Studies on the Italian Fora. Historia. Zeitschrift f�r Alte Geschichte. Einzelschriften (32).

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Einband leicht berieben, Ecken besto�n, insgesamt altersbedingt vergilbt, sonst guter Zustand / Binding slightly rubbed, corners bumped, overall age yellowed, otherwise good condition. - INTRODUCTION Roman colonies and colonization have been dealt with in a great number of studies during the last hundred years. The study of the Roman municipia has been less popular, but during recent decades they too, have received an ever increasing amount of scholarly attention. In this light it is rather surprising that no general survey has been attempted on the fora except for Beloch�s short chapter on them in his Der italische Bund unter Roms Hegemonie, which was published almost a hundred years ago, and the �Forum� article by Schulten in Pauly-Wissowa�s Real-Encyclop�e der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft1. No doubt the primary reason for this scholarly neglect of the fora has been the fact that for once, all problems seemed to have been neatly solved already long ago. Indeed, ever since the Renaissance2 it has been a unanimously accepted view that the fora were road-posts founded by Roman consuls or censors in connection with the building of the Roman Viae3. It is only quite recently that these ideas have received some airing by two scholars. Radke, while writing about Roman roads, claimed that the fora were founded not only as road-posts on the Viae, but exactly halfway along them4. On the other hand, while writing on Italian manpower, Brunt pointed out that all the fora need not have been founded during the same years the Roman roads were constructed5; incidentally, Beloch also suggested this, though so far little heed has been paid to his words6. The object of this study is to gain some fresh insight on the fora by focusing the attention on the fora themselves. To this purpose the concept forum, the prevalent ideas about the fora, their rise, dating, nomenclature, administration and territories will be discussed in the light of the ancient literary sources. Also the archaeological evidence which has never been discussed in connection with the fora will be dealt with, meagre though it is. As the sites of several places that bore the name forum in the ancient sources are not known, a special chapter is also devoted to their identification.