Ager Brundisinus tardo-repubblicano: dall’archeologia dei paesaggi al loro racconto

The paper aims to resume the archaeological researches carried out by the University of Siena in the countryside of Brindisi (Apulia) between 1991 and 1994. Particular emphasis is placed on the model of agricultural management represented by the property of Visellius situated near Giancola. Certainly the production of oil was also found in the Messapians landscape, but there is no doubt that there was a sharp acceleration after the first stage of the Roman conquest, in the second century BC. The model of a residential villa seems to be still the one described by Cato in De agri cultura: a villa rustica placed in the middle of a medium-large property. The model of agrarian management, however, seems decidedly more sophisticated. It is closer to the plantation linked to the villa perfecta of Varrone, characterized by a very advanced capitalistic-commercial sector. Maybe it was the extreme sophistication of this system to determine early crisis and the shift to more extensive forms of management, which predict the formation of large estates. The fundus of Visellius represents at the same time the extraordinary ability of the Roman possessores to realize a capitalist agriculture even in regions very far from the Urbe and the weakness of the too advanced economic formations.