Falerii Novi and the romanisation of Italy during the mid-Republic

McCall, Walter Frank

Falerii Novi and the romanisation of Italy during the mid-Republic Public Deposited

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March 21, 2019

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McCall, Walter Frank
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Classics

Abstract

According to ancient sources, Falerii Novi was founded by Rome in 241 BC following the unsuccessful revolt of the older Faliscan centre, Falerii Veteres. The circumstances of this encounter and the status of the new city have been questioned in recent years. Nevertheless, Falerii Novi emerged at the peak of pre-Augustan Roman expansion, a period which began following the dissolution of the Latin League in 338. Excavation at the site is longstanding, but also sporadic and poorly documented. The most important investigation in recent years was the geophysical survey of the walled area undertaken in the late 1990s as part of the Tiber Valley Project. The result of this undertaking is a detailed and complete city plan illuminating many of the Falerii Novi's key architectural features including the forum, theatre, baths, and elite houses without the need of excavation. In 2004, Professor Nicola Terrenato and I initiated the Falerii Novi Project as an offshoot of this endeavour. For the last three seasons, our team has engaged in an architectural survey of the city walls that surround the site in an attempt to better understand their role in the city's larger urban scheme. This dissertation attempts to reconstruct the urban horizon of Falerii Novi, drawing upon the full corpus of available data from the earliest excavations in the nineteenth century to the most recent surveys. In doing so, it identifies and clarifies a number of ambiguities within the geophysical plan. Second, it considers the role played by the city in the urban evolution that was ongoing throughout the peninsula during the mid-Republic. Finally, it seeks to better understand the political and martial circumstances surrounding the foundation of the city and its official standing in the newly organised Latium adjectum. This final discussion reconsiders the relationship between Rome and the local communities of Italy as well as the very nature of Romanisation itself, at least within the region of the ancient Faliscans.

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