Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy (35 page)

Pontine Marshes

175

23. The extremely flat Pontine plain, viewed from Sermoneta.

176

Pontine Marshes

broad-leaved water-lilies . . . I met a peasant, whose pale, yellow, sickly exterior contradicted the vigorous fertility which the marshes presented.¹²

Another traveller, an Englishman, H. Matthews, had yet another different perspective:

The Pontine Marshes, of which one has heard such dreadful accounts, appeared to me to differ but little from many parts of Cambridgeshire, though the livid aspect of the miserable inhabitants of this region is a shocking proof of its unwholesomeness. The short but pathetic reply, made to an inquiring traveller, is well known. ‘How do you manage to live here?’ said he, to a group of these animated spectres. ‘We die!’¹³

Given what is now known about the demographic effects of malaria on the inhabitants of the marshlands of early modern England, the comparison to ‘many parts of Cambridgeshire’

(before the draining of the East Anglian Fens) is entirely apposite.¹⁴

Nevertheless all the early modern travellers tended to give partial accounts of the Pontine region. For a more comprehensive description, it is necessary to turn to different types of source, for example the description of the region, concentrating on its forests, in an official Italian-government publication dating to the late nineteenth century.¹⁵ This description, which puts the beech trees in their proper position on the hilltops, explicitly compares the Pontine forest to the tropical forests of equatorial regions, a description which is justified, since the flooded Pontine forest undoubtedly ¹² Andersen (1845: ii. 1–3).

¹³ Matthews (1820: 167–8).

¹⁴ Nicholls (2000).

¹⁵ Chapter in
Monografia
(1881) entitled
Sulle condizioni dell’agricoltura e pastorizia della provincia di Roma
, pp. xcix and cx–cxi: ‘
Questo regione non apparisce che come un vasto terreno paludoso, interse-cato qua e là, segnatamente verso il mare, da selve annosissime, che la credenza sulla loro efficacia per diminuire il flagello delle malarie, o piuttosto le difficoltà dei trasporti, riparmiarono fino a qui . . . Queste piante
[sc.
il pistacchio lentisco, il ramerino, la Daphne collina, la filaria e il mirto
]
unite insieme formano [sc. on the sandy soils closest to the sea]
talora dei macchioni densissimi che diventano anche pressochè insuperabili, quando ad essi si aggiungono formando quasi un graticulato di liane, le smilaci, le viti selvatiche e le clematidi. Più dentro terra, ma sempre in grande vicinanza del mare, e qualche volta anche in immediato contatto di questo, si hanno selve di alto fusto costituite da cerri, da quercie peduncolate, da olmi e da frassini.

Le più grandi di queste selve sono rimaste nella striscia di terra, che fiancheggia il mare nelle palude Pontine, e non di rado anche queste rimangono impenetrabili a cagione delle acque che invadono il suolo. Non sappiamo se altrove, in Italia e fuori, si possa avere una immagine degli smisurati boschi delle regioni equatoriali, migliore di quella che offrir possono i boschi Pontini . . . nelle parti ondulate e nelle colline si hanno i boschi cedui semplici ed i boschi cedui con sgamolli o capitozze. Le specie dominanti in questi boschi cedui sono quasi sempre quercie rovere e quercie peduncolate con mistura di lecci e di arbusti, come l’albero di Giuda, il cornio-lo, il nocciolo, ecc. Se dalla pianura e terreni adiacenti si risale ai monti, si trovano qua e là boschi di quercie e di castagno, a ceduo od a fustaja, e poi finalmente, verso le sommità dei monti, il faggio, il quale rappresenta in questi luoghi, come nelle rimanenti parti dell’Appennino, l’albero più diffuso
’. Cf. Quilici (1979: 77).

Pontine Marshes

177

resembles, on a much smaller scale, some of the rain forests in South America, for example.

Having gained some impressions of this environment in more recent times, it is necessary to consider whether the Pontine environment was the same in antiquity. There are indeed various indications that the Pontine Marshes might once not have been quite so intimidating as Berti’s description suggests, or at least not have occupied as extensive a geographical area as they did in the early modern period. Pliny the Elder described the Pontine Marshes as an area in which there were once twenty-four cities, suggesting that there had once been considerable human occupation of the area: Another marvel, next to Circeii, is the Pontine Marsh, where there were twenty four cities according to Mucianus, three times consul.¹⁶

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
.

178

Pontine Marshes

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.

Pontine Marshes

179

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.

180

Pontine Marshes

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 Pontine 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
.