PROCESO FENTON TRADICIONAL COMO PROCESO DE OXIDACIÓN AVANZADA

Strabo’s description of Tibur provides the most extensive ancient description of the city’s topography and introduces a number of categories that appear consistently in references to the physical space of Tibur. Strabo first presents Tibur in terms of the city’s

geographic relationship to Rome: “the [Via] Valeria begins at Tibur, and leads to the Marsi, and to Corfinium, the metropolis of the Paeligni. On the same road are the Latin cities Varia, Carseoli, and Alba, and the city of Cuculum is nearby. Tibur, Praeneste, and

Tusculum are visible to people in Rome.”280 Tibur is described first, in Strabo’s account, as the origin of a road leading towards foreign territories and hostile peoples: the Marsi led a coalition of allies in rebellion against Rome in the Social War, the Paeligni joined the Marsi in rebelling, and the city of Corfinium was chosen by the Italian allies to serve as their capital.281 _{The area to which Strabo connects Tibur in this introduction was less}

socially connected to Romein the Augustan erathan Latium, the region to which Augustan authors usually assign Tibur, and had fewer historic cultural similarities with Rome than did her Latin neighbors: the Marsi and Paeligni originally spoke languages in the Osco-Umbrian family, not Latin, and both allied with the Samnites against Rome in the 4th _{century BCE.}282 _{By highlighting Tibur’s place as the origin of the road leading to}

these peoples, Strabo positions Tibur as being only marginally located in Latium. Tibur is characterized as physically close and well-connected to the more foreign and hostile

                                                                                                                280 _{Strabo 5.3.11} ῾ηὈυαλερίαδ᾽ἄρχεται µὲνἀπὸΤιβούρων, ἄγειδ᾽ἐπὶΜαρσοὺςκαὶ ΚορφίνιοντὴντῶνΠελίγνων µητρόπολιν. εἰσὶδ᾽ἐναὐτῇΛατῖναιπόλειςὈυαρίατε καὶΚαρσέολοικαὶἌλβα, πλησίονδὲκαὶπόλιςΚούκουλον. ἐνὄψειδ᾽εἰσὶτοῖςἐν ῬώµῃΤίβουράτεκαὶΠραινεστὸςκαὶΤοῦσκλον.

281 _{The close association between the Marsi and the Social War is attested by the many}

contemporary references to the war as the “Marsic War”: see e.g. the Fasti Capitolini (Bellum Marsicum), Cicero (de Div. 1.99, Marsico bello) Velleius Paterculus (2.21, bello Marsico), and Strabo (V.4.2, ὁΜαρσικόςκαλούµενοςπόλεµος).

282 _{In addition to evoking the very recent memory of the Social War and this region’s}

rebellion against Rome, referring to the Marsi and Paeligni also recalls the Roman attitude towards the bellicose Samnite tribes with whom they previously allied; even during periods when these groups are allied with Rome, they are best known for their ferocity as warriors. On the Marsi and Pelaegni as warriors, see i.e. Horace, Carm. 2.20.17-18, where the Scythians are only pretending not to be afraid of the Marsic troops (qui dissimulat metum/Marsae cohortis Dacus), and Vergil, G. 2.167, where the Marsi are described as haec genus acre virum; additionally, a potentially spurious fragment of Ennius preserved in Pompeius refers to the troops of the Marsi and Paeligni as well, though with so little context that all we can say is that the author was discussing their military forces (Marsa manus, Paeligna cohors, Vestina virum vis” (Pompeius, ap. G.L., V, 303, 19 K);see also Dench 1995 on perceptions of peoples from the central

territory beyond, including cities and peoples closely associated in recent memory with rebellion against Rome. Strabo goes on to clarify that Tibur was not immediately adjacent to these cities and that a few “Latin cities” could also be found on the Valerian Way (i.e. between Tibur and the territory of the Marsi and Pelaegni): Varia, Carseoli, Alba

[Fucens], and nearby Cuculum. These towns, though referred to by Strabo as Λατῖναι πόλεις, belong by origin to some of the many Italic peoples who were in conflict with Rome throughout the Republic: Carseoli and Alba Fucens were towns of the Aequi that were defeated by the Romans, occupied by Roman colonies, and later granted Latin status, while Varia was originally Sabine.283 _{The otherwise unattested}

Κούκουλον is

alternately identified as a site near the modern town of Cucullo, which is located in territory that could have been either Marsic or Paelignian, or as an error for Aikouikoulon, i.e. a town of the Aequiculi (Strabo himself uses Αἴκουοι for Aequi, and the form

Αἰκουικλοί for Aequicoli/Aequiculi is found in the 2nd century CE mathematician and geographer Claudius Ptolemy).284 Pliny’s account of the regions of Italy lists Tibur to these tribes and characterizes the group as “perhaps the strongest peoples of Italy” (gentium vel fortissimarum Italiae).285 _{While studies of the regiones have demonstrated}

that ethnic identity—though it overlaps, in many cases, with the geographic boundaries

283 _{The process and timeline of Varia’s incorporation as a Latin city, if Strabo is correct}

in grouping it in this category with Alba Fucens and Carseoli, is not known. Varia was geographically located in Sabine territory according to Pliny’s delineation of Latin and Sabine lands, Strabo’s near contemporary Horace describes men from his Sabine farm being sent to Varia (Ep. 1.14.3 quinque bonos solitum Variam dimittere patres) and a scholiast on Horace explicitly names Varia as a Sabine town. (Schol. Cruq. ad loc., Oppidum in Sabinis olim, nunc vicus).

284 _{Ptol. Geog. 3.1.56; see Purcell’s commentary for his map of Latium and Campania in}

the Barrington Atlas (663).

between regiones—is an oversimplistic explanation for the groupings, Pliny’s characterization suggests that Tibur may have been seen as sharing qualities with the fierce tribes further along the Via Valeria.286

Turning his eyes and his focus from the hinterland towards Rome, Strabo describes Tibur, along with Praeneste and Tusculum, as “within the eyesight of those in Rome.”287 Paradoxically, Tibur is both local to Rome (to such an extent that their

physical proximity is described as literally perceptible) and distanced (spoken of in close connection with tribes across the Apennines). The reference to eyesight is particularly important, as it highlights the potential threat posed by cities close enough to launch an attack on Rome. In Florus’ epitome of Livy, Pyrrhus is said to have looked out

(prospexit) upon Rome from the citadel of Praeneste (Tibur’s neighbor, and a direct comparandum in Strabo’s passage), and Rome is described as being already nearly conquered once Pyrrhus was within eyesight of Rome: the cities are so close that the cloud of smoke and dust raised by Pyrrhus’ army at Praeneste can be seen at Rome as a looming threat (literally, “the sight filled the eyes of the anxious citizenry,” oculos trepidae civitatis).288 The final statement Strabo makes about Tibur at the end of this passage contributes to this sense of Tibur as presenting an imposing physical threat, as he notes that both Tibur and Praeneste are well-fortified (ἐρυµνὴ) in their respective

286 _{Bispham 2007b, 49.} 287 _{Strabo 5.3.11}

288 _{Flor. 1.13.24 Victor primo proelio Pyrrhus tota tremente Campania Lirim}

Fregellasque populatus, prope captam urbem a Praenestina arce prospexit et a vicesimo lapide oculos trepidae civitatis fumo ac pulvere inplevit.

mountainous locations.289 The emphasis on Tibur’s fortifications, and thus its defensibility, recalls the hostility Tibur had previously displayed towards Rome and emphasizes one of the city’s sources of strength to resist Rome’s military power. Framing Tibur as a city at the point in the road that looks away from Rome towards her potential enemies and connects to those same peoples, but remains constantly within the

immediate awareness of those at Rome, demonstrates how Tibur’s physical presence might influence perceptions of the city in broader contexts.