Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy, Robert Sallares [reading a book TXT] 📗

Vitruvius states that the inhabitants were moved at their own request by M. Hostilius (whose identity is uncertain) to a healthier location on a small hill (il Monte) about six kilometres away from the old town, beyond the usual flight range of mosquitoes. This was a triumph for Roman town planning in the face of malaria, but it also shows malaria directly altering human settlement patterns. It is a very good illustration of how localized endemic malaria can be.

This episode cannot be closely dated, but archaeological evidence ⁹ Delano-Smith argued that Old Salpi was abandoned because of the silting up of a canal leading to the sea which had been used for grain exports. Strabo 6.3.9.283–4C described Salapia as the seaport of Argyrippa, but only mentioned exports from Sipontum, not from Salapia. He regarded Argyrippa as less important than Canusium in his own time.

¹⁰ Vitruvius 1.4.12: in Apulia oppidum Salpia vetus . . . in eiusmodi locis fuerat conlocatum, ex quo incolae quotannis aegrotando laborantes aliquando pervenerunt ad M. Hostilium ab eoque publice petentes impetraverunt, ut his idoneum locum ad moenia transferenda conquireret elegeretque. Tunc is moratus non est, sed statim rationibus doctissime quaesitis secundum mare mercatus est possessionem loco salubri ab senatuque populoque R. petit, ut liceret transferre oppidum . . . lacum aperuit in mare et portum e lacu municipio perfecit.

Itaque nunc Salpini quattuor milia passus progressi ab oppido veteri habitant in salubri loco.

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suggests that habitation continued at Old Salpi into the second century . Gabba suggested that the refoundation of Salpi occurred after the Social War in 89  and should be interpreted as one small aspect of the integration of the Italians into the Roman state after that conflict.¹¹ Nevertheless the area remained notorious, since Cicero accused Rullus of wishing to lead Roman veterans into the pestilential territory of Salpi.¹² Di Biase proposed the alternative interpretation that the foundation of Roman Salpi should be dated to the Augustan period. Salpi was one of the districts chosen for the Gracchan land distributions in the second century . The choice of such unfavourable localities (cf. Graviscae) shows how difficult it was to find suitable land for distribution.¹³

The new Roman town of Salpi flourished and continued to thrive into the late medieval period, but in time the mosquitoes caught up with it and the new town was eventually abandoned in turn in the seventeenth century, after which modern Manfredonia became the most important town in the region. Malaria was certainly one of the reasons for this second abandonment ( pace di Biase), since the records of the Dogana of Foggia speak of bad air there in  1603.¹⁴ Given the existence of foci of intense malaria such as Salpi, it is not surprising that Julius Caesar’s army, coming from Gaul, was severely affected by the severe autumn in Apulia, in the same way, perhaps, that the Gauls themselves besieging Rome in c.386  were affected (see Ch. 8 above):

The noxious autumn in Apulia and around Brundisium brought ill health to the whole army, which had come from the very healthy regions of Gaul and Spain.¹⁵

The problems of Caesar’s army recall the misfortunes of the army assembled for the First Crusade when it moved from Rome to southern Italy. Similarly Cicero wrote a couple of letters at ¹¹ Gabba (1983); for other literature on Salpi see Marin (1970), Mazzei (1984) and Volpe (1990).

¹² Cicero, de lege agraria 2.27.71, ed. Marck (1983) in Salpinorum pestilentiae finibus Rullo duce collocari.

¹³ Liber Coloniarum, i. 210 and ii. 261, ed. Lachmann (1967), in Die Schriften der Römischen Feldmesser.

¹⁴ Delano Smith (1978: 168, 174): ci parla di aria cattiva; Di Biase (1985: 37–50).

¹⁵ Julius Caesar, BC 3.2: gravis autumnus in Apulia circumque Brundisium ex saluberrimis Galliae et Hispaniae regionibus omnem exercitum valetudine temptaverat.

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Brundisium to Atticus, significantly in August–September 47 , in which he clearly mentioned its unhealthiness ( loci gravitas).¹⁶

Malaria was certainly one of the reasons for Apulia being the least densely populated part of Italy, as described by Cicero. Extensive cereal cultivation occupied a large area of land and the whole region had a reputation for grain production and exports both in antiquity and in subsequent periods. Olive cultivation and viticulture were also widespread in Apulia. Nevertheless it is clear that transhumant animal husbandry began to operate on a large scale in the Tavoliere after the unification of Italy by the Romans just as it did in the coastal regions of Latium (see Ch. 9 above). Varro mentioned the annual migration of the animals from Apulia to the mountains of Samnium for the summer. The documentary evidence for transhumance has been supplemented by archaeological research recently at Tiati (Teanum Apulum).¹⁷

Falleroni described the epidemic of malaria during the First World War, in 1915–16, around modern Trinitapoli in the vicinity of ancient Salpi. Many of the malarial infections were acquired by agricultural labourers during the harvest, a common pattern observed all over the world (see Ch. 2 above). Although the élite always had the option of flight to safe areas, it would have been virtually impossible for peasants in antiquity to avoid malaria in areas where it was endemic. However, direct mortality from malaria at Trinitapoli was concentrated among children; over two-thirds of the dead were young children. The epidemic coincided with an explosion in mosquito population size. Falleroni reckoned that cave di prestito (pits) were important breeding sites for mosquitoes during this epidemic. He noted that the large-scale transhumance for which Apulia was famous offered no protection at all against ¹⁶ William of Malmesbury Gesta Regum Anglorum, 4 .545, ed. Hardy (1840): pars pro intemperie soli morbo defecit (part of the army perished from disease because of the unhealthy climate).

Elsewhere (4.572) William, commenting upon the bravery and heroism of the Crusaders, put the risk of their dying from bad air on the same level as their risk of being killed by