ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

worship as well as continuing their own (Figure 4.2, B). Prosperity often broughtmonumentalization of the religious environment (Figure 4.2, D). As always, though, thelandscape influenced the religious practices of the colonists and the locals as they stroveto adjust to each other's adaptations of the religious landscape (Figure 4.2, B and C).Through this cross-pollination of religious ideas, the colonists and locals built acommunity. With the evidentiary cautions introduced in Chapter 1 (pp. 44 f.) in mind, letus turn to analysis of the development of sacred landscapes in Fregellae, Paestum, andSora. The focus of this chapter will be temples, which are securely positioned in thelandscape, as well as votive deposits, which indicate the presence of sanctuaries for whichthe exact location is sometimes conjectural. The following discussion demonstrates twopropositions: first that the religious landscapes of these colonies were distinct from oneanother and also from Rome; and, second, that the cults acted to define boundaries,demarcate colonial space, claim common Italic or Mediterranean identities, and integratevarious waves of colonists and locals into one, more or less unified community.The Religious Landscape in FregellaeFregellae lies along the left bank of the Liris River, in a place that was ideal to controlboth the access across the Liris near the junction with the Melfa River and also the routebetween southern Latium and northern Campania and the Tyrrhenian Sea. 17Due to theextreme strategic importance, this area was highly contested among the Volsci (originalinhabitants), the Samnites (western neighbors of the Volsci), and the Romans, amongSalmon (1970), p. 57. Maggi and Troso (2007), p. 263.156