Saticula was a
Caudini The Caudini were a Samnite tribe that lived among the mountains ringing Campania and in the valleys of the Isclero and Volturnus rivers. Their capital was at Caudium, but it seems certain that the appellation was not confined to the citizens of C ...
city near the frontier of
Campania
Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...
in southern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. In 343 BC, during the
First Samnite War, the
Roman consul
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...
Cornelius attacked it during the campaign against the Samnites in the
Battle of Saticula
The Battle of Saticula, 343 BC,Livy, as was customary in Rome, dated the battle by noting which consuls held office that year, it was the year in which M. Valerius Corvus, for the third time, and A. Cornelius Cossus were consuls. When converted ...
.
Its archaeological remains are in the territory of the modern town of
Sant'Agata de' Goti. Ceramic evidence from Saticula and nearby
Caudium
Caudium (modern Montesarchio) was the main city of the ancient Caudini tribe in Samnium situated on the Appian Way between Beneventum (modern Benevento) and Capua, in what is now southern Italy. It was 21 Roman miles from Capua, and 11 from Beneve ...
suggest that the two cities were part of a trade network along the
Volturno River, linking the area with the rest of eastern Campagnia and the coast of the
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...
, as well as to the northern areas, including the
Pentri settlements of
Bovianum and
Saepinum.
Fossil record
In 1995, the construction of the
Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
The Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline (''TransMed''; also ''Enrico Mattei gas pipeline'') is a natural gas pipeline from Algeria via Tunisia to Sicily and thence to mainland Italy. An extension of the TransMed pipeline delivers Algerian gas to Sloveni ...
excavated a
fluvio-lacustrine succession
Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence.
Governance and politics
*Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...
that had been buried under volcanic deposits.
Fossil bones and pollen samples were collected and further exploration continued in 2005, with a new trench dug to better access faunal and floral materials. The obtained pollen showed there had been a diverse vegetation cover of
herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
and arboreal plants from different vegetation belts. There was a
deciduous forest
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
with a mixture of
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
and
hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
trees, along with
hornbeam,
elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...
,
zelkova, and
linden. The more mountainous forest was likely formed by species of
cedars and
hemlocks, with more evidence of
fir
Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...
and
spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...
close to the timberline. Herbs found at the site came mainly from the
Poaceae
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...
and
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
families, while the steppe plants from genera such as
''Artemisia'' and
''Ephedra'' were less common. A single grain of ''
Quercus ilex
''Quercus ilex'', the evergreen oak, holly oak or holm oak is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the ''Ilex'' section of the genus, with acorns that mature in a single summer.
Description
An evergreen tr ...
'', a Mediterranean oak, was discovered at the site in the second trench section.
The animal fossils identified at the site are: an unidentified species of
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...
; an unidentified species
hyena
Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...
; an unidentified species of
Elephantidae, believed to belong to the genus
Mammuthus rather than to
Elephas
''Elephas'' is one of two surviving genera in the family of elephants, Elephantidae, with one surviving species, the Asian elephant, ''Elephas maximus''.
Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to the genus, extending back to ...
;
''Stephanorhinus'' ''hundsheimensis'', an extinct species of rhino; ''
Equus sussenbornensis'', a species of equine; ''
Hippopotamus antiquus'', an extinct species of hippopotamus found in Europe; an unidentified species of
Megacerini, an extinct genus of deer; and ''
Axis eurygonos'', an extinct species of
cervid. Based on the combination of animal and plant remains, the time period of the fossils are considered part of the late
Early Pleistocene
The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...
to early
Middle Pleistocene.
References
Roman sites of Campania
Former populated places in Italy
Samnite cities
Archaeological sites in Campania
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