ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

'Romanization' across the peninsula, if only because this entity comprised very manyelite persons and groupings with various, often conflicting, motives and interests."Most scholars seem to agree that, while the colonies may have had some sort of Romanpolitical framework by which they set up their community, there was no blanketimposition of Roman culture on the non-Roman or local populations, uniform to allcolonies. 39If the Roman state did not impose its culture on the colonies, how can we accountfor the cultural similarities and variations between various colonies and Rome? It isnecessary to differentiate between the deliberately prescriptive processes, which thecommissioners may have imposed as part of the founding framework of the colony, andembedded cultural processes, which the colonists may have adopted as unspoken needsfor human life. 40Similarly but in terms of monumental structures, Zanker cautions thatone must distinguish between official building activity, e.g. decisions by communities toconstruct particular buildings, and privately funded initiatives. 41These categorizationsare necessary, even if difficult to determine for the middle Republic, because theintercultural adoption of practices is "an active process of creative appropriation,manipulation, and transformation," whether it is accomplished by an individual or socialgroup and for whatever political, cultural, or religious interests or strategies. 42To addressthe complexities of this process, given the limited evidence available, I propose to draw38 Glinister (2006), p. 24.39 Lomas (2004), pp. 199-201.40 Bispham (2000), pp. 157-158.41 Zanker (2000), p. 25. Zanker assumes that official building activity in the colonies was sponsored by theRoman state, although this is not clear for all colonies. In addition to differentiating official from privateinitiatives, Zanker also urges that there be a distinction between deliberate planning and anonymousalterations.42 Dietler (2005), pp. 62-63.13