[...]... the eastern coast of Italy and often run right down to the Adriatic As a result, the northern and central areas of western Italy open up into a complex tangle of plain and hill country, which form the three major areas of Etruria, Latium, and Campania, all possessing a rich volcanic soil, enjoying a moderate annual rainfall, and destined to play the most important roles in the history of ancient Italy... be realized that while modern archaeology can often succeed in reconstructing many aspects of a past society’s material culture, there are many other important questions that excavations cannot answer In order to assess prehistoric data judiciously, we must be well aware of what archaeology can and cannot do These observations apply not only to the study of the earliest inhabitants of Italy treated... (see Wiseman 1983; Raaflaub in Raaflaub 1986, 47–51; Ungern-Sternberg in Ungern-Sternberg and Reinau 1988, 242) Consequently, since the serious study of history involves the juxtaposition and evaluation of different interpretations of the same data, another narrative history of early Rome, which adopts a more critical approach to the ancient sources, may prove to be helpful in stimulating and advancing... Po Valley was the last area of Italy to succumb to Roman arms, its geographical ties to continental Europe played an important role in the prehistory and early history of Italy by its reception of new cultural influences and peoples beyond the Alps and transmission of new ideas across the Apennines The other major area of Italy is the peninsula south of the Po Valley This region is geographically very... recovered by archaeological excavations of inhabited sites or graves Although modern archaeology has become extremely sophisticated and can call upon many scientific analytical methods, this has not always been the case Consequently, since the beginning of the modern study of Italian prehistory during the mid-nineteenth century, manifold valuable archaeological data have been lost as the result of unscientific... volume is rather critical toward the general reliability of the surviving ancient sources on early Roman history Agreeing with M.I Finley’s famous dictum that “the ancients’ ability to invent and their capacity to believe are persistently underestimated,” the author regards a critical approach as entirely justified and necessary Archaeological finds have been useful in tracing Rome s overall development... graves of a past people are discovered but not their place of residence In other instances the foundations of their huts and hearths are unearthed but not their cemetery Thus an excavated site may offer information about only certain aspects of the people’s lives Indeed, archaeological data for much of Italian prehistory are quite often confined to items that were buried with the dead, and the range... general educated reader interested in having a general but sophisticated account of early Roman history, the college undergraduate enrolled in survey or more advanced courses on ancient Rome, and the more specialized graduate student and professional scholar of classical studies and ancient history Attempting to satisfy three such divergent groups is likely to be overly ambitious; and although the author... historical linguistics have been able to arrive at many firm conclusions about the overall character of these languages and their historical links to one another.1 Before Latin began to drive the other languages of ancient Italy into extinction during the first century B.C., a substantial portion of the country’s inhabitants spoke one of four languages: Venetic, Latin, Umbrian, and Oscan, which because of. .. Po and bordering on Etruria The other major Sabellian dialect was Oscan, which was the speech of the Samnites, the non-Greek inhabitants of Campania, and the people of Lucania and Bruttium The people living in the southeastern portion of the peninsula spoke an Indo-European language called Messapic, which was not Italic but might have been related to the speech of the Illyrians, who dwelled on the Balkan . that the author at least make an attempt to acknowledge the most obvious and important ones. Thanks are due to Kurt A. Raaflaub, A. John Graham, Martin Ostwald, Michael Alexander, Brent Vine, Mark Toher,. Italici, Florence. Appian Bell. Civ. Appian, Bella Civilia Aug. Civ. Dei Augustine, City of God Caes. Bell. Gall. Caesar, Bellum Gallicum CAH Cambridge Ancient History Cat. Cicero, Against Catiline CIL Press Associates, which is supported by a major gift from Joan Palevsky.