Author: F. Belfiori

Download article as .pdf: Sacra Ariminensia. Fondamenti culturali e fisionomie identitarie di una colonia latina

This paper aims to shed light on the religious structure of the Latin colony of Ariminum, through the revision of some archaeological and epigraphic documents, coming from different locations in the Gallic and Piceno territories and dating between 3rd and 2nd cent. BC. It is possible to identify Roman families and urban élites engaged in the conquest of central Italy as main vectors through whom the ideological  nd religious heritage of mid-Republican Rome and Lazio flowed into the institutional and official systems of the Adriatic colonial centres, shaping their cultural and identity structures. Therefore, the adhesion of the colonists to cults and ritual customs of familiar traditions of those who had sponsored the conquest and colonization of new territories, may have represented some of the most effective tools through which the colonists manifested their cultural identity and renewed social bonds, loyalty and political belonging, as well. At the same time, religion represented a privileged terrain upon which to conduct political and cultural dialogue with local communities, infunction of their approach and integration.