APULIA, a part of Italy once inhabited by the Apuli, a Sam nite tribe (see SAMNITES) settled round Mt. Garganus on the east coast. They mingled with Iapygians (Dauni, Peucetii, Poedi culi) who, like the Mesapii, had come from Illyria, so the name Apulia reached to the border of ancient Calabria. Almost the only monument of Samnite speech from the district is the fa mous Tabula Bantina from Bantia, on the Lucanian border. This inscription is one of the latest and most important monuments of Oscan, with some southern peculiarities. (See OSCA LINGUA.) Dating between I18 and 90 B.C., it shows that Latin had not even then spread over the district. (See LUCANIA.) Far older are coins from Ausculum and Teate (later known as Teanum Apulum), the earliest being 4th century B.C. Roman or Latin colonies were few, Luceria (planted 314 B.c.) in the north and Brundisium (soon after 268 B.c.) being the chief. After the 4th and 3rd century wars a tax on cattle and sheep was paid at first to the Roman tax farmer and later to the imperial procurator. The Ro mans developed the migration of flocks and the practice still con tinues; sheep-tracks (tratturi), 35oft. wide, leading from the Abruzzi into the plain of Apulia, date at least from Roman times and are mentioned in inscriptions. The shepherds were trouble some slaves and 7,000 were condemned to death in 185 B.C. Large-scale sheep farming was detrimental to the towns, and risings occurred until the Social War. Teate was at first the chief town, then Luceria, a military post, then, under the Empire, Canusium. Once winter grazing for a million sheep, the plain now supports half that number, mainly because of the spread of cultivation.
The old road system consisted of the Via Appia (see APPIA, VIA), the Via Traiana, and the coast road, more or less parallel east-south-east. The first, east from Beneventum, entered Apulia at Pons Aufidi, and ran to Venusia, Tarentum, and Brundisium. The second, north-east from Beneventum, turned east at Aecae, and ran through Herdoniae, Canusium, Butuntum, Barium and Gnathia to Brundisium. A short cut from Butuntum to Gnathia through Caelia, ran inland. The third parallel line ran north of the Via Traiana, entering Apulia near Larinum, and thence, keeping in the plain south of Mons Garganus, rejoined the coast at Sipontum (branch at Aecae through Luceria and Arpi to the Via Traiana). It then passed through Barduli (where it was joined by a road from Canusium by way of Cannae) to Barium, where it joined the Via Traiana. From ,Barium a road probably ran through Caelia, south-south-east to the Via Appia, some 25m. N.W. of Tarentum.
Barium was an important harbour, though less so than Brun disium, and Tarentum, which, however, belonged to Roman Calabria. Apulia with Calabria, f ormed the second region of Augustus. Hannibalic and later wars, Strabo says, destroyed the prosperity of the country; in imperial times we hear little or nothing of it. Both were governed by a corrector from Constan tine onwards, but in 668 the Lombards conquered Calabria and Apulia, and then the former name was transferred to Bruttium, the meaning of the latter being extended to include Calabria also. In the 9th century the greater part of this territory was recovered by the Byzantine emperors, whose governor was called KaTa sravos, a name which, under the corrupt form Capitanata, be longed to the province of Foggia till 1861. It was conquered by the Normans under William Bras-de-fer, who became count of Apulia; it was raised to a dukedom with Calabria by Robert Guiscard in 1059, and united to the Sicilian monarchy in 1127. Fine Romanesque cathedrals were constructed under the Nor mans and the Hohenstaufen. It became part of the kingdom of the two Sicilies in 1734, and was united with Italy in 1861.
Modern Apulia comprises the five provinces of Foggia, Bari, Brindisi, Taranto and Lecce (the last three roughly the ancient Calabria), and is often known as Le Puglie; it stretches from Monte Gargano to the south-eastern extremity of Italy, with an area of 7,442sq.m. and a population of 2,486,592 (1,589,064 in 1881; 1,964,180 in 1901), bounded on the north and east by the Adriatic, south-east by the Gulf of Taranto, south by Basili cata, and west by Campania and the Abruzzi. Foggia province has mountains west and south-west and M. Gargano in the north east, but is mainly a great plain, the Tavoliere (chessboard) di Puglia, with coastal lagoons. Bari province, east-south-east of Foggia and divided from it by the Ofanto (Aufidus), the only considerable river of Apulia, 104m. long, is hilly, with coastal towns, the lack of villages is especially noticeable; in the cir condario of Barletta (north-east), there are only II communes. The other three (east-south-east) again occupy a low, flat, lime stone terrace.
Besides sheep, horses, cattle and swine are bred. A great mod ern aqueduct spreads the waters of the Sele, and cultivation is active in Bari, where grain, wine, olives, almonds, lemons, or anges, tobacco, etc. abound; much olive oil is exported. The salt works of Margherita di Savoia produce large quantities of salt, and nitre is extracted near Molfetta. Chemical industries that draw their raw materials from these products are also developing rapidly. Seafishing is also an important industry.
The main railway from Bologna to Brindisi passes all through Apulia by way of Foggia, the main railway centre of Apulia, and Bari, with several branches ; a steam tramway runs from Barletta to Bari via Andria.
The most important harbours of Apulia are Bari, Brindisi, Taranto; then follow Barletta, Molfetta and Gallipoli. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-For prehistoric remains in Apulia see T. E. Peet, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy (1909) ; and M. Gervasio, I dolmen e la civilta del bronzo nelle Puglie (Bari, 1913). For mediaeval architecture see E. Bertaux, L'Art dans l'Italie meridionale, I. (19o4) ; A. Vinaccia, Monumenti Mediaevali della Terra di Bari (Bari, 1915) ; A. Haseloff, Die Bauten der Hohenstaufen in Unter-Italien (1920.
(X.) Apulian Geometric Pottery.—The archaeology of ancient Apulia has been exceedingly obscure until the last few years, and even now its obscurity is only illumined by flashes thrown on certain parts. The legitimate iron age sequel to the Neolithic and bronze age culture of Matera and Molfetta has not yet been discovered, and the pre-history of Daunia, Peucetia and Messapia begins to take shape as a coherent whole only with the 7th cen tury. Even then our knowledge is almost confined to the pottery, but this offers a rich field for study.
The subject of the painted pottery has been put on a scientific basis by the intensive studies of Maximilian Mayer, who has identified and distinguished the products of the several provincial schools, and has established a scheme of dating which, with some slight rectifications and adjustments, due principally to Gervasio, may be considered as final. The division of schools corresponds very closely to the old pre-Roman distribution of the region into three sections. Of these the most northern is Daunia, extending from the promontory of Gargano to the most southern point in the course of the Aufidus ; next to which is Peucetia, which for purposes of this classification may be said to begin at Bari and end at Egnazia. South of a line drawn from Egnazia to Taranto, the whole heel of Italy, with Lecce as its centre, is Messapia. Each of these regions has its own peculiar and well marked style in pottery. The chronology of all three is not precisely concurrent ; actually the Daunian school is dated from about 600 to 450 B.C. and the Peucetian from 65o to 500 B.C. while the Messapian only begins at 500 B.C. and lasts for two centuries. Wholly dis tinct is a much later Daunian school confined to Canosa, which belongs to the fourth and third centuries and may be called late Canosan.
This chronology excludes any connection with the Mycenaean. Actually no single example of Mycenaean ware has ever been dis covered between the Alps and the Gulf of Taranto. But at two places in Apulia, Mattinata on the promontory of Gorgano and the Borgo Nuovo at Taranto geometric pottery of the very early iron age has been found. These two isolated discoveries, however, have yet to be explained ; they stand apart from all other Apulian products and their proper connections have not been ascertained. The pottery of Mattinata and of the Borgo Nuovo is apparently a foreign importation and its date is several centuries earlier than that of the regular Apulian schools now to be described.
Canosa and Ruvo have yielded the greatest quantity of early Daunian pottery, and were perhaps the principal, though not the only, centres for its production. It is found over the whole of Daunia from Bitonto in the south to Lucera and Teanum in the north, occasionally in Picenum, and even in Istria. In Campania also the site of Suessula has yielded several vases, produced apparently under Daunian influence.
There are four principal forms. The first is a round-bottomed footless crater with side handles and a plate-like rim (see fig. I ., nos. 3, 4, 5) ; the second is a similar crater on a pedestal. This latter (see no. i) is the shape known in Picenum, where its oc currence at Novilara puts its date at least as early as 600 B.C. From the round-bottomed crater is evolved the most peculiar and characteristic product of Canosa, viz., the double-storied jar (no. 6). The plate-like rim has been developed into a deep bowl, which becomes more and more exaggerated during the 5th century until eventually it takes up nearly half the height of the entire jar. Strange fanciful additions are then made in the way of plastic ornament. To the ordinary ring handles are added a third and even a fourth, of increasingly fantastic kind. They may take the shape of an animal's face, most like a cat or an owl, or be formed like a thumbless human hand, which had probably some talismanic value. The fourth principal shape of pot is that which is known in Greece as an askos, derived originally from an ordi nary goatskin, and known at an early date over much of Sicily and Italy, but perhaps introduced by the Greeks.
Rarer, but extremely characteristic of the Daunians, are elabo rate grotesque ritual vases (no. 8). Opposite to the spout is a female figure in ceremonial dress with a fillet on her brow, long plaits of hair hanging down on her shoulders, and circular discs covering her ears. Instead of human figures, other examples have strange creatures with birds'-heads upon necks like serpents. The wild sheep on the mountains which appear on the base and the upper zone of no. 8 are an unusual experiment in zoomorphism. Apart from an occasional drawing of this kind, always quite sche matic, the decoration of all Daunian vases is purely geometric. Squares, lozenges and triangles are the usual motives, arranged in panels of varying length and separated by vertical lines. Most of the decoration is placed on the upper half of the vase. In the school of Ruvo the fashion was to place a hanging trapezoidal figure on the lower half, but Canosa preferred horizontal bands or con centric circles on this otherwise empty field. Almost all the Daunian pottery was made by hand, but in a few of the finest craters from Ruvo the wheel seems to have been used. The deco rative designs were painted in two alternating colours, red and dark violet, generally but not always laid on a background of whitish slip. . . .
Entirely different from the Daunian pottery, both in spirit and in choice of shape and subject, is the Peucetian. Fantastic ritual vases are unknown in Peucetia ; craters, bowls and jugs are the only forms permitted, and these are decorated in a style which is both simple and harmonious. There are two main classes of Peucetian ware, the one painted in red and black (see no. 12), contemporary with imported Corinthian vases and considerably influenced by them, the other in plain black and white with a more restricted range of motives (see 7, 9, 1o, z 1). There are four principal motives in the black and white, two of which, the swastika and the comb, overshadow the others. Swastikas began to appear at just the same period on pottery in the north of Italy, and are probably an imported conception from the Danube or the Balkans. The other chief motives are the festoon, and the zigzag. Cross-hatched lozenges are common to all these geo metric schools but the Maltese cross, though only occasional, is peculiar to the Peucetians. This black and white ware goes back to 65o B.C. and has a range of about 15o years from that point downwards.
The sources of inspiration for the black and white class have been unsuccessfully sought in various places; and it seems fair to regard this ware as in the main an indigenous product. Dau nians and Peucetians, dissimilar enough in all other respects, had each inherited a certain repertoire of geometric tradition which was widely current over the Mediterranean, but each converted it into a new style which expressed the particular temperament of an inventive and artistic race.
With the red and black ware, the permeating Corinthian influ ence is readily identified, and vases of this kind have been found actually associated in the same graves with Corinthian. Here also credit must be given to the Peucetian potters for their ability in adopting new motives and transmuting them without slavish copying.
The Messapian school shows far less originality than the other two. When it appears for the first time in the 5th century, the Messapian is already a mixed style, to a great extent Hellenized. Some traces of an earlier geometric tradition still survive, though overlaid and almost stifled by the foreign innovations. In the early 5th century clepsydra, lozenge and band, the old elements of the Italian geometric, are still in existence. But the uncon taminated geometric is very rare in Messapia; the native potter can hardly resist adding his zone of Greek ivy-leaves, a maeander, a rosette, or even a bird. The chief centres of manufacture for such ware (nos. 1-9 of fig. 2) were at Rugge, near Lecce, and at Egnazia, each originally a Rhodian colony. The strongest Greek influence came therefore from Rhodian sources, though others may have had some share. The hall-mark by which all Messapian pottery, except a little of the very earliest, can be detected, is the round disc about the size of a large coin at the top and bottom of each handle. This peculiarity has caused the nickname of "torzelle" to be given to such forms as nos. i, 2, 3, 7, 8 (fig. 2). Besides these the only shapes generally employed are the crater with column or handles like 4 and 9, the jug like 5 and 6, and a simple kind of bowl.
Carefully to be distinguished from these three schools is the late Canosan, which has nothing in common with the earlier Daunian school that also flourished at Canosa, except the shape of the vase as in nos. 1o, II, 15 (fig. 2). This survived simply because it was used for certain rituals which had not changed, but all the details of its decoration are different. The date of all the late-Canosan pottery is 3rd and 4th century. The evidence of the tombs shows that Canosa became the centre of a brilliant Apulian renaissance in the 4th century, and during the third she was an important factor in the art-history of the Hellenistic world, becoming espe cially famous for large rococo works in polychrome terra-cotta, huge vases with centaurs and Cupids springing from the sides, surmounted very often by a Niobe, a Hermes, or some other statuette. At Naples there is a large collection of these, and of magnificent vases painted with scenes from Greek mythology and history. Documentary evidence proves that this collection, in cluding the famous Darius vase and all the splendid examples from Canosa now at Munich, came from the same tombs as the humbler askoi twin-situlae and "sphagia," figured as nos. 11-15 in figure 2. If the decoration of these is examined it will be seen that the whole spirit of the late-Canosan is entirely changed from that of the earlier Daunian school. In place of the lozenge, band and triangle, the primitive motives of the geometric reper toire, there are maeanders, frets, vine-leaves and egg patterns, all designs appearing on the contemporary Greek pottery. The domination of Greek fashion is complete. But the irrepressible individuality of the Daunian, even at this late stage, breaks out in another place, finding its opportunity no longer in this minor pottery, but in the large statuettes, often of quite notable beauty, and in all the fanciful accessories of the large plastic compositions.