486 Lizzi Testa
properties, the origin of which the Liber Pontificalis traces back to Constantine,
is referred to in the correspondence of both Pope Pelagius I (556–61) and Pope
Gregory, as well as in a rich body of inscriptions.31 The rural settlements of
Myria and Cerillae also evolved towards urban ways of life as a result of the
presence of a bishop,32 just like Canusium and other locations in southern Italy,
now clearly identified by archaeologists.33 The massa Nicoterana (Nicotera)
in Calabria developed similarly,34 as did Pitinum (Pettino), which was not a
massa but a mansio (post station) on the Via Claudia Nova in Abruzzo, where
some rural settlements even replaced the oldest urban bishoprics. Valva, for
instance, which was a suburb of Corfinium, rose to the role of a diocese in the
5th century and likely replaced Corfinium itself. Likewise, Furconium (Civita di
Bagno), which was a vicus, supplanted the diocese of Aveia (Fossa) perhaps in
the 6th century.35
Such phenomena were so remarkable that it has been said that, in some
parts of Italy, “country Christianity created towns rather than that the towns
created country Christianity”.36 The replacement of old dioceses, which had
been established in municipal centres, by gradually emerging rural settle
ments can be explained by the tendency of Italians to abandon urban centres
in response to barbarian incursions and raids, the Gothic War, and the arrival
of the Lombards. In southern Italy, however, this took on a unique character,
partly as a result of the reorganization of this territory, which was carried out
after the loss of Africa to the Vandals in order to feed the two large court cities,
Rome and Ravenna.37 With the increasing rarity of villas and the enlargement
of those that remained, those ‘paganic’ or ‘vican’ forms of settlement (that is,
villages), which had been characteristic of the preRoman period, regained
their importance. This is because they proved to be more suitable for the new
type of production that took place between the 4th and 6th centuries, which
31 ICI 5, ed. Buonocore, nos. 10–42.
32 Otranto, Italia meridionale, pp. 65–74; Otranto, “La cristianizzazione della Calabria”,
pp. 364–6; 370.
33 Volpe, Contadini, pastori e mercanti, pp. 365–9; Cantino Wataghin/Fiocchi Nicolai/Volpe,
“Aspetti della cristianizzazione”, pp. 87–130.
34 Otranto, Per una storia dell’Italia tardoantica, pp. 421; 425–9.
35 Ibid., p. 229.
36 Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle, p. 520. The creation of rural Christianity was also one
of the great developments of this period in Gaul and Spain; see, among others, Bowes,
Private Worship, pp. 125–88; Barnish, “Religio in stagno”, pp. 387–99.
37 Vera, “I paesaggi rurali”, pp. 25–7.