Manconi et al., 'La situazione in Umbria' 379, although many of the kilns excavated on rural villa sites, such as that at Penna in Teverina (probably in the territory of Ameria), can only have catered for internal needs.
Varro, Res Rusticae 2.9.6; Pliny, N.H. 11.241; Manconi et ai., 'La situazione in Umbria' 372.
Assuming the figure is not hugely inflated. Several Umbrian equestrians are known in this period from the activity of Cicero: he defended a Varenus of Fulginiae and his clients 0. Cornelius and Cluentius Habitus were prosecuted by two men from Spoletium and Pisaurum (Wiseman,
New Men 36). Nicolet, Orde Équestre 2 lists two other possible equestrians from before the war (from Urvinum Mataurense and Spoletium again) and five from after (Urvinum Mataurense, Spoletium, Interamna Nahars, Ameria and Narnia).
infrastructure and buildings in their home towns, now Roman municipia, was one of the most important ways in which they could draw attention to themselves. Money was also put into agriculture, producing the rash of villas discussed above, orientated around the farming of cash crops that could be sold at markets, particularly those in Rome. During this century the increasing wealth of the local Umbrian elites enabled them to compete successfully for entry to the senatorial order at Rome with other Italians and those of the old Roman aristocracy who had survived the turmoil of the times. During the reign of Augustus four men from the 'remote' municipium of Iguvium had probably amassed the resources and contacts necessary to become Roman s e n a t o r s . I n the late first century AD there was an emperor, Nerva, whose family had Umbrian origins.
W e know of one possible senator from Roman Umbria before the Social War, from Fulginiae.^"*" The first after the war may be a Gargonius who was a moneyer in Rome in 86 BC, but his name and origin are subject to some doubt.^'^® If correct he may also be from Fulginiae, a striking record for a centre that was only a praefectura until the Social War. The rest of the 28 possible Umbrian senators before AD 14 make the grade from the late 50s BC onwards: this rapid opening up of the senatorial order in this period must be the result of the high rate of attrition of the old Roman aristocracy from the beginning of Caesar's dictatorship in the ensuing civil wars and proscriptions. The Romanisation of the Umbrian elite is probably less of a factor in the Caesarian and triumviral periods as almost all the senators with 'known' origins come from the old Latin and Roman colonies of Spoletium, Narnia and Pisaurum.^"® The one exception is a senator from Mevania; Wiseman points out that this is also on the Via Flaminia: accessibility to Rome played an important stimulatory role.^**^
Wiseman, New Men nos. 331-3, 502. Compare the characterisation of the economy of Iguvium as lacking in access to communications and markets by Manconi and Whitehead in
Territory, Time and State 203, who question its ability to produce wealth (186). They assert that Iguvium did not produce a 'major senatorial family' (198), yet three of its likely senators seem to have come from a single family, the Pomponiil
Vespasian's mother's family was from Vespasiae six miles from Nursia towards Spoletium and thus probably still in Sabinum rather than Umbria (Suetonius, Vespasian 1.3).
See ch. 3 section 5 (c).
Wiseman, New Men no. 193; Crawford, RRC no. 350A.
Wiseman, New Men nos. 96, 124-6, 188, 216. Note also the quaestor (and thus senator) A. Pompeius A.f. (ILLRP 364), active either In the Sullan period (Degrassi in ILLRP p. 212) or the second half of the first century BC (Gaggiotti, Sensi, 'Acesa al senate' 260). Whether he is from Interamna Nahars, which as patron he 'extricated from the greatest dangers' (ex summis pereiculeis expeditum) is doubted by Wiseman {New Men 45) but not Gaggiotti and Sensi ('Acesa al senate' 260), who note links with between this family and the Arruntii (certainly of Interamna). Wiseman, New Men no. 357 and p. 29. Note also that Augustus' right hand man, M. Vipsanius Agrippa (no. 497), a senator from 43 BC, could be of the Sergia tribe and therefore originate from either Asisium or the Marsic region; Q. Fiscilius, a praetor in 28 BC and so surely a senator before Actium, could be from Urvinum Hortense (Gaggiotti, Sensi, 'Acesa al senate'
It is only with Augustus that significant numbers of members of the local elites of
municipia allied before the war reached the senate; men are known to have come from Mevania, Asisium and Iguvium, and possibly from Sentinum and Suasa on the Adriatic side of the Appennines.^"® This development, overseen by an emperor who had stressed the unity of Italy in his propaganda, must surely testify to the rapidity of the adoption of Roman ways by the upper class in Umbria after the Social War.^"® As has been discussed above, Umbrian is completely dropped as an epigraphic language after the Social War. Funerary culture is less clear cut in its message, but recent studies have shown that the distinctive local Umbrian production of stelai and urns in the first century BC was heavily reliant on late Etruscan forms from Perugia and on Roman funerary art.^®° The rapid adoption of elements of Roman culture must be why Umbria provides the largest number of senators of all the old allied regions of Italy in this period, although one of the smallest in terms of area.^®^ It is further confirmation of the wealth of this area, evident from the record of building work.
This wealth was amassed despite the fighting and confiscations that occurred in Umbria in the Sullan and triumviral periods. The newly enfranchised Umbrian elite seems to have immediately been sucked into the political conflicts at Rome. The lieutenants of Sulla, Crassus and Pompey fought hard campaigns in Umbria on both sides of the Appennines: in 82 BC Sena Gallica was sacked by Pompey and Tuder by Crassus, who enhanced his reputation for greed by appropriating much of the spoils. They then combined to defeat the Marian Carrinas near Spoletium, and laid siege to the city when he retreated there. Carrinas escaped under cover of darkness;^®® Spoletium is unlikely to have been treated leniently. Other confiscations occurred at Tuder and Ameria, where Chrysogonus profited at Roscius' expense.^®" Umbria was also grievously affected by the Perusine War, when armies again clashed in the Valle Umbra and the
260; Sensi in Raccoltà di Cannara no. 58).
Wiseman, New Men nos. 357, 255, 403-4, 497, 331-3, 502, 512, 88; all after Actium. Gaggiotti, Sensi, 'Acesa al senate' 269 also identify an additional L. Pomponius at Iguvium. The exact origins of many other Umbrian senators who are probably or possibly from old allied towns remains unknown.
On Augustus' promotion of men from the Italian municipal elites see Syme, Roman Revolution 358-63; Salmon, Roman Italy 143-8.
A. Ambrogi, 'Monumenti funerari di età romana di Foligno, Spello e Assisi', Xenia 8 (1984) 27 ff.; S. Diebner, Reperti funerari in Umbria a sinistra del Tevere I sec. a.C.-l sec. d.C. (Rome, 1986).
For the figures see Wiseman, New Men 189. Appian, B.C. 1.88; Plut., Crassus 6.
Appian, B.C. 1.90.
Florus 2.9.27, 'Interamnium' (-eum or -ium in all manuscripts) is more likely Interamnia Praetuttiorum than Interamna Nahars (Harris, Etruria and Umbria 265), though this was probably a more 'splendid municipium'.
elite of the great Etruscan city, and perhaps the urban centre itself, were wiped out/^^ Sentinum was also besieged and as a result probably later rebuilt with a grid pattern plan.
Veteran colonisation also took place in the triumviral period at Hispellum, Pisaurum and Tuder, and in the reign of Augustus at Fanum Fortunae.^®® At all three centres the installation of the colony was accompanied by monumental construction projects. Hispellum was endowed with a substantial set of walls with huge gateways. Outside the town the remains of a terraced sanctuary linked to a theatre probably date from the same period. At Tuder the walls and urban spaces of the town were renovated, terraces around the lower part of the town were built, and city gates, public buildings, great substructure known as the 'nicchioni' and the theatre were created.^®® The 'nicchioni* in particular show the way Greek ideas had throughly penetrated Roman architecture at this time: it consists of a wall about 11 m high and 40 m long inset with four colossal niches, whose most obvious parallels in Italy are the supporting terraces of the Hellenistically inspired sanctuaries of Jupiter Anxur at Terracina and of Hercules at Tibur. New city walls and a monumental gate were also built at Fanum in AD 9-10, again financed by Augustus, and Vitruvius records the basilica he built here.^®® Land distributions for the soldiers required confiscations of territory from neighbouring
municipia. It is interesting to note that some of the recipients had origins from other towns in the region.^®® Propertius was a victim at Asisium, although Gabba argues that this will not have pushed such medium-scale landowners into destitution as they were likely to have holdings in various locations.^®^ He holds that the Umbrian elite remained generally stable and even flourished in the early empire. Indeed a Propertius Celer, perhaps both a member of the poet's family and a descendent of the uhtur Vois. Ner. Propartie on an Umbrian border cippus of the (?)first decade of the century, reached the Senate under Augustus.’®^
^®® On this period see E. Gabba, 'Trasformazioni politiche e socio-economiche dell'Umbria dope il 'bellum Perusinum', in Bimillenario della morte di Properzio (Assisi, 1986) 95-104.
^®® Keppie, Colonisation: Tuder in 36 BC or after Actium (176), Hispellum in 41 BC (179); Pisaurum in 41 BC (185); no specific evidence for Fanum Fortunae (184-5).
Augustus may have provided the initiative for these works: GIL XI 5266, Keppie,
Colonisation 177. Using architectural parallels and an examination of the construction technique, Fontaine dates the Porta Consolare to c. 40-35 BC {Cités 255) and the other gates and full wall circuit to 30-20 BC (259), perhaps in connection with the restoration of the Via Flaminia in 27 BC.
^®® Tascio, Todi. Verso un museo 105.
Vitruvius, De Arch. 5.1.6 (he also mentions other public buildings); Keppie, Colonisation
116.
^®° Note the Edusius from Mevania at Tuder mentioned in section 2 above, and the unknown Tudertine who settled at Fanum (Keppie, Colonisation 176, 185).
^®^ Propertius, Elegies 4.1. Gabba, 'Bellum Perusinum' 95. ^®^ Wiseman no. 344. Umbrian inscription: Ve 236 (appendix 2).
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