ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

its own colonies, especially in terms of when or if money for temple building came out ofRome. 136By looking more deeply at the evidence for Roman involvement in templebuilding, modern scholars are seeing that there is little evidence that the Roman state hada consistent policy regarding the religious 'Romanization' of the colonies. This is wherethe questions of religious choice and identity come in.Instead of assuming direct Roman control over religion, scholars have beenfocusing on the specific deities involved across many colonies in order to nuance therelationship between colonization and religion in the colonies. For example, Bisphamexplores the idea that there were a specific set of gods involved in Roman colonization,although not necessarily the patron gods of Rome. He cautions that the phrase 'gods ofcolonization' does not imply that some deities were "used to mediate and propagate newideologies of power, and make clear Roman conquest and local subjugation." 137Rather,certain gods, such as Hercules, Apollo, and Diana, were prominent in many colonies notbecause they were Romano-centric deities but because they represent a concurrence ofLatin, local, and Mediterranean religious elements.This new focus accounts forchoice of deities in polytheistic religion, and opens the question of what the colonists aresaying about their own identity by choosing to worship multi-cultural gods.136 Glinister (2006), n. 62. In particular, Pisaurum did not get a contract let for the temple of Jupiter for tenyears after its foundation. Harvey, Jr. (2006, pp. 129-132) also comments on the fact that Q. FulviusFlaccus (cos. 179) did not authorize building contracts for construction projects, such as temples andhighways, in Roman (not Latin) colonies until 174 BCE.'"Bispham(2006), p. 113.138 Ibid. pp. 113-117.41