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The Ager Cosanus and the Production of the Amphorae of Sestius: New Evidence and a Reassessment*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Daniele Manacorda
Daniele Manacorda
Affiliation:
University of Siena
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Extract

This article arises from the current programme of excavation and survey of the Ager Cosanus and, in particular, of the Late-Republican villa of Settefinestre. The villa stands on a hill in the hinterland close to Cosa beside the line of the road which ran from the statio of Succosa, on the Via Aurelia, towards Saturnia. This villa is the most substantial and best preserved of a number of farms scattered over the district, all similar in plan and architectural features. The structural remains of some of these are still clearly visible: namely, the villa of Casale della Provinca which stands immediately to the north of Poggio di Malabarba, and the villa of Sughereto di Ballantino (or Valle d'Oro) which stands a few metres from the Via Aurelia opposite Succosa. Other visible remains, although clearly recognizable as villas, are in a worse state of preservation and do not allow any reasonably accurate reconstruction of their plan to be made.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 68 , November 1978 , pp. 122 - 131
Copyright
Copyright ©Daniele Manacorda 1978. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The excavation of the villa of Settefinestre began in the summer of 1976 for a first campaign lasting one month, which was carried out by students and staff of the Universities of Siena, Pisa, Florence, Rome and Bologna and a group of English archaeologists, led by T. Tatton-Brown, under the aegis of the British Academy.

2 The villas are largely unpublished. Some information can be found in D. Levi, ‘Escursione archeologica nell' Agro Cosano’, St. Etr. 1 (1927), 478 f.; Galli, E., ‘Antiche vestigia nel dominio cosano dei Domizi Ahenobarbi’, Historia 1. 2 (1927), 15 f.Google Scholar; Raveggi, P., ‘Ville imperiali romane dell' Agro Cosano’, Maremma VII. 3 (1933), 3–8Google Scholar; Santangelo, M., L'Antiquarium di Orbetello con brevi note su alcuni centri archeologici (1954), 73Google Scholar; Castagnoli, F., ‘La centuriazione di Cosa’, Mem. Am. Acad. Rome 24 (1956), 147–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Corvino, G., ‘Villa romana in localita “Settefinestre”’, Bollettino della Società Storica Maremmana x. 20 (1969), 39–44Google Scholar. Work by L. and S. Quilici on the three villas of Settefinestre, Casale della Provinca and Sughereto di Ballantino is being published currently in the Rivista Istituto Archeologia Storia Arte, 1976. As for the excavation of the villa at Settefinestre, the director of the excavation, Andrea Carandini, has given an account of the results of the first season in a series of lectures in Rome (at the British School and the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut) and at the Institutes of Archaeology of the Universities of Lancaster, London and Oxford.

3 The only mention of the villa at Monte Alzato is in Levi, op. cit. (n. 2), 479, n. 5, which notes the remains of walls with turrets shaped like columbaria (now collapsed) of the type also found in the three surviving large villas.

4 For the identification of the site of Succosa cf. particularly Brown, 21 and Castagnoli, op. cit. (n. 2), 159.

5 The recent excavations carried out on the stretch of coast next to Tagliata d'Ansedonia have shown definitely that it is in this area that buildings, both external and internal, of the ancient port should be located, cf. Brown, 80–96; J. Bradford, Ancient Landscapes (1957), 227–31; McCann, A. and Lewis, J. D., ‘The Ancient Port of Cosa’, Archaeology 23 (1970), 200–11Google Scholar; Schmiedt, G. and others, Il livello antico del Mar Tirreno (1972), 19–49Google Scholar; McCann, A., ‘Excavations at the Roman Port of Cosa, 1972’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 11. 1 (1973), 199–200Google Scholar; Lewis, J. D., ‘An early Roman Harbour’, Marine Archaeology (1973), 233–58Google Scholar.

6 The deposit was noticed in the winter of 1976 by two students from the University of Siena, Giuseppe Delia Fina and Silvano Vichi.

7 For a brief discussion of amphorae of Dressell type see F. Zevi, ‘Appunti sulle anfore romane’, Arch. Class. 18 (1966), 212–14 and Panella, C. in Ostia III, Studi Miscellanei 21 (1973), 492–4Google Scholar.

8 Will, passim, and in particular figs. 80 and 82.

9 Benoit 1961, 60, fig. 56 bis; 64, n. 1. But the stamps in the Museum at Florence with the symbols of the anchor and the trident were attributed by Uenze to the area of Saturnia (Uenze, 12; table 4, 8–9). However, the recent find at Portus Cosanus makes it certain that there are examples of these types at Cosa as well.

10 Benoit 1961, 67, fig. 59, n. 8.

11 The literature, both scholarly and otherwise, on the wreck at Grand Congloué and the related problem of the amphorae of Sestius is particularly vast. I give here a reasonably full list of works of a scholarly nature: Benoit, F., ‘Archéologie sousmarine en Provence’, Riv. di St. Lig. 18 (1952), 237 f.Google Scholar; Thevenot 1953; Thevenot 1954; Benoit, F., ‘Amphores et céramique de l'épave de Marseille’, Gallia 12 (1954), 35 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Benoit, F., ‘Synchronisme des amphores rhodiennes et de la céramique hellénistique de l'épave du Grand Congloué à Marseille’, Rhodania 29–30 (1954–1955), 9 f.Google Scholar; Lamboglia 1955; Benoit, F., ‘Épaves de la côte de Provence. Typologie des amphores’, Gallia 14 (1956), 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Benoit 1957; Uenze; Benoit, F., ‘Typologie des amphores et construction navale’, Actes 83meCongrès des Sociétés Savantes, Aix-en-Provence, 1958 (1960), 55–64Google Scholar; G. Perinet, ‘Typologie et structure cristalline des amphores de l'épave du Grand Congloué’, ibid., 65–7; Labrousse, M., ‘Puits funéraires d'Aquitaine’, Gallia 16 (1958), 148 f.Google Scholar; Serrano, M. P. G., ‘Anforas romanas con la marca “Sestius”’, Archivo Español de Arqueologia 33 (1960), 113–22Google Scholar; Benoit 1961; Benoit, F., ‘Archéologie sous-marine (à propos des fouilles du Grand Congloué)’, Riv. St. Lig. 27 (1961), 135–8Google Scholar; Lamboglia 1961; Lamboglia, N., ‘Cronologia relativa dei relitti romani nel Mediterraneo occidentale’, Atti III Congr. Int. Archeologia Sottomarina, Barcelona 1961 (1971), 371–83Google Scholar; Benoit, F., ‘Signature de potier sur une coupe campanienne du Grand Congloué’, Riv. St. Lig. 28 (1962), 266–9Google Scholar; Morel, J. P., Céramique a vernis noire du Forum Romain et du Palatin (1965), 26 f.Google Scholar; Roman, Y., ‘Les amphores de Sestius de l'Institution Saint-Joseph à Roanne’, Études Foréziennes v (1972), 89–97 i Roman, p. 125Google Scholar, n. 3 gives another list of local publications on recent finds made in Gaul which I have been unable to consult.

12 For a detailed account of all the evidence about the cargo consult the publication of the wreck by Benoit 1961, 27–121.

13 This date is proposed in Morel, J. P., ‘Céramiques d'Italie et céramiques hellénistiques (150–30 av.J.C.)’, in Hellenismus in Mittelitalien 11 (1976), 478Google Scholar.

14 For fuller information cf. the bibliography cited in n. 11.

15 Lamboglia 1955, figs. 8–16.

16 Uenze, 16.

17 cf. ibid., 14.

18 The map which is published here is notably fuller than the one given by Benoit in 1961, thanks, in particular, to the examples published by Y. Roman and to some more recent finds. The evidence for the find-spot, typology and date of the individual stamps can be found in the bibliography cited in n. 11. To these should be added the following: Volterra, SES stamp with five-point star (cf. B. Michelotti, Notizie degli Scavi, 1973, suppl. 3, p. 204, fig. 131. P. 212, fig. 133, 420), SES stamp with bipennis (Museo Guarnacci, unpublished); Luni, SES stamp with five-point star (unpublished, information from S. Lusuardi, Siena); Ampurias, SES stamp (also see now M. Beltran Lloris, Las anforas romanas des España (1970), 212, fig. 57, n. 254); Torroella, SES stamp (cf. Riv. St. Lig. 38 (1972), 439); Tolosa, SEST stamp with palm (cf. Vidal, M., Rev. Arch, de Narbonnaise 6 (1973). 77Google Scholar, fig. 4. 23); Vieille Toulouse, SEST stamp with palm (cf. ibid., 78); Tournus SES stamp with anchor (?) (cf. Devauges, J. B., Gallia 32 (1974), 446Google Scholar, fig. 35); Basilea, SES stamp with bipennis (now also in Archäologie der Schweiz IV, 80, fig. 23, 1; 129, fig. 25).

19 Both at Vieille Toulouse and La Lagaste many SES stamps with a variety of symbols are attested; up to now they have not been published (cf. Roman, 128, nn. 25–7). They will enhance and modify the map of the distribution of the various series of stamps.

20 For an analysis of the commercial role of the port of Narbo in the Republican period cf. G. Clemente, I Romani nella Gallia meridionale (11–1 sec. a.C.) (1974), 61–6.

21 For the interpretation of the wreck at Grand Congloué there is a noticeable and definite, even if rightly cautious, tendency on the part of historians to accept the reconstruction of Benoit; cf. for example, Cassola, F., ‘Romani ed Italici in Oriente’, Dial, di Arch. 4–5 (1971), 309Google Scholar; Clemente, op. cit. (n. 20), 25 f. and Labrousse, M., Toulouse antique des origines à l'établissement des Wisigoths (1968), 149 f.Google Scholar

22 Will associated the SES stamps with P. Sestius, praetor in 54 B.C. and a landowner at Cosa (Cicero, ad Att. 15, 27, 1), father of L. Sestius Quirinalis, cos. suff. in 23 B.C., whose stamped tiles are known from Rome (CIL xv, 1445).

23 On the remarkable wreck of Madrague de Giens, which carried a cargo of Dressel IB amphorae, stamped ‘P. Veveius Papus’, cf. Gallia 31 (1973), 589 f.Google Scholar; 33 (1975), 585–9 (the excavation is still continuing). For the known examples of stamps of P. Veveius Papus in Italy cf. CIL x, 2489 and the work of A. Hesnard, ‘Note sur un atelier d'amphores DR. 1 et DR. 2–4 près de Terracine’, Mélanges de l'École Française de Rome: Antiquité (1977), 157. For the amphorae with the stamp ‘L. Eumachi’, cf. Thevenot 1953, 236 and, more recently, A. Tchernia and F. Zevi, ‘Amphores vinaires de Campanie et de Tarraconaise à Ostia’, Recherches sur les amphores romaines (1972), 37–40.

24 Sources from the imperial period for the wine produced in Etruria: Pliny, NH 14, 67, which specifically mentions the wines of the southern coast (Gravisca) and from the hinterland of Cosa (Statonia); Martial 1, 26, 6. Vinum Tuscum is still mentioned in the late empire in the Expositio totius mundi 55.

25 On the finds at the port cf. McCann and Lewis, op. cit. (n. 5), 204. During a discussion which took place at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome in March 1977, F. E. Brown confirmed that there is an enormous quantity of Dressel 1 amphorae from the port. He also gave the information that E. Lyding Will, who is engaged on the publication of the amphorae from the Cosa excavations, has so far been able to catalogue a great number of stamps in the SES series, from both the port and the city, in particular from a large dump-embankment, found on the arx of Cosa, of amphorae with SES stamps which apparently show no signs of having been used.

26 Sources in I. Shatzman, Senatorial Wealth and Roman Politics (1975), 339, n. 198; cf. also T. P. Wiseman, New Men in the Roman Senate 139 B.C.–A.D. 14 (1971).

27 For the Basilica in the Forum of Cosa cf. Brown, 75–8; Taylor, D. M., ‘Cosa: Black-glaze pottery’, Mem. Am. Acad. Rome 25 (1957), 91 f.Google Scholar; Moevs, M. T. Marabini, ‘The Roman Thin-Walled Pottery from Cosa’, Mem. Am. Acad. Rome 32 (1973), 21 f.Google Scholar; F. E. Brown, in Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Suppl. 1970, 263 f., s.v. ‘Cosa’.

28 cf. Castagnoli, art. cit., 164. The villa of Sughereto di Ballantino was the subject of two short campaigns of excavation in the years 1975–6, carried out by an American archaeological team from Wesleyan University. The floruit of the villa seems to lie in the period of approximately 100 B.c–A.D. 100.

29 On the houses at Cosa cf. Brown, 89; Brown, F. E., ‘Scavi a Cosa-Ansedonia, 1965–66’, Boll. d'Arte 52 (1967), 39–41Google Scholar; Bruno, V. J., ‘Antecedents of the Pompeian First Style’, AJA 73 (1969), 305–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bruno, V. J., ‘A Town House at Cosa’, Archaeology 23 (1970), 232–41Google Scholar.

30 A ‘crisis’ at Cosa in the second quarter of the first century B.C. was already recognized by Brown, 112, and has been confirmed repeatedly by the archaeological evidence (cf. in particular the destruction of the houses described in Brown, art. cit., 40). Its possible connection with the pirate wars was considered by Brown, in ‘Incontro di studi su “Roma e l'Italia fra i Gracchi e Silla” Siena 1969’, Dial, di Arch. 4–5 (1971), 362 fGoogle Scholar.

31 Deposit E : cf. Taylor, op. cit. (n. 27), 133–5; Marabini Moevs, op. cit. (n. 27), 22 f.

32 A series of dedications and statues on the Arx testify to a renewal of life in Cosa at the beginning of th e Imperial period (cf. Brown, 112). On the Odeon cf. the bibliography cited in n. 27. An unpublished inscription from the Forum, now in the Store of the American Mission, testifies to its restoration in the third century under the Maximini.

33 On the villa of Tagliata cf. Levi, op. cit. (n. 2), 478; Galli, op. cit. (n. 2), 22–4; P. Raveggi, ‘Orbetello. Ritrovamenti archeologici nel territorio cosano’, Notizie degli scavi 1927, 204–10.

34 This seems to be the first result of the excavation of the villa at Settefinestre, where, however, sporadic occupation is documented for the four following centuries as well.

35 The existence of the respublica Cosanorum is indicated in A.D. 213 by CIL XI, 2633; in A.D. 238 by the unpublished inscription from the Forum cited in n. 32; in A.D. 241 by CIL XI, 2634; in A.D. 251 (if we accept the reference to the Emperor Decius proposed by the editors) by an inscription in the so-called Temple B in the Forum (cf. C. L. Babcock, ‘An Inscription of Trajan Decius from Cosa’, AJP 83 (1962), 147–58). For the siting of the respublica Cosanorum at Succosa cf. Brown, 21.