Cult Places and Cultural Change in Republican Italy

Download or read book Cult Places and Cultural Change in Republican Italy written by Tesse Dieder Stek and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summary: This study throws new light on the Roman impact on Italic religious structures in the last four centuries BC and, more generally, on the complex processes of change and accommodation set in motion by the Roman expansion in Italy. Cult places had a pivotal function among the various 'Italic' tribes known to us from the ancient sources, which had been gradually conquered and subsequently controlled by Rome. Through an analysis of archaeological, literary and epigraphic evidence from rural cult places in Central and Southern Italy including a case study on the Samnite temple of San Giovanni in Galdo, the authors investigate the fluctuating function of cult places in among the non-Roman Italic communities, before and after the establishment of Roman rule.