This volume collects the proceedings of a workshop held in 2010. Its papers are of great relevance to the current debate on the ‘Romanization’ of religious life in Republican Italy, and on ‘Romanization’ in general. It includes twelve papers in English, Italian and German — a welcome example of multi-national collaboration. As Tesse Stek states, the emphasis of the work is on the way in which religion and cult could be used by Italians to manipulate and create social structures, and to construct and strengthen local identities. He gives a clear overview of past scholarship on religious change after the Roman conquest, which assumed a decline in rural cult sites, while urban sites were incorporated into the Roman cultural framework. This would have occurred especially through the influence of Latin colonies, which were assumed to have served as models for ‘Romanization’. Against this, the volume argues that existing debates neglect other, non-Roman types of cultural influence on Italy, such as Greek or general Mediterranean influence. Furthermore, the cultural influence of colonies has recently been revised. Finally, there was no co-ordinated Roman policy, so that much local variety in religious developments persisted. S. therefore emphasizes the importance of looking at the context of cult sites: their social and economic environment, their cultural interaction with Rome and their material culture.
Although Rome generally did not concern itself closely with Italian cult sites, the conquest still impacted them in many ways. General political and economic developments in Italy meant that some religious sites started or continued to function as regional administrative, political and/or economic centres. In effect, a sliding scale existed, from complete disappearance to full continuity and even expansion of pre-existing cult sites. But a strict temporal divide between pre- and post-conquest Italy cannot be maintained: not all changes were the result of Rome's conquest, and those that were did not always occur immediately after the conquest, but often (much) later.
Several papers offer interesting illustrations of the developments outlined by S.. De Cazanove reinvestigates anatomical ex votos. These used to be seen as examples of Roman influence in Italy, but this view was recently challenged. De Cazanove connects these votives to the cult of Aesculapius, which became popular in some areas of Italy from the early third century onwards. However, anatomical votives spread through Italy independently from Aesculapius' cult, and could be appropriated by Italian peoples for their own purposes. Känel focuses on the sanctuary of Aesculapius in Fregellae and its terracotta decoration programme. He concludes that it dates to c. 180 b.c.e. and presents revolutionary innovations in temple architecture.
Fracchia builds on her previous work on Lucania by connecting religious developments to the regional economy. The settlement pattern changed, so that some religious sites disappeared because they were no longer located close to habitation areas. However, contrary to what was argued earlier, this was not the result of the foundation of the colony Buxentum, but of internal changes in the Lucanian economy.
Dillon's paper investigates some of the religious laws surrounding sanctuaries. Although temples which were not located on Roman soil were officially not entitled to any protection, in practice Roman commanders often respected them. This was based on a certain feeling of equality between Rome and Italy, at least with regard to the respect that the gods deserved. It was only in the second century that a feeling of Roman superiority emerged.
The issue of the importance of colonies as models of Roman culture is taken up by Glinister. She emphasizes the great freedom of action awarded to colonial founders, who established the colonies' major religious cults. This meant that each colony venerated different cults, and therefore that a single model cannot be determined.
The archaeological evidence for religious change is discussed by Burgers. He points to the emergence of a cultural koine covering most parts of Italy, as shown by more inter-regional exchange of pottery and other products. This koine not only covered religious culture, but also building techniques and agricultural innovations. S.'s points on the continuity of cult places are further explored by Battiloro and Osanna. They discuss the developments of several Lucanian cult sites, and indeed find that some disappeared, while others continued and participated in a koine culture — which, however, they see as directly resulting from Roman influence. Sirano, Tagliamonte and Sardella all discuss the ‘Romanization’ of cult sites in Campania and Samnium. They conclude that, although the religious landscape changed drastically after the Roman conquest, this was not directly due to influence from Rome, but to internal changes in the areas in question.
Finally, Torelli focuses on municipalia sacra, that is, the survival of religious cults in Italian towns into the imperial period. Some of these indeed continued straight from the pre-Roman period, while others were reinvented in the late republican or early imperial period, in order to strengthen local identities, although in the latter case they were often very different from the actual earlier cults.
The volume offers much-needed reinterpretations of the debate on religious changes in Roman Italy. Not all papers are equally innovative, nor do they all engage closely with S.'s programmatic introduction, but each has many interesting insights to offer. Moreover, most revisions offered here for religion are also valid for other areas of life, such as the economy or social structures. This volume is therefore essential for anyone interested in Italy in the Republican period.
