A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

440 Gary D. Farney

outside the city of Rome, Claudius asks and answers: “What then? Is an Italian senator
better than a provincial one?...No, I think that the provincials must not be excluded,
if they can in some way ornament the Senate” (ILS212.II.5–8; sc. Tacitus,Annales,
11.23–24; Griffin 1982). Giardina (1994) rightly marks this as one of the most impor-
tant moments in the reformulation of the ever “incomplete” identity of Roman Italy.
Still, one can envision this sort of debate happening in the Republican period whenever
the Senate considered the advantages of legislation incorporating the various Italic people
more fully into Rome. It is also not surprising that, on those occasions, aristocrats who
were most secure in their nobility and standing, as Claudius was here, would be among
the most ready to invoke an “open-door” policy for prospective senators.

Adriatic

Sea

Placentia

Verona

Patavium

Mutina

Pisae

Genoa

Populonia VetuloniaPerusia

Ancona

Ariminium

Arretium

Volsinii

Cosa

Spoletium

Narnia

Tarquirii

Ostia

Antium

Rome

Aleria

Ve i i

Terracina

Arpi

Luceria

Asculum

Venusia

Neapolis

Capua

Metapontum Tarentum

Heraclea

Thurii

Salemum

Beneventum

Paestum

Brundisium

Croton

Locri

Messana

Regium

Panormus

Lilybaeum

Agrigentum

Gela

Syracuse

Oblia

Carales

Carthage

Ligurian

Sea

Tyrrhenian Sea

HELVETII

INSUBRES

STATIELLI

ANARES

VENETI

FRINIATES

ETRURIANS

SENONI

PICENI

UMBRII

AEQUICULI

SABINI

VESTINI

MARRICINI

SAMNITES

LUCANI

MESAPPI

BRUTII

LIGURIANS

Finnum Picenum

Sentium

VOLSEI

FRENTANI

MARSI

APUANI

0 100

0 100

Miles

Kilometers

50

50

Cremona

TAURINI

Mediolanum

Parma

CENOMANI

BOII

ILLYRIANS

Territory of Rome and her allies

500

338 After the Latin war

298 Start of 3rd Samnite war

290 End of 3rd Samite war

272 End of the Pyrrhic war

264 Start of 1st Punic war

218 Start of 2nd Punic war war

Map 29.1 The Italian peninsula with Sicily.