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

Powerful Atina. This city-state was situated near the Pontine Marshes. It was named Atina after the diseases, called atai in Greek, which are caused by the proximity of the marsh.¹⁹

The disappearance of these communities recalls the disappearance ¹⁶ Pliny, NH 3.5.59: aliud miraculum a Cerceis palus Pomptina est, quem locum XXIV urbium fuisse Mucianus ter consul prodidit; NH, 3.5.70: ita ex antiquo Latio LIII populi interiere sine vestigiis (thus fifty-three people from Old Latium have disappeared without trace); Quilici (1979: 128–30).

¹⁷ Nicolai (1800: 9–14); Doni (1667: 133–41).

¹⁸ Nicolai (1800: 1–7, 14–18); Dionysius Hal. AR 4.50.2–5.

¹⁹ Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii, ed. Thilo (1923), ii., on Virgil, Aeneid 7.630: ATINA POTENS civitas haec iuxta Pomptinas paludes, dicta Atina a morbis, qui graece atai dicuntur, quos paludis vicinitas creat.

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of other early human communities in Latium Vetus, recorded by Pliny the Elder.²⁰ In the Early Republican period the area of the Pontine Marshes, which was seized by the Volsci in the early fifth century , was a potential source of grain for Rome whenever there were food shortages. Thus Roman officials were sent to buy grain from the Volsci in 508 . They tried again unsuccessfully in 492  to buy grain from the Volsci and the Pomptini. In fact it is not unreasonable to suggest that control of the Pontine plain, which was potentially one of the richest (per unit area) if not the richest agricultural land in Italy, was the first major objective of Roman imperialism. This objective dominated Roman foreign policy for about two centuries, from the short-lived expansion in the late sixth century  under Tarquinius Superbus as far as Circeii (which is said to have been colonized) and throughout the Volscian wars of the fifth and fourth centuries. Polybius’ account of the first treaty between Rome and Carthage, whose historicity is now widely accepted, implies that Rome, under Tarquinius Superbus, controlled the whole coast of southern Latium as far as Terracina in 509 . The Pontine territory was highly desirable as late as 386, when a tribune of the plebeians brought the subject up for discussion, shortly after the Romans had gained complete control over the territory. Mommsen maintained that the ‘definitive occupation and distribution of the Pomptine territory’ by the Romans was one of the two reasons for the breakdown of the alliance between Rome and the Latins (the other being the temporary weakness of Rome caused by the Celtic attack). According to the annalistic tradition as presented by Livy, rich Romans quickly moved in to divide up the land to their own advantage. This could be an anachronistic retrojection of the conditions of the Late Republic on to the fourth century , but, on the other hand, it is not impossible, since large landowners have regarded the Pontine territory as highly suitable for animal husbandry throughout ²⁰ Ogilvie (1976: 106) believed that malaria had significant effects in Latium as early as the fifth century . He argued that it explained the disappearance of some lowlying Latin communities in that period, such as Longula and Pollusca, which are said to have been recovered by the Volsci from the Romans in 488  (see Dionysius Hal. AR 6.91.2–3, 8.36.1–2 and Livy 2.39.2–4 for their history). Tomassetti (1910: i. 35) placed Longula at Buonriposo and Pollusca at Casal della Mandria. Nicolai (1800: 31–4) had already discussed their location.

The precise locations of Longula and Pollusca are still uncertain, according to Attema (1993: 58). Attema (1993: 60–4) also discussed de la Blanchère’s view that the ‘lost cities’ were situated in the region between Anzio and Velletri, not in the heart of the Pontine Marshes.

Doni (1667: 35–41) had already discussed the lost cities of Latium, in the seventeenth century.

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history (see Ch. 9 below). In 383  a board of five ( quinqueviri) was appointed to divide up the Pontine territory. Two new tribes of Roman citizens, the tribus Pomptina in 358 and the tribus Ufentina in 318 (centered on Privernum), were created to exploit the southern half of the Pontine territory, the ager Pomptinus. The impression given is of a flourishing agricultural economy, of land that was worth having. This tradition could not have been invented by Livy or any other annalistic writer in the Late Republic, because by then the Pontine Marshes had become one of the deadliest places on earth for humans (at least in summer and autumn). It must be a genuine archaic historical tradition, and it is corroborated by archaeological evidence. Cancellieri and Quilici Gigli have both noted the centuriation scheme still visible on the terrain, dating to the fourth century . The cuniculi of the Pontine region can also be attributed to this phase of activity. The archaeological evidence proves that the Pontine territory really was divided up in the fourth century. The evidence of the annalistic tradition does not prove that malaria was completely absent from the area in the fifth and fourth centuries , but it probably indicates that malaria was not quite as widespread and intense then as it became later. A pestilentia ingens severely affected the Volsci in 492/1 , according to the annalistic tradition, but did not reach as far as Rome. It cannot be securely identified, but it is conceivable that it was an epidemic of malaria, a disease which tends to be highly localized.²¹

It is important to remember that mosquitoes like well-watered lands for breeding purposes, and well-watered lands are also the best for arable farming and animal husbandry. Strabo noted the connection of malaria with the best agricultural lands on Sardinia (Ch. 4. 3 above). He also commented (quoted below) that Latium, with its high water table, was very fertile and produced everything.

Since poor people have to make a living, it is commonly observed in the historical record that they are attracted to areas where