Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy
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The archaeologists who are surveying the Pontine area believe that these lost cities were mainly situated in the region immediately south of Velletri, following Nicolai’s interpretation two hundred years ago, in other words they were not actually located in the marshes themselves, although the wetlands were certainly exploited. In the seventeenth century the marshes proper stretched from Cisterna to Terracina, according to Doni.¹⁷ The most famous of these lost cities was Suessa Pometia, which gave its name to the whole Pontine region. It vanished so completely after its destruction by the Romans that even its precise location is not known for sure (perhaps at ancient Satricum, or near modern Cisterna).¹⁸
Atina, east of the marshes, is explicitly linked to death from disease by Servius, the ancient commentator on Virgil:
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 malaria is endemic, since these areas offer the best prospects for agriculture. Mediterranean wetlands are extremely productive ²¹ Livy 1.53.2, 1.56.3, 2.9.6, 2.34.3–5, 6.5.1–5, 6.6.1, 6.21.4, 7.15.12, 9.20.6; Polybius 3.22; Mommsen (1894: 447); Cancellieri (1990); Quilici Gigli (1997); Traina (1990: 22–3); De Felice (1965: 93–4) for the maintenance of very large herds of animals in winter and spring in the Pontine Marshes in the early modern period; Cornell (1995: 268, 304–9, 323–4). For the Roman colonization of Circeii see also Dionysius Hal. AR 4.63.1, 8.14.1–2, and Plutarch, Coriolanus 28. Dionysius Hal. AR 2.49.4–5 records a strange tradition of a Spartan colonization enterprise in the Pontine region in the archaic period.
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today. For example, the agricultural zone of the Ombrone river valley within the Parco Regionale della Maremma, near Grosseto, yields some of the highest levels of agricultural productivity in Tuscany today. However, in the past in order to access this wealth it was necessary to risk one’s life. The nineteenth century Italian proverb quoted by George Dennis encapsulates the situation: ‘In the Maremma one becomes rich in a year, one dies in six months.’²²
Mammucari commented on the situation in the Roman Campagna as follows:
Between the certain death from starvation and the probable death caused by the Anopheles mosquito, the latter was almost always preferred . . . men defied death in order to make a living.²³
Similarly agricultural land in the territory of the former Pontin
e Marshes is extremely productive today. De Tournon noted that the depopulation of the Volscian territory must be ascribed to mal’aria because the land was extremely fertile.²⁴ He observed that the fertility of the parts of the Pontine Marshes which had been drained by Pope Pius VI in the late eighteenth century was so great that wheat could be grown several years in succession, without any need for fallow periods.²⁵ Mediterranean wetlands were surely equally potentially productive in antiquity, even though the ancient Romans and Greeks failed to figure out the best way of exploiting their economic potential, namely rice cultivation. Although very attractive for economic reasons, malaria turned many European wetlands in the past into death-traps. In early modern England agricultural labourers were constantly attracted to the marshes of Kent and Essex because of their great economic potential, but suffered very high mortality from P. vivax malaria (see Ch. 5. 4
above). Similarly in late medieval Italy there was a tendency towards migration, within the territory controlled by Florence, from the uplands towards the Maremma of Pisa and Volterra, ²² Dennis (1878: 205): in Maremma s’arricchisce in un anno, si muore in sei mesi.
²³ Mammucari (1991: 66): tra la morte certa per inedia e quella probabile a causa della zanzara anofele, quasi sempre veniva preferita quest’ultima…l’uomo sfidava la morte per guadagnarsi la vita.
²⁴ De Tournon (1831: i. 117) on the territory of ancient Corioli: Maintenant il est absolument désert . . . deux maisons délabrées que pendant l’été habitent quelques pauvres fiévreux représentent quatre villes puissants remplies d’une population vigoureuse. Ainsi sans cesse nous voyons les effets terribles du climat, car ce n’est pas la fertilité qui manque aujourd’hui à ces belles plains, où les blés les plus épais alternent avec les pâturages les plus abondans, et où succèdent le maïs, le riz, l’avoine et les fèves.
²⁵ De Tournon (1831: i. 320): Les terres à froment pourraient être semées plusieurs années de suite, tant est grande la fécondité de cette alluvion.
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which was intensely infested with malaria at the time. The attractions of marshlands for economic reasons explain why some people would always migrate there in the past in spite of their dreadful reputation for malaria. Migration can explain how areas where death rates persistently exceed birth rates remain populated.²⁶
The upshot of all this is that the fact that the region of the Pontine Marshes apparently had a flourishing agricultural economy in the fifth and early fourth centuries does not prove that P. falciparum malaria was completely absent from the scene, since the area was very attractive for economic reasons. Unfortunately, little is heard thereafter about the Ager Pomptinus in literary sources for a period of about two centuries, a period for which detailed information would be extremely useful. Appius Claudius constructed the Via Appia from Rome through the Pontine Marshes to Capua in Campania in c.312 . Quilici Gigli observed that certain details of the road’s construction imply that cuniculi over which it passed were still operational, and Nicolai argued that the construction of the road implies that the region through which the road was to run was not already filled with marshes then. Traina’s argument that the region did not receive the name of Pomptinae paludes until the first century , having previously been called ager Pomptinus, also deserves to be noticed, although there is a shortage of relevant literature antedating the first century . Nevertheless there is no doubt that the construction of the Via Appia altered natural drainage patterns and so created suitable conditions for the spread of the mosquitoes which transmit malaria. The account of the Via Appia given by Diodorus Siculus lays stress on the cuttings and embankments constructed by Appius Claudius, features whose construction is known from modern experience to create mosquito breeding sites.²⁷ Horace observed the abundance of mosquitoes in ²⁶ Dobson (1980), (1994) and (1997); Herlihy and Klapisch-Zuber (1985: 112); Sallares (1991: 22–4) on rice in antiquity.
²⁷ Diodorus Siculus 20.36.2: t[ß åf’ ‰autoı klhqe≤shß !pp≤aß Ødoı tÏ ple∏on mvroß l≤qoiß stereo∏ß katvstrwsen åpÏ
suppl. xiii (1973: cols. 1494 ff.); Nicolai (1800: 67–74); Quilici Gigli (1997: 197); Traina (1988: 113).
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the Pontine Marshes during his famous trip along the Via Appia in 36 , heading for Brundisium.²⁸
The Via Appia was subsequently rebuilt by Nerva and Trajan.
Procopius was impressed by the state of the Via Appia as late as the sixth century and described the road as one of the wonders of the world, although it is striking that Justinian’s general Belisarius chose not to march along it during the Gothic Wars. Both Strabo and Procopius mentioned the Decemnovium, a canal that ran alongside the Via Appia for nineteen miles through the Pontine Marshes, usurping the function of the road.²⁹ The construction of the canal is surely an admission that by the first century the Pontine territory was permanently marshy. It was not normal Roman practice to build a canal alongside a road. The Pontine territory probably required little encouragement to become marshy. It is a very lowlying land which receives up to about 900 mm of rainfall annually. In addition, it received water from a number of rivers: De Tournon listed eight in the nineteenth century: from north to south, the Tepia, Ninfa, Cavatella, Cavata, Ufente, Amazena, Scaravazza, and Pedicata.³⁰ Of course the river system has changed since antiquity in the Pontine region as elsewhere in western central Italy. Nevertheless the Ufente and the Amazena were probably particularly important with respect to the amount of water brought in. Since these rivers originated in the hills of Latium, breaking up by deforestation of the upland forests described by Theophrastus (Ch. 4. 6 above) would have increased the flow of water to the Pontine territory. Nicolai argued that as late as the time of Strabo only the rivers Ufente and Amazena (or Amaseno) contributed water to the region of the marshes proper.
He suggested that the other rivers only started to drain into the marshes during the time of the Roman Empire.³¹ This question requires more research by geologists. Similarly de la Blanchère argued that the marshes occupied a smaller area in the archaic ²⁸ Horace, Sat. 5.14–15: Mali culices ranaeque palustres avertunt somnos.
²⁹ Procopius, BG 1.14.6–11; 1.11.2; Strabo 5.3.6.233C; di Vita Evrard (1990) studied the inscriptions recording the work of Nerva and Trajan on the Via Appia, also recorded by Cassius Dio 68.15, (t3 te 1lh t¤ Pompt∏na „dopo≤hse l≤q8 (and he built a stone road across the Pontine Marshes), cf. Galen 10.633K; Nicolai (1800: 93–101) on the activities of Nerva and Trajan in the Pontine Marshes.
³⁰ De Tournon (1831: ii. 221); Cancellieri (1986); Festus, p. 212L, noted that the tribus Ufentina was named after the River Ufente.
³¹ Nicolai (1800: 101), cf. Quilici (1979: 65).
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period. He maintained that they only expanded after the extermination of the Volscian population by the Romans.³²
Nevertheless there had probably always been some marshes.
Livy described Terracina (the former Volscian city of Anxur) as surrounded by marshes in 406 . This was probably true, even though Terracina was able to flourish later in Roman times because the ancient settlement lay on the side of a hill, a reasonably healthy location, above the modern town.³³ However, human activity of all sorts in the surrounding region gave the marshes and mosquitoes all the e
ncouragement they needed to spread. Besides road building and deforestation in neighbouring areas, it is conceivable that farmers deliberately attempted to fill in some low lying parts of the Pontine Marshes by diverting rivers or streams to bring in alluvial sediments and so silt up the land. This interpretation, as colmatage deposits, of some of the alluvial sediments in the Pontine territory was given by the team of Dutch archaeologists from Amsterdam who carried out the Agro Pontino survey.³⁴ The consequence is that some land, which was previously permanently flooded, might subsequently have only been flooded seasonally, principally in winter, making it more useful for the mosquitoes.
Livy records that a plague of locusts occurred in the Ager Pomptinus in 173 . Similar events frequently occurred in Latium in the early modern period, for example in 1758, 1807/8, 1810/12, and almost continuously for a dreadful eighteen-year period from 1767 to 1784.
The build up of locust populations was favoured by a system of extensive cultivation with long fallow periods, which encouraged locusts to lay eggs.³⁵ This extensive pattern of land use was imposed ³² de la Blanchère (1884: 48–50). He attempted to explain the origin of the marshes in the Maremma in the same way, by the destruction of the Etruscans by the Romans.
³³ Livy 4.59.4: Anxur fuit, quae nunc Tarracinae sunt, urbs prona in paludes; Nicolai (1800: 52–4) on Terracina; De La Blanchère (1884) catalogued all the documentary evidence for the history of Terracina in antiquity.
³⁴ J. Sevink et al. in Voorips et al. (1991: 41). Attema (1993: 106) observed that there is no evidence that colmatage/sedimentation in the Pontine plain was ever deliberately provoked by man in antiquity. However, Alexander (1984) emphasized the importance of colmatage in the early modern drainage of the Val di Chiana. It is not clear when the technique originated.
³⁵ Livy 42.2.5: Pomptinum omne velut nubibus lucustarum coopertum esse (it is said that the whole Pontine plain was covered by clouds, as it were, of locusts); De Felice (1965: 36 n. 14) on locusts in Lazio. Cassius Dio 56.24.3 mentioned locusts in Rome in 9. Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, iv.2, ed. G. Waitz (1878), Monumenta Germaniae Historica, xlviii ( Scriptores 7) described a plague of locusts in 591–2: Davis (1995: 299, 307) mentions plagues of locusts during the reign of Pope Hadrian III in the 880s . See also Sallares (1991: 27–8) on locusts in antiquity.