This book brings together sources translated from a wide variety of ancient languages to showcase the rich history of pre-Roman Italy, including its cultures, politics, trade, languages, writing systems, religious rituals, magical practices, and conflicts.
This book allows readers to access diverse sources relating to the history and cultures of pre-Roman Italy. It gathers and translates sources from both Greek and Latin literature and ancient inscriptions in multiple languages and gives commentary to highlight areas of particular interest. The thematic organisation of this sourcebook helps readers to make connections across languages and communities, and showcases the interconnectedness of ancient Italy. This book includes maps, a timeline, and guides to further reading, making it accessible to students and other readers who are new to this subject.
Italy Before Rome is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, including those who have not studied the ancient world before. It is also intended to be useful to researchers approaching this material for the first time, and to university and schoolteachers looking for an overview of early Italian sources.
List of maps and figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations and conventions
Maps
Timeline of major events
Introduction
Chapter 1: Origins
Chapter 2: Etruscan Life and Death
Chapter 3: Great Greece
Chapter 4: From Samnites to Italians
Chapter 5: Alphabets, Literacy and Names
Chapter 6: Gods and Humans
Chapter 7: Rituals and Sacrifice
Chapter 8: Magic and Divination
Chapter 9: Italy at War
Index locorum
Subject Index
Biography
Katherine McDonald is an Assistant Professor in Roman History at Durham University, UK, and has previously worked at Cambridge and Exeter. Her previous work includes Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily: Evaluating Language Contact in a Fragmentary Corpus.