Liternum: a Campanian coastal town

The Roman town of Liternum sits on the Campanian coast where the waters of Lago Patria join the Tyrrhenian Sea. The low-lying coastline with its long sandy beaches contrasts starkly with the rugged cliffs further down the Bay of Naples and the Sorrentine peninsula. This coastline offered almost ideal conditions for landing troops from ships, whether it be large scale disembarkation or small scale riding parties. The lessons of the Second Punic War, during which Hannibal had ravaged the countryside of Campania, creating havoc in one of Rome's most important regions of agricultural production, had highlighted the need to defend this coastline from future attack. In 194BC Liternum was developed as a colony along with Volturnum at the mouth of the river Volturnus to the north, and Puteoli, Salernum and Buxentum to the south. These towns could provide early warning of a major attack, and form a buffer zone against piratical raids into the fertile hinterland areas of the ager Campanus. Later, from the period of Augustus' principate onward, these towns could be supported at fairly short notice by the Roman fleet based at Misenum.

Figure 1. Map of Campania.

Liternum was a town of some three hundred colonists. As a colonia civium Romanorum, laws were administered by a Prefect, and the colonists had all the rights of Roman citizens. The town is perhaps best known as the place to which Scipo Africanus went into voluntary exile in 184BC after attempts by Cato the Censor to bring charges against him in Rome. Scipo clearly felt safer retiring from public life in Rome and spending his time working on his villa amongst the veterans of his campaigns against Hannibal, but he fell ill and died at Liternum in 183BC, the same year that his old adversary Hannibal also died in exile. The villa itself has yet to be discovered, but we have a description of it in the letters of Seneca, who made what might almost be described as a pilgrimage to the site in the first century AD. Seneca was obviously taken by the austerity of the place, which accorded well with his Stoic attitudes. He reflects on what he regards as the good old days when people were content with honest hard work and simple pleasures.

"Here I am, staying at the country house which once belonged to Scipio of Africa himself. I am writing after paying my respects to his departed spirit as well as to an altar which I rather think may be the actual tomb of that great soldier ... I have seen the house, which is built of squared stone blocks; the wall surrounding the park; and the towers built out on both sides of the house for defence; the well, concealed among greenery and outbuildings, with suffucient water to provide for the needs of a whole army; and the tiny little bath, situated after the old-fashioned custom in an ill-lit corner, our ancestors believing that the only place where one could properly have a hot bath was in the dark. It was this which started in my mind reflections that occationed me a good deal of enjoyment as I compared Scipio's way of life and our own. In this corner the famous Terror of Carthage, to whom Rome owes it that she has only once in her history been captured, used to wash a body weary from work on the farm! For he kept himself fit through toil, cultivating his fields through his own labour, as was the regular way in the old days. And this was the ceiling, dingy in the extreme, under which he stood; and this the equally distinguished paving that carried his weight.

Who is there who could bear to have a bath in such surroundings nowadays? We think ourselves poorly off, living like paupers, if the walls are not ablaze with large and costly mirrors, if our Alexandrian marbles are not decorated with panels of Numidian marble, ... unless the pools into which we lower our bodies with all the strength drained out of them by lengthy periods in the sweating room are edged with Thasian marble ... and so far we have only been talking about the ordinary fellow's plumbing. What about the bath-houses of certain former slaves? ... In this bathroom of Scipio's there are tiny chinks - you could hardly call them windows - pierced in the masonry of the wall in such a way as to let in light without in any way weakening its defensive character. Nowadays 'moth-hole' is the way some people speak of a bathroom unless it has been designed to catch the sun through enormous windows all day long, unless a person can acquire a tan at the same time as he is having a bath, unless he has views from the bath over countryside and sea." (Seneca, Letters 86; translation by Campbell 1969).

Figure 2. Plan of the forum of Liternum (GianCarlo Pignataro)

Excavations in the forum of Liternum began in 1923 under the Soprintendenze alle Antichita and continued intermitently until 1937. The site stood largely neglected and overgrown thereafter until the 1970s, when a team of volunteers funded by UNESCO excavated part of the site. Then most recently, in 1988, a party of twenty volunteers from Glasgow University worked on the site alongside young Italians from Servizio Volontariato Giovanile (Voluntary Youth Service) of Caserta, the local adminastrative centre. The work on that occasion was co-ordinated by local architect GianCarlo Pignataro and the author of this article. Concentration of effort in the 1988 season was on the removal of the enormous growth of vegetation that engulfed the monuments over the years. There was also the oppertunity to conduct a small scale evacuation in the area of the basilica. The remains as they stand today date mostly from the the early imperial period. the standing monuments consist of a temple, a basilica and a small theatre, positioned on the west side of the forum with a large open area in front. These are contained within a surrounding wall onto which are abutted a number of small rectangular buildings that are thought to be shops.

The temple is in a typical Roman style set on a high podium of locally quarried tufa, with the emphasis of approach from the front of the building, the facade of which would have dominated the space in front of the temple. One complete and one partial column are all that remain of the temple facade; these were reconstructed from column drums found during early excavations of the site. It is not known to which deity the temple was dedicated.

Figure 3. Perspective view of the Forum (GianCarlo Pignataro)

To the left of the temple lie the scant remains of the basilica. The brickwork in opus reticulatum suggests a date for the building between the second half of the first century BC and the first century AD, although the existing structure would almost certainly have been built to replace an earlier building on the site. The remains of the basilica today are unimpressive, but the vestiges of the marble that originally decorated the building, visible in one or two places where modern 'quarriers' haven't yet found it, give some indication of a rather grander past for the building.

The other main structure on the site, to the right of the temple, is a small theatre of the imperial period. The remains show that the theatre follows a typical Roman plan. After removal of dense vegetation the scaena or stage building, and the cavea or seating area where clearly visible. The upper part of the cavea had collapsed, creating the impression that the theatre was much smaller than it actually had been. Although very small, the theatre would have been quite adequate for a town of this size. It might be surmised that the population had grown from the three hundred families of the original foundation, but probably not by much.

Figure 4. Section of the basilica wall showing opus reticulatum brickwork

Figure 5. View of the theatre showing the retaining wall of the cavea and the remains of the piers for the upper section.

Figure 6. Plan of the basilica (GienCarlo Pignataro)

Since the joint Scottish-Italian project in 1988, nothing further has been done to maintain the forum at Liternum in a state that would allow these monuments to be accessible to the public. In the summer of 1994 a temporary stage had been set up within the open area in front of the temple to put on concerts by local musicians. However, the monuments themselves were once again shrouded from view by a thick growth of vegetation. It seems such a pity that the local people, going along to enjoy the music, could not also enjoy the ancient monuments that form such an important part of their past. In 1995 GianCarlo Pignataro and the author of this article intend to mount a small exhibition, which will be displayed in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, and the department of Architecture, University of Naples, illustrating the work that still desperately needs to be done if the site is to be restored for the enjoyment of the local population and tourists alike, and if the great saviour of the Roman people, Scipio Africanus, is to have a lasting monument that benefits his name.

Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to GianCarlo and Antonella Pignataro for their friendship, assistance and generosity that they have shown me over the years since our first encounter at Liternum. I am also indebted to John, Margie and Victoria Monde for their hospitality and friendship during my field trips to Campania. Finally, I would like to thank the many friends in Campania, far too many to mention here, who have made my work in the region a source of great pleasure.

Reference

Campbell, R. 1969: Letters from a Stoic. Harmondsworth.