On one hand, then, there was an almost violent expression of Roman control of the land; but on the other hand, the pattern of
Roman-organized colonization in Italy facilitated the acquisition of Latin, or eventually Roman, citizenship by Italians; it also
permitted the presence and assimilation of existing ethnic elements. Thus the foundation of the Latin colony of Ariminum (in 268)
in what had been Umbrian territory did not have an adverse effect on the major pre-Roman sanctuary of the area, outside the walls
of the colonia; rather, as the offerings show, the sanctuary continued to be central to the life of the colonia, as it had been to that of
the area before its foundation. At the other end of Italy, early inscriptions of the colony of Luceria (founded 314), on the borders of
Samnite, Lucanian, and Apulian territory, show a mixed Latin-based dialect, which presupposes a mixed population.
A second-century inscription from Aesernia in Samnium (founded 263) shows a group of 'Samnites incolae', resident Samnites,
clearly not citizens, but harmoniously established, going about their business and with their own form of corporate organization.
And we know from literary sources that a large number of Samnites and Paelignians migrated to Fregellae in the early second
century; we have no idea whether they became citizens, but their presence was clearly acceptable.
Inscription From Aesernia (isernia) (second century B.C.): dedication of a statuette to Venus by the Samnites inquolae (resident
Samnites), evidently a corporate organization of the native Samnite population within this Latin colony. Four magxstn (officers) of
the body are named. The statuette-base (front at the left, back at the right) has been reconstructed on the basis of a pre-war
drawing.
These examples of coexistence and assimilation come from those parts of Italy where the population may be defined as Italic, in
general terms ethnically and linguistically close to the Latins. There were two areas of Italy where the story was rather different,
Etruria and Gallia Cisalpina. In each case, a distinctive and remarkable culture was eventually submerged without trace, though for
rather different reasons. In the case of Gallia Cisalpina, memories of the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 and the role played by his
Gallic allies in Hannibal's invasion of Italy largely explain the brutality of the Roman conquest of the area. The first steps were
taken already in the third century with the virtual destruction of the Senones, and the policy continued in the second century (below,
pp. 408 f). In Etruria the effect of the early wars in the fifth and fourth centuries had been to create a solid swathe of Roman or