To browse Academia. This volume explores how recent findings and research provide a richer understanding of religious activities in Republican Rome and contemporary central Italic societies, including the Etruscans, during the period of the Middle and Late Republic.
While much recent research has focused on the Romanization of areas outside Italy in later periods, this volume investigates religious aspects of the Romanization of the Italian peninsula itself.
The chapters strive to integrate literary evidence with archaeological and epigraphic material as they consider the nexus of religion and politics in early Italy; the impact of Roman institutions and practices on Italic society; the reciprocal impact of non-Roman practices and institutions on Roman custom; and the. From introductory texts to collections of essays such as this, good books on Roman and Italian religions are no longer, it seems, in short supply. Rome rapidly expanded in the Republican period, and conquered the entire Italian peninsula with its wide variety of city-states and tribes.
However, literary and epigraphic evidence points at the political and ideological importance of cult sites especially in conflict situations. Moreover, during the period of conquest and political incorporation, incisive changes in religious practices as well as in the cult sites where these were performed, are documented all over the peninsula.
This volume explores the development of religious practices and cult places in the conquered Italic areas, and the role of Rome and its colonies in it. Rather than denying Roman impact and intentionality altogether, it assesses the potential influences of Roman expansionism on the sacred landscapes of ancient Italy in wide and variegated terms.
