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Chapter 1 opens with a survey of the foreign divinities admitted to Rome in the fifth and fourth centuries, including those imported both from Italian cities and from Greece or other overseas territories. Although foreign cults from around the Mediterranean have attracted more scholarly attention, many cities in Italy were also considered foreign, as the evocatio of Juno Regina from Veii in 396 attests. The Roman action in regard to Juno Sospita at the conclusion of the Latin Revolt in 338 is especially noteworthy, as the Romans set out to remake their relationship with Latium at this time. Roman behavior shows them either incorporating foreign divinities into their system or involving themselves in communal sanctuaries outside Rome, both of which aimed at strengthening connections between themselves and their neighbors in central Italy.

Rome had a crucial time merely surviving in its original environment, even though it was the largest of the polities of Latium. The militarism and bellicosity of Rome's competitors place Roman expansion within the long-term context of a series of war-prone interstate systems. Rome grew up within a world of rather similar city-states—“Tyrrhenian Italy”—that stretched in western Italy from Arretium in northern Etruria, at the foot of the Apennine Mountains, down to Capua in Compania, far south of Rome. There were no permanent ambassadorial missions to foreign states—to exchange information, lessen mutual opacity, and express early concerns about policies so as to head off possible crises as in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Rome was not simply an ordinary city-state in terms of its institutions, but also a not very successful city-state in terms of the achievement of even local security. Therefore, the Roman historical experience was one both of facing intense threat and of an increasing habit of command.

This chapter notes that Tivoli enjoyed a strategic position on the route between the upper and lower Anio basin, a situation which made it the key to Latium Vetus for those traveling from the area corresponding to present-day Abruzzo. It explains that the foundation of Tivoli is attributed to Tiburnus, one of the three sons of the Argive hero Amphiaraos. The chapter shows that the Tiburtines were among the Latins who fought the Romans at Lake Regillus at the beginning of the fifth century bc, immediately after which Tivoli became part of the league dominated by Rome. It also discusses the streets and structures in the Tiburtine territory. When Tivoli became a municipium after the Social War, the praetors were replaced as magistrates by the quattuorviri, who assumed the function of censors every five years (quinquennales). The most important cult, that of Hercules Victor, gave rise to a collegium of Herculanei.

This chapter presents a description of the cultural-historical background of Italy. Greek colonization in the West is covered. The primary purpose behind Greek colonization was to provide new economic opportunities for people of the Greek homeland. One principal factor contributing to the rise of the Etruscan civilization was the land's wealth in copper, iron, and, to a smaller degree, silver. Though of great importance, mineral resources alone did not account for the formation of Etruscan civilization. The growth and decline of Etruscan civilization are reviewed. The archaeological data concerning early Latium is also summarized. Latium's lack of mineral resources relative to Etruria meant that in general its communities were not as fully integrated into the commercial activities of the western Mediterranean.

This chapter addresses Livy's first book in treating the period of the early kings. The earliest Roman graves show that the people who lived at the site of Rome during the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. partook of the same Latial culture. The ancients believed that the Palatine was the initial site of Romulus' settlement, and it was thought to sustain the most venerable cults of the Roman people. The ancient literary tradition is also discussed. Archaeology can be enlisted to test in some degree the claims of the ancient literary tradition concerning two alleged public works carried out during the late regal period. Rome's growth and expanding horizons are dealt. It is stated that various indications, including modern demographic estimates and ancient historical data, seem to converge in showing that by the end of the sixth century B.C. Rome had emerged as the single most important state in Latium.

This chapter analyses the cults of Fortuna through Italy up to the first century BC. Although the evidence for the cults is mostly fragmentary, contextual information shows that diverse meanings were attached to Fortuna by a variety of agents. Latium and Campania are the regions where most of the cults are attested, and the diffusion of the deity seems to have followed that of the Latin language. There are certain recurring features common to many local cults and sanctuaries, e.g. a tendency to worship Fortuna near liminal places, with sanctuaries attested at the border of different territories and near city walls.