how this manifestation varies across available datasets and the networks between them. The availability of different datasets makes it a unique case study in this region and allows us to explore aspects of urban life in greater detail than is possible for many nearby cities. By using a pluralistic approach to material output, these examples reveal that, among some communities, circumstances and events long considered to be catastrophic to urban success were not as absolute as once thought.

In the middle of the fourth century, much of central and southern Italy was devastated by an enormous earthquake, an event conventionally dated to 346 CE.1 Just over a century later, in 472 CE, Vesuvius erupted again, covering much of the province of Campania and some of northern Apulia et Calabria with ash (Figure 1).2 Between these events, the coastal region in particular had to contend with the Visigothic invasion and Vandal incursions. Communities across the region were impacted by these events in a variety of ways and responded to them differently.3 Upon first glance, the picture that emerges from the archaeological record is one of extreme heterogeneity, comprising varying degrees of social and economic change, continuity, resilience, and decline. Yet upon deeper examination, it is clear that different datasets often paint contrasting pictures. Depending not only on where one looks within this wider region (the coast or the interior) but also what types of material evidence one looks at (buildings, epigraphy, ceramics, etc.), it is possible to come to a range of conclusions about how urban communities responded in the fourth and fifth centuries. Even within a single site, different types of evidence often defy simplistic characterization, a fact that has significant implications for wider debates about late antique urbanism more generally.

Figure 1.

Map of region, showing key sites mentioned in text. Map by B. Russell.

Figure 1.

Map of region, showing key sites mentioned in text. Map by B. Russell.

Close modal

The focus of this article is the varied late antique urban landscape of a single city in the mountainous inland region of Hirpinia, which straddled southeastern Campania and northwestern Apulia et Calabria.4 Aeclanum was a small but influential settlement, prominently positioned on the Via Appia. It became a Roman municipium in the first century BCE and a colonia under Hadrian (Figure 2). While most of its public buildings date from the first and second centuries CE, the city remained important later. It hosted a bishopric from the fourth century, and in the early fifth century its bishop was Julian “of Aeclanum,” best known for his contentious correspondence with Augustine of Hippo.5 While the city was hit by the 346 CE earthquake and impacted by the eruption of Vesuvius in 472 CE, testimony to its continued urban habitation is provided by the large necropolis to the east, which was used well into the sixth century (see Figure 2).6

Figure 2.

Aeclanum and its immediate surroundings. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Figure 2.

Aeclanum and its immediate surroundings. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Close modal

Previous studies of the site have shown that the 346 earthquake ushered in substantial changes to the urban fabric of Aeclanum. Even so, these changes are set against a background of gradual socioeconomic transformation that is harder to quantify.7 Evidence for abandonment, repurposing of areas for industrial activities, and blocking of roads have all been noted.8 The results of new fieldwork undertaken between 2017 and 2019 add further nuance to this reconstruction. In particular, we can now more accurately chart changes across the city, including signs of new construction, restoration, and expansion of existing structures, as well as the refunctioning of old buildings and abandonment of others. Substantial quantities of recently recovered ceramics datable to the fourth to sixth centuries offer additional insight into the economy of the city, its territory, and the networks between them. A more comprehensive assessment of the epigraphic evidence, too, has shed new light on how individuals living in Aeclanum expressed these changes and sustained a sense of belonging to their urban community.9

This article aims to highlight the overlapping pictures presented by three different bodies of evidence for urban change in late antique Aeclanum: buildings, ceramics, and inscriptions. Our purpose is to explore what can be said about the lived experience of the population of late antique Aeclanum and how they actively shaped the cityscape around them. Although it is self-evident that all communities of south and central Italy were impacted by natural phenomena and foreign invasions, responses to these events were different even among communities of comparable size, geographic situation, and available resources. Moreover, because surviving material evidence, too, presents contrasting and at times incompatible narratives about urban development in the region, a comparison of a range of datasets is needed. Like other articles in this special issue, therefore, our focus is on how human agency—of different forms—is manifest in the material evidence, and how this manifestation varies across the datasets available to us and the networks between them. While Aeclanum was not exceptional in late antique Italy more generally—far from it—the availability of different datasets makes it a unique case study in this region and allows us to explore aspects of urban life at the site in greater detail than is possible for many nearby cities.

Before turning to the data from Aeclanum, it is useful to consider what is known of late antique urbanism at other sites in inland Campania and northern Apulia et Calabria. This is the background against which we will consider the evidence from Aeclanum since this must be first and foremost examined in its proper regional context.

The heterogeneous pattern of urban transformation across this region between the fourth and fifth centuries is made clear by the contrasting evidence from even neighboring cities. Capua, the booming capital of the new province of Campania, can be contrasted with the nearby (and much smaller) cities of Calatia and Suessula, which were already struggling by the fourth century CE.10 At these smaller cities, there are signs of increasing ruralization and the transformation of public buildings into smaller, perhaps domestic, units, which were gradually then abandoned and, by the fifth century, had collapsed.11 Even before this, a document dated to 396 tells us that one-seventh of the cultivable land of Campania was unproductive by this date.12 Capua, these smaller cities, and the surrounding countryside were especially vulnerable to the fifth-century Visigothic invasion. Such was its impact that in both 413 and 418 Honorius granted five years of tax reduction to the whole of Campania.13 Even after this, in 455, Capua was sacked by the Vandals.14 On the eastern edge of the Campanian plain, evidence for devastation in the urban center of Nola can also be contrasted with the investment in the complex of San Felice at Cimitile. Like Capua, Nola was also sacked by the Vandals in 455, but even before this, in 405/406, Paulinus of Nola references the fact that farmers from the region had moved southeast to the plains of Apulia.15 Already by the early fourth century, the new buildings at Cimitile employed spoliated material from Nola.16 Excavations at various points in and around the center of Nola have shown that by 472, when the eruption of Vesuvius struck, much of the city was already abandoned.17 At nearby Abella, the limited excavated late antique layers reveal glimpses of a largely similar picture of abandonment prior to 472.18

Further into the Apennines, at Abellinum, the earthquake of 346 seems to have led to the closure of the baths and the subdivision of the large domus excavated close to the city walls into smaller units.19 By 472, however, even this structure was largely abandoned. There was some attempt to maintain a sense of urban cohesion, since the city walls were partially restored after the middle of the fourth century, perhaps in response to the invasions of the fifth century.20 As at Nola, the new focal point of life at Abellinum was beyond the old urban core, in this case in the ecclesiastical center of S. Ippolito at Capo la Torre, where a basilica developed in the first half of the fourth and continued to be used into the middle of the sixth century.21 While there are few signs of significant investment at Abellinum beyond Capo la Torre, this is not the case elsewhere. At other sites in the Apennines, the earthquake of 346 prompted a range of restoration activities, which testifies to the fact that both local elites and, increasingly, regional governors were still willing and able to invest in urban centers. Symmachus, in fact, in a letter datable to 375 CE,22 describes the elites of Beneventum engaged in competitive euergetism in the wake of an earthquake, either that of 346 or a later one.23 At Beneventum, new city walls were created around this date, even if the amphitheater went out of use.24 Further north, a series of inscriptions tell us that Fabius Maximus and Autonius Iustinianus undertook restoration activities in Allifae, Aesernia, and Telesia following an earthquake or earthquakes.25

Although the cities of northern Apulia et Calabria were also hit by the 346 earthquake, they were more insulated from the turmoil of the fifth century than the cities of Campania. Evidence from the smaller sites of Hirpinia suggests some degree of new investment after the middle of the fourth century. At the vicus of Aequum Tuticum, a new villa was built directly over debris from the earthquake; this site was probably too far east to have been impacted by the 472 eruption and continued to be inhabited until the end of the fifth century.26 At Compsa, new mosaics were added to the rooms behind the cathedral in the fourth century.27 In Venusia there are still signs of vibrant urban life in the fourth century, including the continued functioning of public buildings and expansion of the baths. However, in the eastern sector of the city, increasing abandonment can also be noted in this period, and the large domus beneath the church of the Santissima Trinità went out of use at the end of the fourth century.28 This domus was partially reoccupied, perhaps by domestic units, until the sixth century when the church was then built on top of it; indeed a similar refunctioning of a house in the middle of the archaeological park has also been documented.29

The most detailed observations come from Herdonia. Here the earthquake led to the collapse of many of the largest public buildings of the city, notably those around the forum, including the macellum and basilica.30 Although most of these structures were not rebuilt, some of those in the area of the forum were reoccupied by small dwellings or shops and warehouses.31 Significantly more effort was invested in the restoration of the baths, which were even provided with new mosaic floors and entirely new rooms, while a set of workshops in the city center were also fully restored.32 The center of the city changed substantially in the fourth and fifth centuries, therefore, but it was far from abandoned.

What this survey reveals are the varied ways in which urban living changed in this period. While a range of common patterns can be noted across these various regions, so too can sharp differences, even between neighboring cities; topography, access to transport networks, and exposure to external pressures all shaped developments at a highly local level. Indeed the historical events that punctuate this period had an impact on the landscapes of cities throughout the region, yet these events alone did not cause the observable changes. The earthquake of 346 might have damaged a range of buildings, but the decision about which of these to rebuild and which to abandon was shaped by the socioeconomic and even cultural concerns of the populations that used these spaces. It is in their response to these events that we can see the changing priorities of these populations, in terms of their contemporary lived experiences and future needs. Natural disasters and invading foreigners were not the catalysts for change, but they did provide the urban communities of southern and central Italy an opportunity to reshape their surrounding environments in a way that better reflected their current lived experience and future needs.33 At Aeclanum, the new excavations are helping to throw these changing priorities into sharp relief.

Excavations at Aeclanum between the 1950s and 1980s, under the direction of Giovanni Onorato and then Gabriella d’Henry, uncovered a sizeable sector of the city center, comprising several houses, a Christian basilica, a macellum, and a bath complex to the north.34 In 2006–9, the remains of a large public building, initially interpreted as a nymphaeum but recently reidentified as the city’s theater, were uncovered close to the site entrance.35 Various other structures have been uncovered around the outskirts of the city, while further work has been undertaken on the city’s territory.36 New excavations, survey, and conservation began at Aeclanum in 2017 and have consisted of a survey of the standing remains, extensive geophysical prospection, and excavation in four zones spanning the city’s most active spaces between the first and fifth centuries: the theater; the northern sector of the city, where the large baths are located; the residential zone in the city center; and the central-southern district, where the macellum was located and the geophysics have identified both the forum and a series of residential blocks stretching to the west (Figure 3).37 All of these areas have provided extensive evidence for late antique phases of occupation at the city. Some of these, especially in the theater and baths, are closely dated by evidence of earthquake damage, on the one hand, and volcanic deposits, on the other, to the period between 346 and 472.38

Figure 3.

Plan of Aeclanum, showing excavated remains and geophysics results with projected lines of walls and roads. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Figure 3.

Plan of Aeclanum, showing excavated remains and geophysics results with projected lines of walls and roads. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Close modal

New Structures and Renewed Investment

Several scholars have proposed a large-scale campaign of urban renovation in fourth-century Aeclanum as a direct response to the devastation caused by the 346 earthquake.39 However, the epigraphic evidence for a concerted program of restoration and new building, on which such a proposal has relied, is limited. The clearest example of new construction at the site after the mid-fourth century is the building of the Christian basilica, which began in either the late fourth or the early fifth century (Figure 4).40 This church was built over the remains of an earlier second-century domus and, at its eastern end, a major crossroad in the city’s street network. This contrasts with Nola and Abellinum where, as previously noted, new ecclesiastical centers grew outside the traditional urban core. At Aeclanum, the new church dominated the old city center.

Figure 4.

Plan of the central and southern sectors of Aeclanum, showing excavated remains and geophysics results with projected lines of walls and roads. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Figure 4.

Plan of the central and southern sectors of Aeclanum, showing excavated remains and geophysics results with projected lines of walls and roads. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Close modal

While the church replaced one domestic unit, its construction seems to have stimulated investment in the domus immediately adjacent to it (see Figure 4).41 This Casa con peristilio is the largest excavated in the city.42 It was built in the imperial period and located at the corner of an insula block, with streets to the south and west of it. When this building was first excavated, a glass workshop was found in the northern sector of its peristyle, and the structure was assumed to have been put out of use as a domus by the 346 earthquake and turned over to industrial purposes.43 However, the building was closely connected to the new church. In fact, when the church was constructed, its northeastern corner was built against the southwestern corner of this house, across the earlier intersection of two streets.44 New excavations inside the house also indicate that much of the house was also rebuilt at this date. While the general layout of the complex does not seem to have been altered, its walls were found to have been rebuilt (either following collapse or dismantling).45 Although the top half of many of the walls have been restored, a mix of brick, stone, and roof tiles can be seen even at the base of many of them (Figure 5).46 This was not a ruin in the fourth century that was gradually repurposed for industrial pursuits, therefore; the glass workshops and other remains probably postdate 472.

Figure 5.

Rebuilt wall of the “Casa con peristilio.” Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 5.

Rebuilt wall of the “Casa con peristilio.” Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal

Investment in this particular domus in the fourth century parallels developments seen in other cities, notably Ostia, where many of the large, late antique houses show a continuation of earlier modes of elite living.47 The proximity of the new church and the fact that this domus was restored as a high-end residence in Late Antiquity might suggest that it served an ecclesiastical function, perhaps as the home of a prominent church or lay official, much like the sixth-century domus excavated in the episcopal complex of bishop Sabinus centered on the church of S. Pietro at Canusium.48 Sandra Lo Pilato has tentatively identified this sector of Aeclanum as a sort of insula episcopalis in her previous work on the city, and the new evidence from the Casa con peristilio adds some support to this proposal, even if there remains no direct evidence to prove it.49

The final body of evidence for the investment of considerable capital in the urban fabric of the city comes from one of its largest public structures: the bath complex on the northern edge of the city center (Figure 6). This building was probably built in the first half of the second century CE, but excavations in 2017 and 2018 have provided new information about a range of late antique interventions: the raising of the floor level and the installation of a new mosaic in Room 8 (Figure 7); the addition of the pool in Room 9; the raising of the floor level of Room 10; and the relaying of marble paving in both Room 10 and the pool in Room 3, the frigidarium (Figure 8). Verde antico, one of the most fashionable late antique marbles, was widely employed in these new floors, alongside secondhand material. Given this extensive remodeling, it is probable that the various statues found throughout the baths in the mid-twentieth century and earlier were reerected at this time.50 Although the complex may have looked considerably changed from its initial second-century appearance, it remained a richly ornamented space that was apparently still in use and deemed worthy of substantial investment.

Figure 6.

Plan of the baths at Aeclanum. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Figure 6.

Plan of the baths at Aeclanum. Plan by J. Souček, G. F. De Simone, and B. Russell.

Close modal
Figure 7.

Mosaic in Room 8 of the baths. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 7.

Mosaic in Room 8 of the baths. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal
Figure 8.

Pool in the frigidarium (Room 3), lined with reused marble. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 8.

Pool in the frigidarium (Room 3), lined with reused marble. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal

The exact date of these interventions cannot be pinpointed precisely, but they were likely stimulated by damage caused by the 346 earthquake; in fact, the use of fragments of fluted pilaster shafts face down in the floor of the marble-lined pool of the frigidarium indicates that this work probably followed earthquake damage (Figure 8). While the earthquake of 346 might provide a terminus post quem for these interventions, a clear terminus ante quem is offered by the discovery of primary volcanic deposits 10–12 centimeters thick in Room 10 (Figure 9). These deposits, which were analyzed on site, resulted from the 472 eruption of Vesuvius, and their particular arrangement shows that the building was still functioning before this date.51

Figure 9.

Late antique floor and ash buildup in the baths. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 9.

Late antique floor and ash buildup in the baths. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal

The late antique interventions in the baths made prior to the late fifth century were geared toward preserving or even enhancing the monumentality of the structure; they reveal a degree of confidence on the part of whoever paid for this work; they clearly felt that there was still demand for baths and that they could continue to be supplied with water and fuel. This continued interest and investment in bathing complexes in the fourth and even fifth century is paralleled elsewhere.52 In central Italy—at Antium, Interamna Lirenas, Ocriculum, Puteoli, Saepinum, Tarracina, and Trebula—various baths were restored by provincial governors.53 The emperors Arcadius and Honorius even decreed that a third of the taxes drawn from farms belonging to a municipality be assigned to the repair of public buildings and heating systems for baths.54 At Herdonia, the archaeological record shows that the baths underwent a similar transformation at the same date as at Aeclanum.55 At Venusia the baths were also expanded in the fourth century.56 It was not a given, however, that enough funds were available for such renovations everywhere in southern and central Italy, or that there was even sufficient interest in taking on these tasks. At Abellinum, for example, the 346 earthquake seems to have prompted the closure of the baths.57 Although funding was probably a factor in the decision to abandon the building, it is worth considering the extent to which its facilities were in use by this date given the growth of a new ecclesiastical center outside the city’s traditional urban core.

Shifting Functions: Theater and the Macellum

While the baths at the northern end of the city were maintained as a monumental building beyond the fourth century, other large civic structures were adapted, at least partially, to new functions at this date. In the theater, which was probably built in the Julio-Claudian period, late antique stratigraphy sealed by ash datable to 472 CE is available from three areas. In the interior of the cavea (Figure 4, 1), the 2006–9 excavations found volcanic deposits overlying a set of architectural elements, including columns, and the torso of a large imperial statue that had been stacked behind the proscenium for reuse.58 This suggests that the stage building had already been dismantled by 472. In 2018, similar deposits were found in the drain running around the orchestra (Figure 4, 2), showing that this drain was still functioning and had its cover slabs in place in 472 (Figure 10). Likewise, the marble of the orchestra itself seems to have been stripped only after 472, since this process removed any traces of the volcanic deposits in this area. Large-scale spoliation of the stage building, in other words, was in progress prior to 472, but the cavea and orchestra seem still to have been standing and were largely untouched. Finally, volcanic deposits were found in Room C, which was located in the exterior of the cavea (Figure 11; Figure 4, 3). This room must have been open when the eruption struck, while Room B, next to it, was closed. Occupation surfaces within Room B show that it was being used as a domestic unit by 472. The ceramics from the last occupation surface form a domestic assemblage and include African Red Slip ware (hereafter ARS) datable to the second half of the fifth century as well as local cooking ware of late fifth-century date.59 The ceramics from the earlier occupation layers in the same room suggest it was used as a dwelling for most of the fifth century and perhaps earlier, as will be shown below.

Figure 10.

Ash deposits in the drain around the orchestra of the theater. Photograph ©Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 10.

Ash deposits in the drain around the orchestra of the theater. Photograph ©Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal
Figure 11.

Plan of Rooms A–C in the substructures of the cavea of the theater. Plan by B. Russell.

Figure 11.

Plan of Rooms A–C in the substructures of the cavea of the theater. Plan by B. Russell.

Close modal

The late antique layers from the theater, therefore, suggest that the stage building had gone out of use well before 472. Some of its architectural elements, as previously noted, had been assembled for reuse, but the fact that the column shafts and the statue from this context were broken suggests that they came from a collapsed building and not a carefully dismantled one. The stage building, therefore, could well have come down as early as 346 CE, with the cavea remaining largely intact until after 472. The convenient vaulted substructures of the cavea were then turned into domestic units at some point in the late fourth or fifth century. On one level, the theater provides good evidence for the phenomenon that Simon Ellis calls subdivision: this civic and intraconnected structure was split into distinct units.60 It was also “refunctionalized,” with at least some spaces switching from public to private use.61 However, this shift in function was not total. Although its stage building had collapsed, the cavea of the theater remained standing. The houses built into its vaults did not detract from the overall architectural form of the exterior of the building; there is no reason to think that the theater lost its function as an impressive reference point in the cityscape. Indeed, it is even possible that the interior of the cavea and the orchestra were used in some way for public meetings or similar since the evidence for spoliation here postdates 472. Comparable dwellings built around the outside of entertainment complexes have been identified in other late antique cities, and at least in some cases they seem not to have interfered with the original function of the building.62

In addition to the theater, the macellum, on the east side of the forum, has provided rich evidence for late antique occupation. Originally built in the Hadrianic period, it is of a type typical of this date, comprising rooms built around an open-air circular court; this building was a celebration of both Aeclanum’s role as a commercial center on the Via Appia and the agricultural wealth of its territory.63 Excavations in the middle of the twentieth century, however, first identified the presence of domestic spaces inside the complex in Late Antiquity.64 This was confirmed by excavations in 2017, which identified a series of new walls and an occupation layer in the interior of this space in its southeastern corner (Figure 12; Figure 4, 4). The ceramics from here date to the fourth to sixth centuries and indicate that at least this area of the macellum had been turned over to domestic use in much the same way as the substructures of the theater had.65 The fact that sixth-century ceramics have been found also seems to indicate that this structure continued to be lived in after 472.

Figure 12.

Late antique occupation in the southeastern corner of the macellum. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 12.

Late antique occupation in the southeastern corner of the macellum. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal

Any changes that occurred in the macellum in the fourth and fifth centuries were not total, however. Although some of the building was occupied by domestic space, excavations in 2019 in the northwestern corner of the structure suggest some continuity of commercial activity (Figure 13; Figure 4, 5). Here the layout of the complex was substantially altered, probably in Late Antiquity, when a new room was created, not on the alignment of the original interior walls of the former macellum.66 This room seems to have been accessible from the street beyond the former macellum and not from the interior of the complex. Large quantities of animal bones from the occupation layers within this room, mostly comprising cow bones, suggest that butchery still went on in this area, potentially in this space, though more likely in a neighboring room, with the refuse then deposited here.67 This area also produced the highest concentration of coins excavated on the site to date, all of late fourth- or early fifth-century date.68 The picture that emerged from the excavations in the area of the former theater, of a public building transformed into houses, does not apply to the macellum, therefore; here some of the building was transformed into domestic units, but other parts of it, including newly built structures, were seemingly still used for the processing and selling of meat. By Late Antiquity, the former meat market had become a multifunctional space.69

Figure 13.

Late antique occupation in the northwestern corner of the macellum. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Figure 13.

Late antique occupation in the northwestern corner of the macellum. Photograph © Edinburgh-Apolline Project Excavations at Aeclanum.

Close modal

When the central part of the macellum ceased to function as a meat market is unclear. The ceramics and coins from the structure would seem to indicate that changes occurred in the second half of the fourth and the fifth centuries. The 346 earthquake could have acted as stimulus for the change in use.70 The new data from the 2019 excavations nevertheless indicate a degree of continuity. There is epigraphic evidence from elsewhere for the continued use of macella. In fact, at Aesernia the macellum was repaired after the 346 earthquake by Autonius Iustinianus, with state funds used for certain components.71 It is possible that the macellum at Aeclanum was also restored as a commercial structure, but perhaps only in part; the residents of the city still required, or desired, a building where they could purchase meat but did not need the whole of this structure to have this function.

Abandonment

Not every structure built prior to the fourth century survived the 346 earthquake. In 2017, the remains of an abandoned structure were excavated just east of the main residential sector of the city (Figure 4, 6). This building had collapsed suddenly: one wall, with a window in it, was uncovered; it had fallen flat, and its roof was lying on top of it. The ceramics associated with this structure suggest it did not survive the fourth century and was destroyed by the earthquake. Despite its central location, it was then neither rebuilt nor removed.72 Similar evidence for destruction was excavated in 2019, in the southern area of the site (Figure 4, 7). Here an inner room of a large structure was uncovered that had been filled in by multiple phases of wall collapse. Fragments of fresco might indicate that this was an elite residence, while the ceramics from the layers covering these collapses were again fourth century in date.73 To the west of the macellum, the forum seems to have been abandoned and its paving, at least partially, spoliated in Late Antiquity. Post holes relating to a possible dwelling or commercial structure were also discovered in this area in earlier excavations.74 The date of this development is unclear, however. It might be connected with the occupation of areas of the former macellum by domestic units in the fourth or fifth centuries, but this is not necessarily the case. The fact that the butchers in the northeast corner of the former macellum seem not to have been accessible from the core of the old building, which opened off the forum, but from the street to the east instead, could indicate that they expected more traffic from this direction than the forum. There is widespread evidence for the abandonment of fora in the west of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, and indeed the evidence from Aeclanum is similar to that from Tolosa in Gaul, where the forum was dismantled in the fifth century before being partly reoccupied by small structures in the sixth.75 This was by no means a ubiquitous process, however.76 The fora at Albingaunum and Neapolis, in fact, were restored in this period, Neapolis by Constantine.77 While there is no evidence for the restoration of the forum at Aeclanum, it is possible that this area continued to function through this period.78 And even if the forum did become dilapidated, evidence from elsewhere, notably Arelate, suggests that it could still have been used as a public space.79

While the evidence previously outlined offers useful insights into the changing urban fabric of Aeclanum in the fourth and fifth centuries, it reveals less about the economy of the city and, in particular, its regional and interregional connections. For this, we depend on the rich ceramic finds excavated at the site since 2017, which constitute one of the largest ceramic assemblages from inland Campania. This material is crucial not only for building a typology of shapes and characterizing the fabrics of late antique pottery in the region but also for providing useful data on the relative importance of local, regional, and imported products, and how ceramic production in Aeclanum and its territory developed.

The bulk of the pottery recovered during the new excavations at Aeclanum is late antique in date (86%), while late Republican- and imperial-period ceramics (mostly residual in late antique layers) are less attested; very little medieval or modern material has been found (Figure 14). The late antique pottery from the site mainly comprises ceramic types and shapes produced locally and in Campania between the fourth and the first half of the sixth centuries, with fifth-century material dominating; imports from beyond Italy are rare, but a range of ARS types are attested (Figure 15). This fine, red-orange slipped tableware, produced in North Africa from the first to seventh centuries, is one of the most distinguishable ceramic types in the archaeological record. It tells us about long-distance trade and can be closely dated.80 Finds of ARS, therefore, are useful for dating excavated contexts and are vital for creating a chronological framework for the locally produced ceramics, which have been less securely dated until now; further refinement of this chronology is enabled by the volcanic deposits of 472, which offer an important terminus ante quem for much of this material.

Figure 14.

Ceramics from Aeclanum. Graph by V. Castaldo.

Figure 14.

Ceramics from Aeclanum. Graph by V. Castaldo.

Close modal
Figure 15.

Pottery classes from Aeclanum; quantification of the MNI. Graph by V. Castaldo.

Figure 15.

Pottery classes from Aeclanum; quantification of the MNI. Graph by V. Castaldo.

Close modal

Long-Distance Trade and ARS

Only around 5% of the late antique ceramics from Aeclanum consist of imported pottery. Although this number is low, the presence of imports this far inland shows that active connections still existed between Hirpinia and other Mediterranean regions, at least until the first half of the sixth century. The city’s position along the Via Appia no doubt facilitated such connections. Some of these imports, such as certain amphorae (including Late Roman 1 amphorae), testify to the existence of trade links with the eastern Mediterranean, either via Neapolis or perhaps the ports of Apulia. This parallels to some degree the import of other commodities at Aeclanum during this period, such as the aforementioned verde antico marble slabs used in the baths, a material sourced from the quarries near Larissa in Thessaly.81 The majority of ceramic imports, however, were produced in North Africa. Of these, most are ARS; however, there are also amphorae, lamps, and a few fragments of African Cooking wares (hereafter ACW), cooking vessels produced between the first and fifth centuries, again in Africa, which also have a well-defined typology.82

From a chronological perspective, relatively little ARS has been found that can be dated to the first to third or fourth centuries (ARS A) and only small quantities of typically third-century forms (ARS A/D), though among the early shapes of ARS A is a fragment of the bowl Hayes 9A found in the baths (Figure 16, 10).83 More third- to fifth-century ARS (C) has been found, with the most recurring types including the dish Hayes 50, the bowl Hayes 74 (Figure 16, 11) and the dish Hayes 84.84 The majority of ARS recovered during the excavations at Aeclanum to date belong to the fourth- to seventh-century ARS D wares.85 Particularly well attested are the dishes Hayes 61 and Hayes 67 produced in the fifth century.86 Among the later forms produced from the end of the fifth and into the first half of the sixth century are a good number of the dishes Hayes 104A and bowls 99A (Figure 16, 12).87

Figure 16.

Local ceramics from Aeclanum: theater (1–2, 4, 6, 9), macellum (3, 7–8), baths (5). African Red Slip ware from Aeclanum: baths (10), theater (11), macellum (12). Drawn by V. Castaldo.

Figure 16.

Local ceramics from Aeclanum: theater (1–2, 4, 6, 9), macellum (3, 7–8), baths (5). African Red Slip ware from Aeclanum: baths (10), theater (11), macellum (12). Drawn by V. Castaldo.

Close modal

The recovered ARS offers important chronological data for the transformation and repurposing of some buildings in the city, notably the macellum. In fact, the presence of ARS datable to the fifth century (especially the dishes Hayes 61 and Hayes 67) suggests that in this period at least some of the rooms of this complex were transformed into residential units. At the same time, although it does not all come from stratified contexts, the presence of ARS forms datable to between the beginning of the second and the end of the fifth centuries in the baths (forms Hayes 9A, Hayes 20, Hayes 61, Hayes 99, and Hayes 104A) perhaps reflect the continuous use of this complex and its surrounding areas throughout the imperial and late antique periods.

Regional Products

The study of morphological and typological features of the ceramics from Aeclanum reveals a wide variety of Campanian ceramic productions and pottery classes (see Figure 15). Among these, there are a good number of specimens of pottery classes that were widespread in central-southern Italy during Late Antiquity. These are named according to their visual characteristics and include so-called Painted Ware and Burnished Ware, as well as some forms in Slipped Ware. These pottery classes were produced by different workshops, some of which were active in Neapolis,88 the Vesuvian area,89 and the Ager Falernus.90 Painted Ware, in particular, which is generally dated between the mid-fourth and the sixth centuries, is found across Apulia et Calabria, as well as in neighboring Lucania et Bruttii.91 Although several workshops were operating in these areas, the repertoire of shapes demonstrates the presence of some shared types produced in different regional variants.

The presence of ceramics produced in several Campanian workshops at Aeclanum suggests the existence of a well-functioning interregional distribution system in the late antique period. The city certainly benefited from its strategic location on the Via Appia, which connected it to nearby Beneventum. Furthermore, the Via Traiana and Via Herculia (accessed by the Via Aeclanum–Aequum Tuticum) connected Aeclanum to other urban centers in Apulia et Calabria as well as Lucania et Bruttii. In addition to the main roads, Aeclanum was likely supplied by secondary roads, transhumance routes, and through the activity of merchants and itinerant fairs, the network of which is less easily traced.

Local Ceramics: A Self-Sufficient Production System?

While both regional and imported products have been found at Aeclanum, there is another group of materials made in a distinctive fabric that does not fit into either category. Mineralogical analysis of thin sections of this fabric has revealed a composition characterized by predominant quartz, feldspars and minor mica, compatible with the geology of the territory of Aeclanum. In other words, we can posit a local origin for the ceramics made with this fabric.92 The production is characterized by a significant presence of ceramic forms with red/brown slip and/or burnishing of the surfaces, and therefore we refer to it as Red/Brown-Coated Burnished Ware (RBCBW).93 There are also some plain ceramics made from this fabric.

Morphologically, the RBCBW group mainly consists of forms used for cooking or preparation of food; however, and quite strikingly, it was also employed for tableware and transport amphorae. Among the most common cooking shapes are ollae of various sizes, the most attested being a type with a cylindrical neck and vertical rim (Figure 16, 1).94 Also common are cooking pots with an oblique rim (Figure 16, 2–3), a late version of Roman cooking pots with horizontal flat rims that are widely documented in Campania in the imperial period.95 These later versions are present on various sites not only in Campania (including Pratola Serra, Nola, and Taurasi) but also in Apulia (for example at Herdonia).96 At Aeclanum, this type of cooking pot is present in numerous variants, some of which are more similar to the other Apulian specimens than to those attested at sites on the Campanian coast.

At Aeclanum, many casseroles were also produced in different shapes and sizes. Among these, the most common type has a thickened rim characterized by an almond or rounded section (Figure 16, 4–6). This type is a local imitation of the casserole Hayes 197 produced in ACW, the Campanian versions of which are generally referred to as type Carminiello 12.97 The casseroles Carminiello 12 were widespread in Campania, above all in the fifth century, and they represent a clear example of the influence and the impact that African products had on regional ceramic repertoires in late antique Italy. These casseroles are attested in numerous local variants in Campania, at the coastal sites (e.g., Neapolis), in the Vesuvian area, the Ager Nolanus, and now in Hirpinia.98 It is interesting that at Aeclanum, there are several variants of this type, including later ones (Figure 16, 6), which tend to have a more rounded rim and wavy horizontal handles similar to the versions widely attested in Apulia.99 Among other shapes produced under the influence of ACW are some casseroles imitating the types Hayes 185 and Hayes 23 (Figure 16, 7), although very little actual ACW has been found at the site—which itself implies that this material did not travel far inland. The influence of imported pottery is also visible in the repertoire of local tableware, where there are numerous imitations in RBCBW of types known in ARS. Among these, the most recurrent are imitations of the types Hayes 84 (Figure 16, 8), Hayes 91, Hayes 104A (Figure 16, 9), and, in lower numbers, imitations of the bowl Hayes 67.100

The local production of ceramics in Aeclanum was active in the fifth century, before the Vesuvian eruption of 472, as data from the theater shows. This is also supported by the discovery of specimens in RBCBW under the volcanic deposit of 472 in the Roman villa at Pollena Trocchia on the northern slope of Vesuvius.101 The evidence from Aeclanum and its territory, however, suggests that local production of pottery continued in the sixth century. In fact, significant quantities of RBCBW have been recovered from post-eruption layers in which late forms of ARS are also found (mainly Hayes 99 and Hayes 104A). A similar conclusion can be reached based on an analysis of ceramics from nearby Taurasi, where local imitations of Hayes 104A dishes are very common.

That this local production was significant is revealed by the quantitative data. Local products typically account for 75–85% of the total minimum number of individuals (MNI) in the contexts that have been excavated. This figure, and the fact that the local products came in such a large repertoire of shapes, implies that there was substantial demand for these products and that production took place on a large scale. It also suggests that Aeclanum and its territory, in terms of ceramic production, were largely self-sufficient by the fifth century. The analysis of the ceramics and especially the features of the RBCBW forms highlights that the local potters were not seasonal but specialized artisans capable of producing pottery of good quality (well-formed and fired vessels), introducing new forms and following new trends and market demand while maintaining a technological standard similar to the preexisting and long-lived Campanian ceramic tradition. The ceramic evidence thus confirms that local potters knew the foreign forms well—as did their customers, presumably—and voluntarily imitated them, respecting the regional longer-standing practice of imitation but also trying through their technical skills to conform their production to the demand of the more selective regional market, rather than just responding to the local demand for specific products. This hypothesis is also supported by the discovery of a small number of forms from Aeclanum in the area around Vesuvius’s territory, the Ager Nolanus, and in Apulia, which also suggests the existence of a surplus production that was exported regionally.102

The large quantity of late antique pottery from Aeclanum shows that the city was a dynamic consumption center during the fourth and fifth centuries, a matter itself indicative of robust urban commitment. Furthermore, the fact that around 15% of ceramics identified were produced by various workshops in western and northern Campania testifies to the existence of a well-functioning regional trade system despite the various disruptive episodes that characterize this period, such as the earthquake of 346 and the Visigothic incursions. Similarly, the supply of ARS continued after the Vandal conquest of North Africa, as shown by the presence of forms datable to the fifth and sixth centuries at Aeclanum, while the presence of Late Roman 1 amphorae shows that eastern products could still be secured in the fifth century. Above all, the city’s vitality in this period is evidenced by the reorganization of the pottery manufacturing system at Aeclanum and in its territory, with the emergence of new local ceramic production at some point during the fifth century. The similarities between the ceramic forms produced in Aeclanum and those produced elsewhere in both Apulia and Campania suggest the existence of a shared repertoire of shapes across these regions. Yet the dominance of local production testifies to the degree to which the city and its territory were economically autonomous in Late Antiquity.

In wider discussions of late antique urbanism, the kinds of changes visible in the stratigraphic and ceramic records at Aeclanum have often been attributed, at least in part, to social and political developments: to the shift of influence away from civic elites and toward the imperial bureaucracy and the church, and the loss of significance of urban spaces as venues for elite display.103 At Aeclanum, the rich epigraphic record offers some support for social and political shifts of precisely this sort, especially after the fifth century. However, it also indicates that in the wake of the 346 earthquake in particular, civic elites continued to invest in the city. The lack of later occupation of the site is the likely reason why Aeclanum offers a sizeable corpus of over 530 documented inscriptions, which makes it one of the communities with the richest epigraphic evidence in the region, alongside more prominent centers like Beneventum, Brundisium, and Canusium.104 These documents are paramount for gaining a fuller understanding of the civic community of Aeclanum, even though the information that can be gleaned from inscriptions concerning the demographics of a local community is partial.105 Although only a fraction of the inscriptions from the city can be dated with certainty, a more general chronology can be assigned to a much larger number of inscriptions by considering the language and formulas of the texts or the form of the monument.106 A chronological and typological analysis of the inscriptions from Aeclanum highlights important changes in how the local community engaged with the epigraphic medium over time; in turn, these changes can illuminate the evolution of the social and institutional fabric of the city, especially from the beginning of the third century onward.

There is a significant degree of diachronic and synchronic variation in the inscriptions set up in the two centuries between the creation of the Roman municipium and the accession of the Severans, yet these documents show remarkable similarities, especially when contrasted with later ones. The first element to note is the high degree of typological variation: among the pre-third century monuments are epitaphs, tituli honoraria, building inscriptions, miliaria, imperial inscriptions, arae and sacred dedications, and inscriptions such as fistulae and signacula on objects (see Figure 17).107 The inscribed record from this period offers the (familiar) impression of a bustling civic community, in which resources were periodically invested by magistrates and notables alike to erect new public buildings or to enrich, expand, or embellish preexisting ones. Shifting attention to the individuals mentioned in these documents, it is interesting to observe that every stratum of local society is represented in pre-Severan inscriptions, even if unevenly: slaves and freed individuals, local magistrates and decuriones, and even families of senatorial rank—usually a subset of the local curial class.

Figure 17.

Typological variation of datable inscriptions from Aeclanum over the centuries. Graph by P. L. Morbidoni.

Figure 17.

Typological variation of datable inscriptions from Aeclanum over the centuries. Graph by P. L. Morbidoni.

Close modal

Conversely, the picture offered by the inscriptions datable to the third century is much less varied. The only public monument that can be dated with certainty to this period is a statue base, dedicated to Caracalla in 204 CE.108 As for the other inscribed documents, with the exception of one titulus honorarius, and of an inscription of difficult interpretation that might belong to a collegium,109 the epigraphic landscape of Aeclanum in the third century is dominated by epitaphs.110 The demographic picture is also much more blurred compared to the one that emerges from earlier documents: very little can be said about the legal status and social standing of the residents of Aeclanum in this century, although this is mostly a result of the nature of these inscribed documents, and of changes in epigraphic practices and habits. However, it is evident that the curial class, which appears to flourish in the second century, is entirely absent in these (and later) inscriptions. Notwithstanding the possibility that the epigraphic landscape of third-century Aeclanum might be the result of the accidental nature of the finds, we might be tempted to suggest that the inscribed record points toward a time of contraction in public and civic life. Yet, the absence of significant public inscriptions in the third century and the disappearance of the curial class from the epigraphic record might both be consequences of changes in how the city was administered. Already in the second century, the imperial authority started to nominate curatores, some of which were involved with the finances of local civic communities.111 While the curatores were initially meant to aid local magistrates, it has been suggested that their involvement in the administration of civic finances and the public might have become more prominent over time.112 Inscriptional evidence from elsewhere indicates that curatores were repeatedly appointed at Aeclanum over the course of the late second and the third century,113 and it is not a coincidence that the only honorific inscription from this period was dedicated to the curator Lucius Calventius Nepos.114 Therefore, it is possible that civic life in Aeclanum did not come to a grinding halt in the third century but rather that the disappearance of the curial class from inscriptions might be the result of the local notables being less interested in competing for visibility in the public spaces, as in other Roman communities.115

This theory appears to be corroborated by the inscriptions dated from the fourth century onward. With the accession of Diocletian, inscribed monuments start to appear again in public spaces, yet individuals belonging to the curial class and the local magistrates remain absent from the epigraphic record. Usually, these monuments were commissioned by the local governors, who held the office of corrector Apuliae et Calabriae, and it is important to note that—with one significant exception— all honorific inscriptions dating to the fourth century are dedicated to either the emperor or the correctores.116 Among the public inscriptions dating to this period, two show a return to the practice of commemorating the renovation or construction of public buildings. Both documents are illuminating in their own way. The earlier of the two, which is fragmentary, commemorates the renovation of a building using pecunia publica under the reign of Maxentius.117 While there are no comparable inscriptions from this period, this document can still be taken as evidence that a (limited?) program of renovation of the public space was carried out at the beginning of the fourth century, with the involvement of the local community. The second inscription is even more significant: it is a statue base dedicated to the vir clarissimus Umbonius Mannachius, who is saluted as patronus and fabricator ex maxima parte etiam civitatis nostrae.118 It has been argued, convincingly, that Mannachius was honored for his role in financing the reconstruction of the city in the wake of the earthquake of 346.119 That the people of Aeclanum deemed this effort worthy of commemoration is significant; so too is the fact that despite the absence of decuriones and magistrates in the inscribed record, this text shows that Aeclanum still had an ordo, which played a part in regulating the use of public spaces (and of public money). However, there is also an important element of novelty in how the civic community styled itself in this period: whereas in older inscriptions Aeclanum is always indicated as res publica, municipium, or colonia,120 in the monument of Mannachius it is called civitas, a much more nuanced term. This shift might seem of little consequence, yet it underpins a change in how the local community perceived itself, which develops further in later inscriptions. In general, the impression offered by these documents is that, in fourth-century Aeclanum, inscriptions have almost exclusively a public dimension: they are set up rarely, and only to celebrate either key markers in the development of the community or to honor the emperor, the local governors, or individuals of the utmost standing in local society.

In addition to the monuments that we have already analyzed, two other inscriptions can be dated with reasonable certainty to the fourth century: they are both funerary, and likely Christian, but in more than one way they represent a seamless transition toward slightly later inscriptions. From the fifth century onward, the epigraphic output of Aeclanum increases considerably, but it consists exclusively of Christian epitaphs. Despite showing little typological variation, these documents reveal much about the local community. This corpus of Christian tituli sepulchrales consists of forty-one inscriptions, most of which can be securely dated to a specific year, thanks to the mention of the consular date. Twenty of these date to the fifth century, eighteen to the sixth century, while another three cannot be dated. While these inscriptions span the course of a century and a half (the latest inscription that can be dated with certainty was dedicated in 559),121 they show a remarkable degree of continuity. From these documents emerges a picture of a vibrant community centered on its church: while two individuals bear the old senatorial rank of spectabilis and three women are indicated as honestae feminae,122 it is interesting to observe that all the titles that can be identified in these inscriptions pertain to the Church and not to the government of the city. Thus, we have mention of a praeposita, a subdiaconus, two acoliti, an exorcista, and finally a lector, Caelius Laurentius.123 This last epitaph is particularly significant because in this inscription Laurentius is called lector sanctae ecclesiae Aeclanensis. This does not indicate that Laurentius carried out the duties of lector in a specific church within the dioceses of Aeclanum; rather, by mentioning the “sancta ecclesia Aeclanensis,” whoever commissioned the inscription intended to stress that Laurentius had belonged to the local community.124

This situation is comparable to that of Nola (and later Cimitile) and Capua, where the curial elites seem to disappear after the second century.125 A drop in public inscriptions can also be noted in the third century,126 with a few tituli honorarii reappearing in the fourth century, mostly dedicated to munificent patroni, curatores, or men of senatorial rank.127 From the latter half of the fourth century onward, the two communities became renowned Christian centers. This resulted in an increase in the production of inscriptions (all tituli sepulchrales), with the epigraphic evidence suggesting that both communities, much like Aeclanum, gravitated around their church and perhaps identified with the ecclesia outright: at Nola, Adeodatus Indignus is identified archipresbyter sancta ecclesiae Nolanae, and an epitaph from Capua commemorates Guttus, acolitus sanctae ecclesiae Capuanae.128

The datasets analyzed here indicate that the fourth and especially the fifth centuries were periods of heightened flux at Aeclanum. While significant changes occurred over this era, the picture that emerges is one of general, though not exclusive, vitality.129 The city was not abandoned, even if some of its structures were left in ruins. Substantial investment in new structures and renovations was undertaken, and the epigraphic record testifies to continued euergetism in the fourth century. The city as a political and economic entity continued to function, as shown by both the epigraphic and the ceramic evidence, and it remained a population center, as the associated necropolis demonstrates.130

Significant changes are visible, of course. New investment was unevenly spread and channeled into a smaller range of projects than in the period between the first century BCE and second century CE, when the city hosted a wide range of civic structures. The two poles of late antique investment were the baths and the church. There was no interest in maintaining the theater or the macellum as public monuments, even if the macellum did not entirely lose its function. These structures were simply no longer priorities for local elites or regional administrators.131 This being said, these structures were not removed from the urban landscape of Aeclanum simply because they were in part occupied by housing. Their repurposing was presumably sanctioned. At Herdonia it has been concluded that similar alterations “can hardly be read as uncoordinated initiatives,”132 and the same argument has been made for the late antique shops and houses at Egnatia.133 At Arelate, Simon Loseby also sees official sanctioning in the “orderly relaxation, or redefinition, of the boundaries between public and private space.”134 It is even possible that renting out spaces in formerly public structures might have been a source of income for the city.135 The result, however formalized, was that more people probably lived in the heart of Aeclanum in the fourth and fifth centuries than earlier. The individuals who lived in the former theater in this period are part of a sub-elite population that is simply not visible in the city center of Aeclanum in the imperial period, at least as far as the excavations undertaken to date can reveal; at that date, the urban core was dominated by public buildings and elite domus, and we might expect the sub-elites to have lived in more “geographically marginal areas.”136 The movement of such groups into these public structures in Late Antiquity might, therefore, represent the kind of micromigration, as Enrico Zanini calls it, of individuals who previously lived on the periphery of the urban core into its heart.137 Some of these individuals might even have come from further afield, such as the Campanian plains, which were under such pressure in this period; Paulinus, as previously discussed, seems to reference farmers from Nola living far to the south. The presence of Campanian ceramics at Aeclanum throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, and the evidence for exportation of products from the city’s territory, show that this was a region that remained closely connected to those to the northwest. The increased agency of these sub-elite populations within the urban landscape could have been a result of contracting elite interest in certain urban areas. Even so, the epigraphic evidence indicates that at least some of the city’s wealthier inhabitants were still involved in regulating public spaces at this time. That these elites still self-identified as belonging to this urban community further attests to a sustained local population—either still in the city or in its territory—that was socioeconomically diverse and active even at a later date.

How far the vitality apparent in the fourth and fifth centuries stretched beyond this period is difficult to assess. The theater dwellings were not reoccupied after 472, nor were the baths. The houses in the macellum, however, do seem to have been used into the sixth century. The church remained standing and was expanded. It had a large buttress added to its apse, probably in the sixth century, and was fitted with new mosaics in the same period.138 With the loss of the baths it was the church and the structures around it that became the focus of activity after the fifth century. The epigraphy demonstrates the overwhelmingly ecclesiastical identity of the site by this date. For Laurentius, the lector sanctae ecclesiae Aeclanensis previously mentioned, and presumably also for others of his contemporaries, the civic community of Aeclanum had ceased to be centered on the res publica and instead was to be identified with the ecclesia. The fact that industrial activities—evidenced by the glass workshop, a large kiln, and the remains of an oil processing facility—concentrated in the area around the church after 472 should not be interpreted as a sign that this sector lost its importance. Quite the opposite, in fact: at Canusium, artisans’ quarters have been identified in the immediate proximity of the episcopium, their activities perhaps even sponsored by the resident bishop;139 and it is possible that such activities were in fact standard features of these complexes.140 ARS imports continue into the sixth century, showing that the settlement retained a functioning local economy. A drastic downturn, therefore, is hard to identify prior to the mid-sixth century.

When the end of urban life did arrive at Aeclanum, it came suddenly. Imported ceramics disappeared over the course of the sixth century, and the necropolis went out of use around the middle of the century.141 The last mention of the diocese of Aeclanum is from 536, when a bishop from the city attended the Council of Constantinople.142 The church survived longer, seemingly until the early or mid-seventh century, but little survives from the site that is later.143 Indeed a document from the papacy of Gregory II refers to the foundation of a monastery in civitate diruta XV miliario apud Beneventanam civitatem, implying that Aeclanum had by this date lost its name and perhaps much of its urban character.144 Despite this, compared to many cities in the wider region, Aeclanum fared well; indeed it shared this good fortune with the more influential Beneventum. Much of Abellinum, Nola, and Abella, in comparison, had been abandoned by 472. The closest parallel to the situation at Aeclanum is provided by Herdonia, the major difference being that Herdonia seems to have become increasingly ruralized after the end of the fifth century, foreshadowing the end of urban life at the Aeclanum.145

By 472, when the ash of Vesuvius fell on Aeclanum, the city was no longer physically the same place that it had been in the second century. Some of its structures were ruins, and others were no longer the public monuments they had once been. There were, however, new additions to the cityscape (the church), also monumental in character, and at least one major structure (the northern baths) had grown in size and even lavishness over the centuries. Crucially, the city retained its urban character; investment had been concentrated in the city center. The community continued to consume, as the quantity of ceramics, including imports, demonstrate. Demand for manufactured goods encouraged regional and local producers to develop new product ranges, some of which were even exported. Importantly, the epigraphic record shows that, while the institutional structure of Aeclanum changed over time (as did the topography of the settlement), the sense of belonging to the community remained unaffected. As the res publica evolved into civitas, which later coalesced around the sancta ecclesia, and the older magisterial authority was shadowed by that of the episcopus, the people continued to celebrate their belonging to the polity of the Aeclanenses.

1.

Fabrizio Galadini and Paolo Galli, “The 346 A.D. Earthquake (Central-Southern Italy): An Archaeoseismological Approach,” Annals of Geophysics 47, no. 2/3 (2004): 885–905.

2.

Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo et al., “The 472 AD Pollena Eruption of Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) and Its Environmental Impact at the End of the Roman Empire,” Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 113 (2002): 19–36; Giuseppe Rolandi, Rosanna Munno, and Immacolata Postiglione, “The A.D. 472 Eruption of the Somma Volcano,” Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 129 (2004): 291–319; Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone and Ben Russell, “The Late-Antique Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 472 and Its Impact from the Bay of Naples to Aeclanum,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 32 (2019): 359–88.

3.

Marcello Rotili, “Città e territorio in Campania,” in Le città campane fra Tarda Antichità e Alto Medioevo, ed. Giovanni Vitolo (Salerno: Laveglia, 2005), 30–60; Marcello Rotili, “Forme e funzioni dello spazio urbano in Campania nella Tarda Antichità,” Hortus artium medievalium 23, no. 2 (2017): 708–28.

4.

Even though today it is in the modern regione of Campania, it has been argued that Aeclanum was always part of Apulia et Calabria: Guido Clemente, “Due note sulla storia della diocesi italiciana nel IV secolo,” Athenaeum 53 (1965): 355–68; Francesco Grelle and Giuliano Volpe, “La geografia amministrativa ed economica della Puglia tardoantica,” in Culto e insediamenti micaelici nell’Italia meridionale fra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo: Atti del Convegno internazionale, Monte Sant’Angelo 18–21 novembre 1992, ed. Carlo Carletti and Giorgio Otranto (Bari: Edipuglia, 1994), 15–81; Giuliano Volpe, Contadini, pastori e mercanti nell’Apulia tardoantica (Bari: Edipuglia, 1996), 25–37; Eliodoro Savino, Campania tardoantica (284–604 d.C.) (Bari: Edipuglia, 2005), 18–26.

5.

On Julian, see Josef Lössl, Julian von Aeclanum: Studien zu seinem Leben, seinem Werk, seiner Lehre und ihrer Überlieferung (Leiden: Brill, 2001).

6.

On the earthquake and eruption, De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption”; on the necropolis, Sandra Lo Pilato, “La necropolis tardoantica e l’insediamento altomedievale di Via San Michele a Mirabella Eclano (AV),” Archeologia medievale 32 (2005): 145–56; Sandra Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione dell’insediamento di Aeclanum: Considerazioni,” in Paesaggi e insediamenti urbani in Italia meridionale fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo, ed. Giuliano Volpe and Roberta Guiliani (Bari: Edipuglia, 2010), 349–65 at 349–50, 356–58; Chiara Lambert et al., “La necropoli di San Michele ad Aeclanum: Archeologia funeraria e studi paleonutrizionali,” in Atti del VII Congresso nazionale di archeologia medievale (SAMI), ed. Paul Arthur and Marco Leo Imperiale (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2015), 121–25.

7.

Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 351; see also Marcello Rotili and Carlo Ebanista, “Frigento e il suo territorio fra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo: Fonti scritte e testimonianze archeologiche,” in San Marcino: Primo vescovo di Frigento tra storia e fede, ed. Andrea Famiglietti (Frigento: Tipolitoelle, 2018), 47–86 at 54.

8.

Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 351; Giuliano Volpe and Roberto Groffredo, “Reflections on Late Antique Cities in Apulia et Calabria and in Southern Italy,” in Urban Transformations in the Late Antique West: Materials, Agents, and Models, ed. A. Carneiro, N. Christie, and P. Diarte-Blasco (Coimbra: Imprensa da universidade de Coimbra, 2020), 61–88 at 66.

9.

A fuller picture will be provided in due course by a detailed assessment of the animal bone, charcoal, archaeobotanical and small-finds assemblages from the site, all of which are still being processed.

10.

On Capua, Stefano De Caro, “Dati recenti sul Tardoantico nella Campania settentrionale,” in L’Italia meridionale in età Tardo Antica, ed. Stefania Ceccoli and Attilio Stazio (Napoli: Istituto per la storia e l’archeologia della Magna Grecia, 1999), 223–42; Savino, Campania tardoantica, 207–11; Francesco Sirano, “Capua tardoantica: Nuovi dati dall’attività di tutela del patrimonio archeologico,” in Territorio, insediamenti e necropoli fra Tarda Antichità e Alto Medioevo, ed. Carlo Ebanista and Marcello Rotili (Napoli: Rogiosi, 2016), 131–56.

11.

Domenico Camardo, Vittoria Carsana, and Amedeo Rossi, “Suessula (NA) tra Tardoantico e Medioevo,” in III Congresso nazionale di archeologia medievale, ed. Rosa Fiorillo and Paolo Peduto (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2003), 362–370 at 362; Savino, Campania tardoantica, 211; Domenico Camardo and Amedeo Rossi, “Suessula: Trasformazione e fine di una città,” in Vitolo, Le città campane, 167–92 at 170–71.

12.

Codex Theodosianus 11.28.2 (for English translation see Clyde Pharr, The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions [New Haven: Princeton University Press, 1952]).

13.

Codex Theodosianus 11.28.7, 11.28.12.

14.

Gregory the Great, Dialogues 3.1 (for English translation, see Odo J. Zimmerman, Saint Gregory the Great: Dialogues [Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1959]); Paul the Deacon, Roman History 14.18 (for English translation, see William D. Foulke, The History of the Langobards by Paul the Deacon [New York: Longman, Green and Co., 1906]); see Rotili, “Forme e funzioni,” 714.

15.

Paulinus of Nola, Poems 20.312–7.18 (for English translation, see P. G. Walsh, The Poems of St. Paulinus of Nola [New York: Newman Press, 1975]).

16.

Carlo Ebanista, Et manet in mediis quasi gemma intersita tectis: La basilica di S. Felice a Cimitile. Stora degli scavi, fasi edilizie, reperti (Naples: Arte tipografica, 2003), 145, 566.

17.

Mario Cesarano, “Nuovi dati sull’insediamento nel territorio nolano fra Tarde Antichità e Alto Medioevo,” in Il Mediterraneo fra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo: Integrazione di culture, interscambi, pellegrinaggi, ed. Carlo Ebanista and Marcello Rotili (San Vitaliano: Tavolario edizioni, 2018), 9–44 at 11–14.

18.

Teresa Elena Cinquantaquattro, “Sulle tracce di Maio Vestirikio: L’edilizia pubblica C.E. Abella tra la tarda età repubblicana e l’età imperiale,” in “Kithon Lydios”: Studi di storia e archeologia con Giovanna Greco (Quaderni del Centro studi Magna Graecia, 22), ed. L. Cicala and B. Ferrara (Naples: Naus, 2017), 769–84 at 776.

19.

Gabriella Colucci Pescatori, “Osservazioni su Abellinum tardo-antica e sull’eruzione del 472 d.C.,” in Tremblements de terre, éruptions volcaniques et vie des hommes dans la Campanie antique, ed. C. Albore Livadie (Naples: Centre Jean Bérard, 1986), 121–41 at 126, 127–32.

20.

Giuliana Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica nelle provincie di Salerno, Avellino e Benevento,” in L’Italia meridionale in età tardoantica: Atti del XXXIV convegno di studi sulla Magna Graecia. Taranto, 2–6 ottobre 1998 (Naples: Arte tipografica, 1999), 243–66 at 248.

21.

See Gabriella Colucci Pescatori, “Per una storia archeologica dell’Irpinia: Dall’istituzione del Museo Irpino alle ricerche del secolo scorso,” in Appellati nomine lupi: Giornata internazionale di studi sull’Hirpinia et gli Hirpini, Napoli, 28 febbraio 2014, ed. V. Franciosi et al. (Naples: Università degli studi suor Orsola Benincasa, 2017), 131–206 at 169–70 with earlier bibliography.

22.

Marina Torelli, Benevento Romana (Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2002), 271–77.

23.

Symmachus, Letters I, 3, 3–4 (for English translation, Michele R. Salzman and Michael Robert, The Letters of Symmachus: Book I [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011]); see Gianluca Soricelli, “La provincia del Samnium e il terremoto del 346 d.C.,” in Interventi imperiali in campo economico e sociale: Da Augusto al Tardoantico, ed. Alfredina Storchi Marino and Giovanna Daniela Merola (Bari: Edipuglia, 2009), 245–62 at 249–50.

24.

Rotili, “Città e territorio,” 44–46; Marcello Rotili, Silvana Rapuano, and Maria Raffaella Cataldo, “Nuovi dati su Benevento nella Tarda Antichità,” in Volpe and Giuliani, Paesaggi e insediamenti urbani, 309–28 at 309–14.

25.

Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (herafter CIL) IX, 2338, 2638, 6429. On these individuals, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire I, Maximus 35, Iustinianus 3; see also Bryan Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, A.D. 300–850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 25; Soricelli, “La provincia,” 251–54.

26.

Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica,” 247; Gabriella Colucci Pescatori, “Città e centri demici dell’Hirpinia: Abellinum, Aeclanum, Aequum Tuticum, Compsa,” in Vitolo, Le città campane, 283–311 at 284. On the site more generally, Giovina Caldarola et al., “Reading an Ancient Vicus with Non-Invasive Techniques: Integrated Terrestrial, Aerial and Geophysical Surveys at Aequum Tuticum (Ariano Ipino-Av),” Archaeologia Polona 53 (2015), 263–67.

27.

Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica,” 252; Colucci Pescatori, “Città e centri,” 293–95.

28.

On the site, Maria Luisa Marchi, “Venosa: Nuovi dati sulla frequentazione tardoantica dell’area della SS. Trinità a Venosa,” in Volpe and Giuliani, Paesaggi e insediamenti urbani, 201–18 at 2–3, 9–11.

29.

Marchi, “Venosa,” 13; Maria Luisa Marchi and Mariarosaria Salvatore, Venosa: Forma e urbanistica (Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1997), 101–3.

30.

On the site in this period, Giuliano Volpe, “Città apule fra destrutturazione e trasformazione: I casi di Canusium ed Herdonia,” in La città italiane tra la Tarda Antichità e l’Alto Medioevo, ed. Andrea Augenti (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2006), 559–87 at 562–64; Volpe and Goffredo, “Reflections,” 66.

31.

Roberta Giuliani, “Modificazioni dei quadri urbani e formazione di nuovi modelli di edilizia abitativa nelle città dell’Apulia tardoantica: Il contributo delle tecniche costruttive,” in Volpe and Giuliani, Paesaggi e insediamenti urbani, 129–66 at 137–38.

32.

Danilo Leone, Anita Rocco, and Antonietta Buglione, “Dalle terme alle capanne: Herdonia tra fine V e VII secolo d.C.,” in Atti del V Congresso nazionale di archeologia medievale, ed. Giuliano Volpe and P. Favia (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2009), 83–92.

33.

On this point, Volpe and Goffredo, “Reflections,” 68.

34.

Giovanni Oscar Onorato, La ricerca archeologica in Irpinia (Avellino: Amministrazione provinciale, 1960); Gabriella Colucci Pescatori and Vincenzo Di Giovanni, Aeclanum (Avellino: Sellino and Barra, 1999); also Immacolata Ditaranto, “Aerotopografia e fotogrammetria finalizzata per la carta archeologica di Aeclanum,” Archeologia aerea 7 (2013): 53–64.

35.

On the finds, see Antonio Mesisca, Lorenzo Lazzarini, and Monica Salvadori, “Studio ed analisi archeometrica degli elementi marmorei ritrovati nel ninfeo romano di Aeclanum (Mirabella Eclano, Avellino, Italia), Marmora 9 (2013): 73–85; Antonio Mesisca, “I marmi colorati ritrovati nello scavo del ninfeo, ed erratici, a Aeclanum (Mirabella Eclano, Avellino, Italia),” Marmora 11 (2015): 93–100; on the identification as a theater, see Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone and Ben Russell, “New Work at Aeclanum (Comune di Mirabella Eclano, Provincia di Avellino, Regione Campania),” Papers of the British School at Rome 86 (2018): 298–301.

36.

Lo Pilato, “La necropolis”; Sandra Lo Pilato, “Il territorio di Aeclanum in età tardantica ed altomedievale,” in Mons. Nicola Gambino (1921–2000): Sacerdote e storico dell’Irpinia antica nel ricordo di amici ed estimatori, ed. G. Passaro (Grottaminarda: Delta 3 Edizioni, 2013), 59–96; Lambert et al., “La necropoli”; on the territory, Immacolata Ditaranto, “Ancient Topography of the Mid Calore Valley: The City of Aeclanum and Its Territory,” in Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research in Landscape Archaeology, ed. Gert-Jan Burgers et al. (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 2016), https://dx.doi.org/10.5463/lac.2014.36.

37.

For a summary of the excavations, see De Simone and Russell, “New Work at Aeclanum”; Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone and Ben Russell, “Excavation and Survey at Aeclanum in 2018 (Comune di Mirabella Eclano, Provincia di Avellino, Regione Campania),” Papers of the British School at Rome 87 (2019): 336–40; Ben Russell and Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, “New Excavations in the Central and Southern Sectors of Aeclanum in 2019 (Comune di Mirabella Eclano, Provincia di Avellino, Regione Campania),” Papers of the British School at Rome 88 (2020): 368–73. On the geophysics, see Guglielmo Strapazzon, Ben Russell, and Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, “Integrating GPR and Excavation at Roman Aeclanum (Avellino, Italy),” in AP2017: 12th International Conference of Archaeological Prospection, ed. Benjamin Jennings et al. (Oxford: Oxbow, 2017), 242–44.

38.

De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption,” 378–83.

39.

Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica,” 250; Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 352.

40.

Di Giovanni “Aeclanum romana,” 241–50; Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 353–56; Colucci Pescatori, “Città e centri”; Colucci Pescatori, “Per una storia,” 172–74.

41.

On urban housing elsewhere in Apulia et Calabria, Giuliani, “Modificazioni”; Roberta Giuliani, “Edilizia residenziale e spazi del lavoro e della produzione nelle città di Puglia e Basilicata fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo: Riflessioni a partire da alcuni casi di studio,” in La villa restaurata e i nuovi studi sull’edilizia residenziale tardoantica (Bari: Edipuglia, 2014), 349–66.

42.

Onorato, La ricerca archeologica, 28; Vincenzo Di Giovanni, “Aeclanum romana: Le evidenze archeologiche,” Irpinia Antica (1996): 241–56 at 241–50; Russell and De Simone, “New Excavations,” 369 fig. 1, 370–71.

43.

Colucci Pescatori and Di Giovanni, Aeclanum, 32–33.

44.

Di Giovanni “Aeclanum romana,” 241–50; Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 353–56; Colucci Pescatori, “Per una storia,” 172–74.

45.

Russell and De Simone, “New Excavations.”

46.

Russell and De Simone, “New Excavations.”

47.

On the Ostian domus of Late Antiquity, Giovanni Becatti, Case ostiensi del tardo impero (Rome: Libreria dello stato, 1948); Carlo Pavolini, “L’edilizia commerciale e l’edilizia abitativa nel contest di Ostia tardoantica,” in Società romana e impero tardoantico. Roma: Politica, economia, paesaggio urbano, ed. Andrea Giardina (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1986), 239–83; Douglas Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 66–68; also Douglas Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins: Public Buildings in the Cities of the Late Antique West, A.D. 300–600 (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 23.

48.

Giuliano Volpe, “Architecture and Church Power in Late Antiquity: Canosa and San Giusto (Apulia),” in Housing in Late Antiquity: From Palaces to Shops, ed. Luke Lavan, Lale Özgenel, and Alexander Sarantis, Late Antique Archaeology 3.2 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 131–68 at 145–47.

49.

Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 352. On episcopia in Italy, see Yuri A. Marano, “Domus in Qua Manebat Episcopus: Episcopal Residences in Northern Italy during Late Antiquity (4th to 6th c. A.D.),” in Lavan et al., Housing in Late Antiquity, 97–130.

50.

On these statues, see Alessandra Avagliano, “La scultura romana di Aeclanum: Un primo bilancio,” in Studi sull’Irpinia antica, ed. Amedeo Visconti and Massimiliano Lanzillo (Naples: Tiotinx Edizioni, 2021), 329–64.

51.

De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption,” 380–81. This volcanic deposit, like all others on the site, was analyzed by Claudio Scarpati (Dipt. di scienze della terra, dell’ambiente e delle risorse, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II).

52.

Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins, 30–89. Maréchal’s detailed new study of baths in Late Antiquity provides numerous parallels for such investment in Rome and Ostia, though it does not consider many sites from further south in Italy (see Sadi Maréchal, Public Baths and Bathing Habits in Late Antiquity: A Study of the Evidence from Italy, North Africa and Palestine A.D. 285–700 [Leiden: Brill, 2020], 91–138).

53.

Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 20–27; Soricelli, “La provincia,” 251–54; Neil Christie, From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy AD 300–800 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2006), 199; Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins, 39–41 fig. 19. For further inscriptions mentioning interventions in baths, see Maréchal, Public Baths, 227–34.

54.

Codex Theodosianus 15.1.32. See also Codex Theodosianus 15.1.18.

55.

Leone et al., “Dalle terme”; Volpe and Goffredo, “Reflections,” 66.

56.

Marchi, “Venosa,” 2.

57.

Colucci Pescatori, “Osservazioni,” 126.

58.

Colucci Pescatori, “Per una storia,” 174. On these finds, Mesisca et al., “Studio ed analisi”; Mesisca, “I marmi colorati”; Alessandra Avagliano, “Ricontestualizzare la scultura romana in una città dell’Irpinia: Un loricato e alter statue onorarie da Aeclanum,” Archäologischer anzeiger 2 (2017): 99–121.

59.

De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption,” 23–25.

60.

Simon P. Ellis, “The End of the Roman House,” American Journal of Archaeology 92, no. 4 (1988): 565–76 at 567; see also Enrico Zanini, “Artisans and Traders in the Early Byzantine City: Exploring the Limits of Archaeological Evidence,” in Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity, ed. William Bowden, Adam Gutteridge, and Carlos Machado, Late Antique Archaeology 3.1 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 373–411 at 399; Inge Uytterhoeven, “Housing in Late Antiquity: Thematic Perspectives,” in Lavan et al., Housing in Late Antiquity, 25–66 at 45–47.

61.

On similar refunctionalization at Herdonia, Volpe and Goffredo, “Reflections,” 66.

62.

On the structures around the circus at Arelate, see Claude Sintès, “La reutilization des espaces publics à Arles: In témoinage de la fin de l’antiquité,” Antiquité tardive 2 (1994): 181–92 at 185; Marc Heijmans, Arles durant l’Antiquité tardive: De la duplex Arelas à l’urbs Genesii (Rome: École française de Rome, 2004), 239. On theaters in Late Antiquity and evidence for their continued function, see Alexander Puk, Das römische Spielewesen in der Spätantike (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014).

63.

Claire De Ruyt, Macellum: Marché alimentaire des romains (Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, 1983).

64.

Onorato, La ricerca archeologica, 28; Lucia Lombardo, “Aeclanum,” in Locri Epizefirii: Taranto 1976, 16o Convegno di studi sulla Magna Graecia (Naples: Arte tipografica, 1977), 813–16 at 814; Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica,” 251.

65.

De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption,” 26; Vincenzo Castaldo, Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, and Ben Russell, “Sea or Land? Trade from the Coast to the Fringes of Campania,” in LRCW 6: Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry. Land and Sea Pottery Routes, Volume 1, ed. Valentina Caminneci, Enrico Giannitrapani, Maria Concetta Parello, and Maria Serena Rizzo, Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery 19 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2023), 90–102.

66.

Russell and De Simone, “New Excavations,” 369–70.

67.

On butchers’ premises, see Toon Putzeys and Luke Lavan, “Commercial Space in Late Antiquity,” in Objects in Context, Objects in Use: Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity, ed. Luke Lavan, Ellen Swift, and Toon Putzeys, Late Antique Archaeology 5 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 373–411.

68.

Alfonso Mammato, Ben Russell, and Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, “Late Antique Coin Circulation in a Changing Cityscape: The Case of Aeclanum (Campania, Italy)”, Antiquité Tardive 31 (2023): 245–249.

69.

On this shift from single to multiple functions in Late Antiquity, Luke Lavan, “Late Antique Urban Topography: From Architecture to Human Space,” in Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology, Late Antique Archaeology 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 171–95 at 180.

70.

De Simone and Russell, “Late-Antique Eruption,” 25.

71.

CIL IX, 2638 = Inscriptiones latinae selectae (hereafter ILS) 5588; Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 20, 26.

72.

De Simone and Russell, “New Work at Aeclanum,” 300.

73.

Russell and De Simone, “New Excavations,” 371–72.

74.

Tocco Sciarelli, “L’età tardoantica.”

75.

On the evidence for abandonment, Timothy W. Potter, Towns in Late Antiquity (Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 1995). On Toulouse, Marc Heijmans, “Les habitations urbaines en Gaule méridionale durant l’Antiquité tardive,” Gallia 63 (2006): 47–57 at 28.

76.

On new fora, and new building in old ones, see Luke Lavan, Public Space in the Late Antique City, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 265–73.

77.

CIL V, 7781 (Albingaunum); Liber Pontificalis 1.186 (Neapolis) (for English translation, see Louise Ropes Loomis, The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) I: To the Pontificate of Gregory I (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916).

78.

Luke Lavan, “The Political Topography of the Late Antique City: Activity Spaces in Practice,” in Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology, Late Antique Archaeology 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 314–37 at 317–18.

79.

Simon T. Loseby, “Arles in Late Antiquity: Gallula Roma Arelas and Urbs Genesii,” in Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, ed. Neil Christie and Simon T. Loseby (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996), 45–70 at 55; Simon T. Loseby, “Forum Complexes and Città ad Isole in Late Antique Gaul: Possibilities and Problems,” in Carneiro et al., Urban Transformations, 89–131 at 108–9; Lavan, “Political Topography,” 318.

80.

ARS production has been subdivided on the base of fabric features, place of production, and chronology into wares A, A/D, C, C/E, D and E, each with a different chronological range. For the main discussion of these wares, see John Hayes, Late Roman Pottery (London: British School at Rome, 1972), 1–200; Andrea Carandini et al., Atlante I: Atlante delle forme ceramiche, vol. 1, Ceramica fine romana nel bacino mediterraneo (medio e tardo impero), Enciclopedia dell’arte antica Classica e Orientale (Roma: Treccani, 1981), 9–208; Michel Bonifay, Etudes sur la céramique romaine tardive d’Afrique (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004).

81.

On marble imports at Aeclanum, see Martina Astolfi, Ben Russell, Philip Harrison, Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, and Antonio Mesisca, “Marble at Aeclanum (Italy): New Evidence from Three Public Buildings,” in ASMOSIA XII: Proceedings of the XII Asmosia International Conference, Izmir 2018, ed. Ali Bahadır Yavuz, Burak Yolaçan, and Matthias Bruno (Izmir: Dokuz Eylül University Publications, 2023), 175–83.

82.

On ACW, Victoria Leitch, “Reconstructing History through Pottery: The Contribution of Roman N African Cookwares,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 26 (2013): 281–306; Bonifay, Etudes, 66–71; Hayes, Late Roman Pottery, 200–11, types 181–200; Carandini et al., Atlante I, 208–24.

83.

On ARS A, its date and place of production, Carandini et al., Atlante I, 19–23; José Carlos Quaresma, “Chronologie final de la sigillée africaine A à partir des contextes de Chãos Salgados (Mirobriga?): Différences chronologiques entre l’Orient et l’Occident de l’Empire Romain,” in LRFW 1: Late Roman Fine Wares. Solving Problems of Typology and Chronology, ed. Miguel Ángel Cau, Paul Reynolds, and Michel Bonifay (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011), 67–85; Paul Reynolds, Trade in the Western Mediterranean, AD 400–700: The Ceramic Evidence, BAR International Series 604 (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1996), fig. 2, 3a–b. On ARS A/D, Carandini et al., Atlante I, 52–53; Bonifay, Etudes, 50–51.

84.

On ARS C, Carandini et al., Atlante I, 58–59; Bonifay, Etudes, 50–51.

85.

On ARS D, Stefano Tortorella, “La ceramica fine da mensa africana dal IV al VII secolo d.C.,” in Società romana ed impero tardoantico: Le merci, gli insediamenti III (Rome: Laterza, 1986), 211–25 at 211–12. Carandini et al., Atlante I, 78–79.

86.

Bonifay, Etudes, 167–73, fig. 90–92.

87.

On the chronology of these types, see Hayes, Late Roman Pottery, 152–55, fig. 28; Bonifay, Etudes, 180, 181–83, fig. 96, type 55, fig. 97, type 56/A1, n1.

88.

Paul Arthur, Il complesso archeologico di Carminiello ai Mannesi, Napoli (scavi 1983–1984) (Galatina: Congedo, 1994), 181–220.

89.

Caterina Serena Martucci, Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, and Vincenzo Castaldo, “Produzione e circolazione ceramica in area vesuvina: La villa con terme di Pollena Trocchia,” in Fecisti Cretaria, ed. Massimo Osanna and Luana Toniolo (Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2020), 367–76.

90.

Paul Arthur and Gianluca Soricelli, “Produzione e circolazione della ceramica tra Campania settentrionale e area vesuviana in età tardoantica (IV–VI secolo),” in Insediamenti e cultura materiale fra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo, ed. Nicola Busino and Marcello Rotili (San Vitaliano: Tavolario, 2015), 141–57.

91.

Paul Arthur, Carlo De Mitri, and Erminia Lapadula, “Nuovi appunti sulla circulazione della ceramica nella Puglia meridionale tra Tarda Antichità ed Altomedioevo,” in La circolazione delle ceramiche nell’Adriatico tra Tarda Antichità e Altomedioevo, ed. Sauro Gelichi and Claudio Negrelli (Mantua: SAP, 2007), 331–42; Joann Freed, “Pottery from the Late Middens at San Giovanni,” in Lo scavo di S. Giovanni di Ruoti ed il periodo tardoantico in Basilicata, ed. M. Gualtieri, M. Salvatore and A. Small (Bari: Adratica Editrice, 1983), 91–106; Helga Di Giuseppe, “La fornace di Calle d Tricarico: Produzione e diffusione,” in Ceramica in Italia: VI–VII secolo, ed. Lucia Saguì (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 1998), 735–75.

92.

On the similar fabrics from the Masseria Grasso at Beneventum, see Chiara Germinario et al., “The Combined Use of Spectroscopic Techniques for the Characterisation of Late Roman Common Wares from Benevento (Italy),” Measurement 114 (2018): 515–25.

93.

Castaldo et al., “Sea or Land.”

94.

This type is attested also at Beneventum (Germinario et al., “Combined Use,” fig. 2d, type BNC21), Pratola Serra (Paolo Peduto, S. Giovanni di Pratola Serra: Archeologia e storia nel ducato longobardo di Benevento, Fonti archeologiche per la storia del Mezzogiorno 1 [Salerno: Laveglia, 1992], 179–180, table 57, nn68–72), and Herdonia (Caterina Annese, “Le ceramiche tardo antiche della domus B,” in Ordona X: Ricerche archeologiche a Herdonia (1993–1998), ed. Giuliano Volpe [Bari: Edipuglia, 2000], 330–31, table 20, n17.3; Maria Turchiano, “La cisterna e il suo contesto: Materiali tardoantiche dalla domus B,” in Volpe, Ordona X, 343–73 at 365, 372, table 10, n17.7).

95.

Vincenzo Di Giovanni, “Produzione e consumo di ceramica da cucina nella Campania romana (II a.C.–II d.C.),” in Les céramiques communes de Campanie et de Narbonnaise (I s. Av. J.–C. II s. Ap. J.–C.): La vaiselle de cuisine et de table, ed. Michel Bats, Collection du Centre Jean Bérard 14 (Naples: Centre Jean Bérard, 1996), 65–103.

96.

This type of cooking pot is attested in Campania at Taurasi (identified by the author but currently unpublished), Pratola Serra (Peduto, S. Giovanni di Pratola Serra, 182, table 57, n88, nn90–91), and Nola (Castaldo et al., “Sea or Land,” fig. 4, n5). It is also attested in Apulia: Annese, 2000, 322–23, table 17–18, type 9; Danilo Leone, “Le ceramiche tardoantiche della Fattoria di Posta Crusta,” in Volpe, Ordona X, 414, 417, table 12, type 5.

97.

On local imitations of ACW types in Campania, Vincenzo Castaldo, “From North Africa to Campania: Trade and Local Imitations of African Cooking Ware. An Overview and New Data from the North-Vesuvian Territory,” in Rei cretariae romanae fautorum: Acta 46 (Bonn: Habelt, 2020), 179–88.

98.

The type Carminiello 12 is present at Neapolis (Arthur, Il complesso archeologico, 230–32, fig. 108–9), at Pollena Trocchia (Martucci et al., “Produzione e circolazione,” 365, fig. 7, nn2–3), Somma Vesuviana (Masanori Aoyagi, Tomoo Mukai, and Cohe Sugiyama, “Céramique de l’Antiquité tardive d’un site vesuvien de Somma Vesuviana, Italy, in LRCW 2: Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean. Archaeology and Archaeometry, ed. Michel Bonifay and Jean-Christophe Tréglia (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007), 439–50 at 447, fig. 5, nn27–28), and at Nola (Castaldo et al., “Sea or Land,” fig. b4, n4).

99.

Turchiano, “La cisterna,” 363, 368, table 8, type 12–13.

100.

On the imitation of ARS in Italy, Michel Bonifay, “Céramique africaine et imitations: Où, quand, pourquoi?,” in As producões cerâmicas de imitação na Hispania, ed. R. Morais, A. Fernandez, and M. J. Sousa, t. 1 (Porto: Monografias ex officina Hespana, 2014), 75–91; Arthur and Soricelli, “Produzione e circolazione”; Simonetta Menchelli et al., “Vasi comuni nell'Etruria settentrionale costiera,” in Les céramiques communes comprises dans leur contexte régional, ed. Cécile Batigne Vallet (Lyon: Publications de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, 2012), 87–111; Di Giuseppe, “La fornace”; Caterina Serena Martucci, Vincenzo Castaldo, and Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, “ARS and Local Wares from a Late Antique Site in the Bay of Naples: Import, Imitation, and Market Segments,” in Rei cretariae romanae fautorum: Acta 45 (Bonn: Habelt, 2018), 361–71.

101.

Fragments of casseroles in RBCBW are currently unpublished; on burnish amphorae from the area of Aeclanum, Caterina Serena Martucci, Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone, and Serena D’Italia, “Local Productions around Vesuvius: Trade Patterns and Identity,” in Rei cretariae romanae fautorum: Acta 43 (Bonn: Habelt, 2014), 433–42 at 436, 439, fig. 4, n15.

102.

Castaldo et al., “Sea or Land,” fig. 4, n2; Gianluca Scrima and Maria Turchiano, “Le ceramiche dei magazzini dell’abitato altomedievale di Faragola (Ascoli Satriano, FG), Tipologie, funzioni e significato sociale,” in VI Congresso nazionale di archeologia medievale, L’Aquila, 12–15 settembre 2012, ed. Fabio Redi and Alfonso Forgione (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2012), 601–6 at 601–3, table 1, n17.

103.

John H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 121–36; Lavan, “Late Antique Urban Topography”; Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 669, 672–73; Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins, 12–13; Neil Christie, “From Royalty to Refugees: Looking for the People in Reconstructing Urban Change in Late Antique Italy,” in Carneiro et al., Urban Transformations, 323–49 at 331–32.

104.

On this topic, see Silvia Evangelisti, “Regio II: Apulia et Calabria. Aeclanum. Ager inter Compsam et Aeclanum,” in Supplementa Italica, n.s. 29 (Rome: Edizioni Quasar), 37–251, esp. 48–50 (hereafter SupIt 29).

105.

On the fact that inscriptions cannot offer a full picture of the demography of a local community but only of those sectors of society that chose to adopt the medium, see Ramsay MacMullen, “The Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire,” American Journal of Philology 103 (1982): 233–46, and Elizabeth A. Meyer, “Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire,” Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990): 74–96.

106.

Elements considered include changes in the formulas, most notably in funerary monuments; changes in the onomastics of individuals mentioned (see Benet Salway, “What’s in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700,” Journal of Roman Studies 84 [1994]: 124–45); diachronic changes in the Latin employed, and especially in the phonology, albeit acknowledging that changes in Latin are also subject to a degree of synchronic variation (Peter Kruschwitz, “Linguistic Variation, Language Change, and Latin Inscriptions,” in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, ed. Christer Bruun and Jonathan Edmonson [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015], 721–43). At Aeclanum the physical aspects of the material support cannot always help to date the evidence, though epitaphs inscribed on cupae can usually be dated to the late second or third century (Eleonora Romanò, “Le tombe ‘a cupa’ in Italia e nel mediterraneo: Tipologia architettonica, committenza e rituale,” Studi Classici e Orientali 52 [2006]: 149–219).

107.

Figure 17 does not claim to be exhaustive. Not all inscriptions can be dated, and some can only be tentatively dated to a timeframe wider than a century—as a result, these documents have been excluded from the chart. However, we are confident that this chart captures faithfully the general scope of the typological distribution of datable inscriptions from Aeclanum.

108.

SupIt 29, AE 11.

109.

CIL IX, 1191.

110.

Two sacred inscriptions (both dedicated to Hercules) might also belong to this period: CIL IX, 1095, 1096.

111.

On the topic, see Christian Lucas, “Notes on the Curatores rei Publicae of Roman Africa,” Journal of Roman Studies 30 (1940): 56–74; Robert Duthoy, “Curatores rei publicae en Occidant durant le Principat,” Ancient Society 10 (1979): 171–238, esp. 237–38; Maria Grazia Granino Cecere, ed., Le curae cittadine nell’Italia Romana: Atti del Covegno (siena 18–19 aprile 2016) (Roma: Quasar, 2017).

112.

Lucas, “Notes on the Curatores,” esp. 64–72; Giuseppe Camodeca, “Curatores rei publicae I,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 35 (1979): 225–36.

113.

See CIL III, 1456, 10471; CIL VI 41224.

114.

CIL IX, 1151.

115.

On the role that the desire to leave a record of social prominence played in the decision to set up inscriptions, Francisco Beltrán Lloris, “The ‘Epigraphic Habit’ in the Roman World,” in Bruun and Edmonson, Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 131–48.

116.

CIL IX, 1115, 1116, 1117, 1127. There are three miliaria from the city’s territory, all inscribed when Diocletian and Maximian where joint Augusti: Année epigraphique (hereafter AE) 2013, 328; CIL IX, 6071, 6387. On milestones as a medium for demonstrating political allegiance, Eberhard Sauer, “Milestones and Instability (Mid-Third to Early Fourth Centuries C.E.),” Ancient Society 44 (2014): 257–305.

117.

CIL IX, 1114.

118.

CIL IX 1362.

119.

Fabio Caruso, “Forme dell'evergetismo tardoantico: Un patrono di Eclano (CIL IX 1128 = ILS 5506),” in Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali in Italia meridionale fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo, ed. Giuliano Volpe and Maria Turchiano (Bari: Edipuglia, 2005), 477–86; Marcella Chelotti, “Il controllo dei decurioni sullo spazio pubblico in due città della Regio Secunda Augustea,” Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 17 (2006): 143–51.

120.

For reference: AE 1994, 535 (res publica municipium Aeclanensium); CIL IX, 1151, 1156 (colonia Aeclanensium).

121.

AE 2005, 424.

122.

CIL IX, 1379, 1383, 1389; SupIt 29, AE 95, AE 97.

123.

CIL IX, 1393, 1385, 1395, 1381, 1069, 1377.

124.

Chiara Lambert, Studi di epigrafia tardoantica e medievale in Campania, vol. 1, Secoli IV. VII. (Florence: All’insegna del giglio, 2008), 134.

125.

With one exception from Capua, discussed ahead.

126.

At Capua, only twenty-one inscriptions can be dated with reasonable certainty to the third century. Of these, only two are imperial (CIL X, 6876, and CIL XI, 3836); three tituli honorarii (AE 1964, 223, CIL X, 3856, and CIL X, 3850). The rest are epitaphs.

127.

At Capua, thirty-six inscriptions can be dated to the fourth century. The majority are funerary (with some early Christian epitaphs), but there are a few tituli honorarii dedicated to individuals of senatorial rank, usually patroni (CIL X, 3844; AE 1972, 76), or curatores (CIL X, 3846; AE 1973, 136). There are also four statue bases commissioned by three governors of Campania: CIL X, 3858, 3866; AE 1972, 77; AE 1978, 114. At Nola only fifteen inscriptions can be dated with reasonable certainty to the fourth century. Of these, four are Christian or likely Christian (Carlo Ebanista, La tomba di S. Felice nel santuario di Cimitile a cinquant'anni dalla scoperta [Marigliano: LER, 2006], at 68; Heikki Solin, “Il patrimonio epigrafico cristiano di Cimitile: Alcune considerazioni,” in Il complesso basilicale di Cimitile, ed. Mario De Matteis and Carlo Ebanista [Naples: Arte tipografica, 2008], 99–127 at 115; CIL X, 1338; Lambert, Studi di epigrafia tardoantica, 32). The rest of the inscribed documents are honorific and dedicated to emperors (Constantine, CIL X, 1245; two miliaria, one of Maxentius, CIL X, 6952, and the other of Julian, CIL X, 6053), the local governor (CIL X, 1254), or the patroni of the colonia, especially Pollius Iulius Clementianus, who was honored with four distinct statue bases (CIL X, 1255, 1256, 1257; AE 2015, 344), and celebrated with a ceremonious language that echoes that of the inscription of Mannachius from Aeclanum.

128.

CIL X, 1365, 4528.

129.

On this point, Rotili and Ebanista, “Frigento e il suo territorio,” 53.

130.

On the distinction between cities as political and economic entities and their physical remains, see Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins, 3.

131.

On public structures meeting public needs, see Underwood, (Re)Using Ruins, 3.

132.

Volpe and Goffredo, “Reflections,” 66.

133.

Giuliani, “Modificazioni,” 160.

134.

Loseby, “Arles,” 54.

135.

On this point, Helen Saradi, “Privatization and Sub-Division of Urban Properties in the Early Byzantien Centuries: Social and Cultural Implications,” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 35, no. 1/2 (1998): 17–43.

136.

Steve Roskams, “The Urban Poor: Finding the Marginalised,” in Bowden et al., Social and Political Life, 487–532 at 489.

137.

Zanini, “Artisans,” 402–3.

138.

Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 351–52, 353–56 fig. 7; Sandra Lo Pilato, “Il territorio di Aeclanum in età tardantica ed altomedievale,” in Mons. Nicola Gambino (1921–2000): Sacerdote e storico dell’Irpinia antica nel ricordo di amici ed estimatori, ed. Gennaro Passaro (Grottaminarda: Delta 3 Edizioni, 2013), 59–96; Di Giovanni, “Aeclanum romana,” 241–50; Colucci Pescatori, “Città e centri,” 291; Gabriella Colucci Pescatori, “Per una storia archeologica dell’Irpinia: Dall’istituzione del Museo Irpino alle ricerche del secolo scorso,” in Appellati nomine lupi: Giornata internazionale di studi sull’Hirpinia et gli Hirpini, Napoli, 28 febbraio 2014, ed. Vincenzo Franciosi, Amedeo Visconti, Alessandra Avagliano, and Vittorio Saldutti (Naples: Università degli studi suor Orsola Benincasa, 2017), 131–206.

139.

Volpe, “Architecture and Church Power,” 149–50, with further bibliography.

140.

On this point, see Nicolas Beaudry and Pascale Chevalier, “Les espaces domestiques et économiques du groupe episcopal protobyzantin de Byllis (Albanie),” in Archaeology of a World of Changes: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Architecture, Sculpture and Landscapes. In Memoriam Claudiae Barsanti, ed. Dominic Moreau et al., BAR International Series 2973 (Oxford: BAR, 2020), 201–18.

141.

Lo Pilato, “La necropolis”; Lo Pilato, “Organizzazione e destrutturazione,” 349–50, 356–58.

142.

Rotili and Ebanista, “Frigento,” 54, with additional bibliography.

143.

Colucci Pescatori, “Città e centri,” 291; Lambert et al., “La necropoli,” 121.

144.

Paulus Fridolinus Kehr, Regesta pontificum romanorum, Italia pontificia, vol. 9, Samnium—Apulia—Lucania (Berlin, 1962), 106.

145.

Volpe, “Città apule,” 568–70; Giuliano Volpe, “Città e campagna, strutture insediative e strutture ellesiastiche dell’Italia meridionale: Il caso dell’Apulia,” in Chiese locali e chiese regionali nell’alto medioevo (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 2014): 1041–68.