How Roman Hegemony Shaped the Social Landscape of Ancient Umbria

Abstract

This thesis serves as a diachronic study of the development of walls and roads in ancient Umbria. By taking into consideration a wide variety of archaeological, epigraphic, and literary evidence, the changes to the roads and walls associated with the Umbrian settlements of Ocriculum and Spoletium are examined over three distinct periods. The Pre-Roman Period, the Transitional Period, and the Period of Integration are loosely defined by major shifts in the development of these features in conjunction with the major historical events of the Italian peninsula relevant to the central Apennines. Taking recent schools of thought regarding the unification and Romanization of Italy into consideration, I critically consider how Roman hegemony shaped the social landscape of Umbria, as well as how the Umbrians responded to the changes in their circumstances. This is a broad survey of a wide variety of scholarship and cannot cover many complicated topics thoroughly but does highlight interesting elements of the development of Umbria from the Pre-Roman Period through the reign of Augustus.