ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

although the Soran Hercules was a nature deity as opposed to the primarily pastoralFregellan Hercules and urban Paestan Hercules. The other exception does not relate towho was worshipped, but how. Votives found on Monte San Casto in Sora were similarto those used also in Fregellae. This is a piece of precious evidence of shared religiouscustom between colonial populations along the Liris river valley. It most likely indicatesthat the two colonies had open lines of communication rather than that this customderived from a common source, i.e. Rome.IV.ConclusionsEach of the religious systems in Fregellae, Paestum, and Sora proved to be different, bothfrom one another and from that of Rome. This is no surprise given the importance of thelocation of the sanctuary in defining the god who was worshipped there, e.g. the shape ofthe sanctuary and nearness to water that characterize cults of Aesculapius. As withHercules and Silvanus at Sora, the landscape could also suggest to the colonists what sortof gods they should worship. Not all colonies had the right natural conditions for everygod known throughout Italy and the Mediterranean. Thus, the uniqueness of each andevery colonial religious system follows logically from the fact that the landscape of eachcolony was different.Moreover, as seen with Appian's report of the debate between Banno andCensorinus about whether the Carthaginians should leave Carthage, the temples in a cityhelped define who the citizens were: they were the people who lived in this city andmaintained the pax deorum with these gods. When colonists entered the place, they too190