That tract of southern Apennines, made of calcareous material and dolostones and stretching between the Provinces of Avellino andSalerno, as well as the valley lying at its feet, is still today denominated Picentine Mountains and Picentine Field, from the name of the ancient inhabitants of the place: the Picenes.
    It is a remarkably elevated range with the peaks of Cervialto (1.089 meters), Polveracchio (1.790 meters) and Acellica (1.657 meters), furrowed by deeply forested valleys.
    FromMountAcellicain Irpinia rises a river also called Picentino,24.5 Km. long, that crosses a narrow gorge near Mercato in Giffoni where it receives the stream Risicco and then the stream Acqua Bianca in Prepezzano. After having crossed the alluvial plain, it flows into theGulf of Salerno.
    The plain of river Picentino, according to the most reliable archaeological traces, began to be populated in the first years of the IX century BC, at the beginning of the Iron Age. Here at that time appeared a Villanovan community related to the great centers of southern coastalEtruria, not particularly rich (judging from the image given by its necropolises), essentially devoted to a subsistence economy, without evident social differentiations in its population.
    To the archaeologists it appeared characterized by the prevailing funeral rite of incineration, for which the rests of the dead person were preserved in large bi-conical vases, while in the rest of the region were found burials in pit graves. Very likely, their social structure evolved during the years and became more complex: in fact the most recent graves show disparity of wealth in the funerary outfits that included imported objects, sign of the presence of individuals and groups of privileged conditions.
    From the prehistoric age the territory was inhabited by «Opicoli» ancient population of Indo-European language settled inCampaniaalready in archaic age, until it gradually declined and finally merged with the Sabelli-Samnite populations who lived in the territory, consequently originating the Oscis (450-420 BC).
    These, grouped in three federations that had respectively Capua, Nocera and Nola-Abella as capitals, during the second Samnite attempt of invasion (IV century BC), sheltered under the protection of Rome, to which they remained faithful until the second Punic war, when Capua passed to Annibale (216 BC). In a few years they disappeared as political entity, but they had accomplished an important function as mediators between the Greek culture of our Hellenized coasts andRome.
    Their name survived to designate the language of the newcomers, that the ancient called “osco”, and that was spoken from the Sannio to Apuliaby Samnite, Frentani, Campani, Lucans, Bruzii, Mamertine and Apulians. For a long time it continued to be written in Etruscan or Greek characters and spoken, in the various dialects, by the governing classes and the educated people, till the social war that provoked its definitive switch to Latin. In fact in Pompeii, the city buried by Vesuvius eruption of 79 AC, were found some writings in osco language. Pliny the Elder (23\24-79 AC) remembered the Picentine Field as an Etruscan territory, famous for thetemple ofJuno Argive founded by Jason.

    Picentia was founded (or rather re-named after a more ancient city) by the Sabellian Picenes of the Samnite-Roman age, together with other cities asSorrento, Nuceria, Marcina.
    Stephanus of Byzantium still in the V century AC called it “Picentia, city of the Tyrrhenians”. According to Strabo (64\63-21 BC) in this area between Picentia and the river Sele laid the borders of ancientItaly; in fact the Greek called Italiotes their settlers in Magna Graecia (Great Greece) orSouthern Italy.

    But the name of Picentia was given to the town by the Romans, since it seems that in the archaic age it was named Aminaia, from the Great Greek city Amina. Previously, since the last quarter of VIII century, the territory had received considerable material and cultural contributions by Greeks mainly coming from the Euboic centers of Pithecuse andCumae.
    In fact around 770 BC the Hellenics had opened a colonial emporium in the island of Ischia (the ancient Pithecusa) that soon became fundamental knot for commerce in the Mediterranean between East and West; some years later they will set up Cumae, the first true Greek western colony. The contact with more evolved civilization deeply influenced the natives’ world and their behaviors.
    Moreover for a long time the territory was a border between the two cultures, previously pacifically cohabiting and having flourishing trade relationships, later opponents and rivals for obvious reasons of competition, until the Greeks of Syracuse headed by the tyrant Leo, inflicted a serious defeat to these Etruscans of Campania in the Cumae naval battle of 474 BC.
    In the period that was defined oriental – undoubtedly its most prosperous centuries – the agricultural center of Picentia, favoured by its coastal position with the landing place (now filled in) at the mouth of river Picentino, discovered its vocation as a trade center.
    A large variety of products from the West and the East (perfumes, ointments, amber, ivory) arrived to the Picentine plain and the graves found in Pontecagnano (certainly at the time main center of the whole vast and fertile plain), evidence outfits in which the local ceramics, by then worked to the lathe and on a large scale, had a wider range of forms and was put side by side the Greek ceramics, imported or reproduced.
    From East also arrived luxury items made of bronze and precious metals. The social structure became more and more composite: by this time structured in groups of nobles, it had at its vertex an aristocracy that distinguished from the rest of the community also in death with the adoption of a complex funerary ritual of clear Hellenic origin.
    But these funerary remains dated between VI and V century BC were generally modest, both in the external structure of the graves and in the funerary outfits: signal of a period of crisis and decline of the Etruscan world, for the mentioned pressing action of the Greeks, finalized to attain control of the maritime routes.

    Yet, despite the diffusion of writing and the bursting activity in the neighborhood corresponding to the today’s area of Sant’Antonio, east of Pontecagnano, we can only conjecture a Picentine history, a history that still experienced some good times during the IV century BC.
    After all, in this period the wholeCampaniawas under the Samnite influence, which brought back the region to political and cultural homogeneity. Even though undergoing the influence and the charm of the near Poseidonia, the Picentine Field of that time still preserved some original cultural characters because inscriptions in Etruscan dialect were found on vases.

    But in a short time, in the first decades of the III century BC, the Picentine Field turned into a lifeless area: necropolises were dismissed and the town ofPontecagnanoabandoned. The reasons are unknown, but it is peculiar and perhaps significant that this happened exactly when the ancient sources date back the foundation of the Roman colonies of Paestum first (273 BC) and Picentia later.
    From this period onwards history is transmitted by the literary sources that record the advent of the Romans on the scene of the Tyrrhenian from when, together with the inhabitants of Paestum and Salerno, and at least up to the battle of Canne (216 BC), the Picene infantrymen courageously sided with Rome in the war against Hannibal, although in 268 BC (just before the first Punic war) they had been deported from the native Piceno to the coast between Salerno and river Sele.
    The news is given by Strabo in these terms: “AfterCampaniaand theterritoryofSamnite, up to the Frentanis, on the Tyrrhenian Sea live the people of Picentines, small group detached from the Picenes that live on the Adriatic Sea and transferred by the Romans to theGulfofPosidoniathat now is calledBayofPaestum”.
    From this settlement was therefore derived the name of Ager Picentinus. The archaeological research has not given till now consistent testimonies referable to the time in which Picentia existed. However it is necessary to consider that, especially in the area of the ancient Pontecagnano, the excavation works to be completed are still a lot and, whichever was the its condition, Picentia was certainly much reduced in comparison to the town it was in pre-Roman age.
    So it is not to be excluded that the lack of information is due to the fact that the researches did not yet touch the restricted area in which the reoccupation of the territory happened in the III century BC. The war betweenRomeand the Picentines had burst in the269 AC, the year after the taking of Reggio. The Picentines, when still settled in centralItalyon theAdriatic Sea, south of river Esinio, had joined the Romans in 299 BC in search of protection against the northern Senonis and the southern Pretutiis.
    But, once destroyed the first ones and dominated the seconds, Romans won a territory that blocked the Picentines’ one, impeding them to expand. Exactly this limitation to their liberty must have pushed them to rebellion. But they were subjugated in two campaigns, in 269 and in 268 BC.

    As a result, according to the Roman rule “divide et impera” also reminded by Cato in his “De Senectute”, a part of their country was incorporated in the Roman territory and another part confiscated; the population was deported to that area between Campania and Lucania – more precisely from the right bank of River Sele till river Sarno – that was denominated Picentine Field.
    To enjoy the status of “Latin colony” this people were bound – by a treaty of subjugation imposed and fixed by the winners – to provide military contingent in case of war.
    But they were bold people, and soon tried to regain their liberty by entering into an alliance withHannibal(247-183/182 BC).Capua, Picentia and many other cities ofCampaniaand southernItaly, taking advantage from the harshest defeat ever suffered by the Romans, took the Carthaginian General’s side.

    But Hannibal, forced to abandon the offensive for shortage of troops, growingly chased by the Romans, waiting in vain for reinforcements from homeland after the defeat of his brother Hasdrubal at Metauro (207 BC), was forced to retire in Bruttium first and then to hasten in defense of Carthage (203 BC). In 204 the Romans conquered the city ofPicentiaand, following the definitive victory of Scipio the African atZama(202 BC), after the end of the second Punic war (201 BC) took their revenge attacking the allies of Hamilcar Barca’s son.
    Picentines were therefore severely punished and put under the control of the new colony “ad castrum Salerni” created in 197 BC, as Tito Livio (64/59-12/17 AC) reports in his “lex Atinia de coloniis deducendis”, and demoted in 194. Picentia was evacuated, the town walls demolished, its inhabitants wiped out or once again deported. Those who had survived were dispersed and separated in the surrounding territories or forced to be tabellarii – messengers at the service ofRome. It is still Strabo to give us the information: “The capital of Picentines was Picentia; but they now live in scattered villages, chased by the Romans for having made common cause withHannibal. Instead of the military service, at that time they were imposed to serve theRomanStateas messengers and mail carrier likewise the Lucans and the Brettiis. In order to set up a garrison against the Picentines, Romans fortified the town ofSalerno, “a city slightly above sea level”. Not yet tamed, the Picenties participated in the italic insurrection siding, during the social bellum (90-88 BC), the federate commanded by the Samnite Emperor C. Papio Mutilo, camped inSalerno. But, after some successes inCampania, he was defeated by Lucius Julius Caesar (90 B.C.) and Caius Marius Silla (89 BC). These, according to the historian Garofalo, had camped near Picentia, in the place still today called Siglia Hollow near Fuorni. The Picentines thus experienced the fate of the other rebellious cities: razed to the ground by the cruel Silla.

    As Floro remembers (I-II sec. AD) “Neither at the time of Annibale, or at the time of Pirro, there ever were so many devastations: Otricoli, Grumento, Fiesole, Carsoli, Isernia, Nocera, Picentia were completely sacked and lay wasted by swords and fire”. Again the populations were dispersed in various villages, “vicatim et per pagos”, and nothing prevents us from thinking that many Picentines found refuge in the internal areas, in the territories of Giffoni and surroundings.

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