fioravante inglese
HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE ORIGINS OF THE MOLISE REGION
(written by Arch. Fioravante Vignone)
The following concise historical notes concern specific moments in the history of Molise, which are considered among the most significant for both the political formation of the territory, in its historical and geographical context, and the definition of a specific identity of its population, at least those closer to its center.
These moments significantly involve the central part of Molise, the area traversed by the majority of Tratturi, primarily the Pescasseroli-Candela route, which has been the most important thoroughfare in our territory, giving rise to events and facts that are at the origin of regional history.
Central Molise is the place where the region has its oldest roots and constitutes the original nucleus. It is indeed in the historical events of this part of the regional territory that we must seek and find the matrix of the region's identity and its demographically modest population, which, over the centuries, despite this limit, has managed not to be engulfed by much larger entities that surround it. Its specificity has always been recognized, as enshrined in the Constitution, designating it as a region among others.
The historical reasons are known but not widely or commonly understood, and this unawareness significantly penalizes the ambitions and actions of those involved in politics, economy, and culture. Today, these activities must develop in comparison and competition with various other entities that draw greater strength precisely from their regional identity.
The millennia-old history of the territory confirms this assumption.
In ancient, prehistoric times, the Samnites of the Pentri tribe, recognized by the Romans as the strongest and most important among the Sannite nation and federation, settled in Central Molise by traversing the Tratturo Pescasseroli-Candela. They founded the city of Bovajanom (in Oscan), their capital. Livy, recounting the Samnite Wars, defines it as the Capital of the Samnite Pentri and describes it as very rich and abundant in weapons and men. Appian, writing in the 2nd century AD, tells us that it was a beautiful city defended by three fortresses.
Bovajanom arose on the Tratturo, where paths from Puglia, Campania, south, east, and west, Lazio, and Abruzzo converged with the road from the Adriatic Sea, namely from Termoli.
There were numerous Tratturi, but the main one was the Tratturo Pescasseroli-Candela, along which, not coincidentally, the most important cities of the Samnite people were founded: Aufidena (Castel di Sangro), Aesernia, Bovianum, Saepinim, Aequm Touticum (Ariano Irpino).
The Samnites, especially the Pentri, always felt a strong sense of otherness compared to the Romans, against whom they fought for centuries. They were the instigators of the bloody Social War (91–88 BC), which led to the destruction of Bovianum by Sulla's army and a bloody repression.
However, regional identity does not exhaust itself over time and in the sole history of the Samnite ancestors, whose memory is strong. Within the broader territory that anciently identified as Samnium, encompassing not only the entire Molise but also much of Campania and extensive parts of southern Abruzzo, with the Matese massif roughly at its geographical center, the Molise region occupied its specific political area from the Middle Ages, assuming its own identity. Starting from the 11th century and continuing until today, it has distinctly differentiated itself from other surrounding areas, always called by the same name: Molise.
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the arrival of Germanic peoples, there were no substantial changes in the political structure of the territory. Molise remained an indistinct part of the larger region that retained the ancient definition of Samnium.
From that period, there is only one event of great and uncommon historical relevance for our region, namely the settlement of a non-Italian population, the "Bulgars" or rather proto-Bulgars, in the Molise territory in the first half of the 7th century. This fact is narrated by Paolo Diacono in his Historia Langobardorum, written in the 8th century. The truth of the story was definitively proven by the exceptional discovery of the necropolises of Morrione and Vicenne, in the territory of Campochiaro (very close to Bojano), in 1987, which returned artifacts of enormous interest specific to those people. They were characterized by burials containing warriors alongside their horses, now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Campobasso, following a ritual typical of Eastern European peoples and unknown to Western populations.
Their leader, Alzecco, became the gastaldo of Bojano and established his residence there, in what was still the most important urban entity of the territory that had belonged to the Pentri.
The Gastaldato of Bojano, later renamed the County of Boiano, corresponded to the territory we are narrating: from the Castelpetroso pass to Sepino and Sassinoro, encompassing the Matese, extending north to include Macchiagodena, Frosolone, and those on the right of the Biferno, up to Castellino sul Biferno, including Campobasso.
However, it was with the arrival and establishment of the Normans that this region ended up assuming its current identity. It was then that the traditional arrangement, as defined by the Romans, underwent a radical reorganization stemming from new factual situations and the political management needs of the new Norman state, as desired by King Roger.
Already from the first decade of the 11th century, even before the Battle of Civitate on June 17, 1053, which marked the definitive loss of power by the Lombard princes, we find, in the chronicles of the time, a Norman with the title of Count of Bojano.
This was Rudolf de Moulins. He was one of the many knights who, following the Altavillas and the Drengots, driven by the desire for recognition, reached our territory to fight and seek fortune. He had to be not only a capable military man but also a skillful politician. The historian Guglielmo Apulo describes him as "..virtus et consilio pollentis et armis" - strong in virtue, counsel, and arms. He was very close to the Altavilla family, serving them in battle and diplomacy, becoming an important and influential figure.
The proof of his qualities was the progressive growth of his domains and the constant expansion of the borders of his county through the annexation of the County of Isernia, then a good part of the Terra Burrellensis, and the County of Trivento.
The prestige and power of the De Moulins continued with his descendants, particularly with his son Hugh I, who managed to annex the County of Venafro and that of Castelli Maris, or Castelvolturno. However, the possession of the latter was short-lived, and it did not fall within the borders of the future County of Molise.
Having militarily overcome resistance to his hegemonic design and achieved his definitive political affirmation as the king of Sicily and southern Italy in 1142, Roger II proceeded to a complete reorganization of the Kingdom. With the Edict of Silva Marca (1142), new administrative rules were established, and new territorial entities were defined. Among these, in July 1142, the County of Bojano was renamed the County of Molise, from the name, now Italianized, of the De Moulins family.
The County of Molise, as historian E. Jamison will state, was "the largest and most compact of the Kingdom's counties, becoming increasingly important due to its geographical position, spanning the borders between Puglia and Capua."
The County played a central role in the internal war within the southern state inherited by Emperor Frederick II, which saw Frederick himself opposed to some nobles rebelling against his investiture. The foremost among these was the Count of Molise, Thomas of Celano, husband of the last of the De Molisio, namely Judith. Molise was the stage for numerous battles and sieges of castles and fortresses, such as those of Bojano and Roccamandolfi, which eventually saw the defeat of Thomas and the assertion of Frederick's primacy.
Unlike many other territories, the Molisan one maintained its identity in the following centuries. Its territory continued to be recognized and identified first as a County and then as the County of Molise. Kings and rulers changed, but the territory that was the County of Molise always remained identified and present on the political map of Southern Italy, preserving the name assigned to it by King Roger. He believed it was right to identify this territory with the name of the De Moulins family, which had managed to aggregate and compact it around that original nucleus that was the first County of Bojano.
Bojano continued to grow and prosper until December 5, 1456, when one of the most powerful earthquakes in Italy struck it severely. The city was destroyed, and the population was almost annihilated. The government then immigrated artisans of Jewish origin, especially weavers, to restore some of the most important and productive manufactures.
In the upper city of Civita Superiore, specific accommodations were built to host them, which still today form the district of the "Giudecca." From that moment, the city lost its original strength and importance to the advantage of other centers, especially Campobasso, which gradually surpassed it in economic centrality and political significance."