Alfaterni

The Alfaterni were possibly an ancient Italic people that, according to the 1st-century CE Roman historian Pliny the Elder, inhabited Campania.[1][2] The city of Nuceria was associated with the Alfaterni,[3] with the Oscan words Nuvkrinum Alafaternum appearing on one coin from the area.[4][5] Etymologically, the term Alafaternum may connect to Latin albus ("white") and thus derive from Proto-Italic *alβos.[6]

It is possible that the ethnic epithet of the Alfaterni was applied to the city of Nuceria so as to distinguish the settlement from Nuceria Camellaria and Nuceria Favoniensis, both of which were located in Umbria.[7] Within this context, the term Alfaterna appears not necessarily as an ethnic identifier, but as an adjective utilized to describe a town.[8] Otherwise, in Latin and Greek literature, the term Alfaterna appears as a specific descriptive marker applied to the town of Nuceria.[8] Diodorus Siculus, a 1st-century BCE Greek historian, records that Nuceria Alafterni had broken their alliance with the Romans and instead joined with the Samnites, who were already embroiled in the Samnite Wars.[9][10]

According to the classicist Edward Togo Salmon, the act of signing a treaty with the Samnites league implies that, though willing to ally with the coalition, the Alfaterni were not officially members.[11] Later, in 308 BCE, during the Second Samnite War, the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus conquered the city of Nuceria Alfaterna.[12][3]

Pliny writes that there were three subgroups of this people—one who took their cognomen from the Latin territory, one from the Hernican, and one from the Labican.[1][13] The interpretation of this passage is unclear, though it may imply the existence of additional settlements also designated with the adjective Alfaterna, yet no such towns are known from the archaeological or literary record.[14] In the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, there is recorded a dialect group of the Osci that is named the λατέρνιοι ("latérnioi"), a term that may be emended to Αλφατέρνιοι ("Alphatérnioi") and thus connected with the Alfaterni people.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 3.63.
  2. ^ Hands 1912, p. 46.
  3. ^ a b Walbank 1957, p. 425.
  4. ^ Hands 1912, p. 48.
  5. ^ Buck 1904, p. 259.
  6. ^ De Vaan 2008, p. 32.
  7. ^ Farkas 2007, p. 190.
  8. ^ a b Farkas 2007, p. 197.
  9. ^ Diodorus Siculus. The Library of History. 19.65.7.
  10. ^ Farkas 2007, p. 193.
  11. ^ Salmon 1967, p. 27.
  12. ^ Livy. History of Rome. 9.41.3.
  13. ^ Bispham 2020, p. 14.
  14. ^ Farkas 2007, p. 196.
  15. ^ Farkas 2007, p. 191.

Bibliography

  • Bispham, E. (2020). "The regiones of Italy: between republic and principate". Etudes Genevoises sur l'Antiquite. 6. ISSN 2296-8628.
  • Buck, Carl Darling (1904). A Grammar Of Oscan And Umbrian: With A Collection Of Inscriptions And A Glossary. Kessinger. ISBN 978-1-4326-9132-5. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  • De Vaan, Michiel (2008). Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-16797-1.
  • Farkas, Nikoletta (2007). Leadership among the Samnites and related Oscan-speaking peoples between the fifth and first centuries BC. King's College London (Thesis). Retrieved 2026-03-18.
  • Hands, Alfred Watson (1912). Italo-Greek Coins of Southern Italy. London: Spink & Son.
  • Salmon, Edward Togo (1967). Samnium and the Samnites. Cambridge University Press.
  • Walbank, F.W. (1957). A Historical Commentaryon Polybius. Vol. I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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