Cults and the Colonies – Extra-urban Sanctuaries in a Colonial Territory

Abstract

The Roman expansion in Italy not only had political, social, and economic consequences,
it also affected the sacred landscape. With the foundation of colonies of both Roman
and Latin status local sanctuaries came under the control of settlers that brought
with them their own ideas of worship. This did not only have an impact on cult places
within the settlements, but also on those located in the surrounding territory. While
activity may primarily have focused on urban sanctuaries, the colonists and their leaders
also had to decide what to do with pre-existing extra-urban cult sites: destruction
or preservation, negligence or continuation? While previous scholarship often concentrated
on the changes in the sacred landscape brought about by Roman colonisation,
in recent years research also focuses on the continuity of cult places. This paper
discusses several extra-urban sanctuaries in Latium that were closely associated with
nearby colonies, showing that it was quite common for the colonists to integrate local
cult places into their colonial pantheon.

Keywords: colonisation, sacred landscape, Latium, early to middle Republic