E pluribus unum?

the long version

The project ±E pluribus unum»? Italy from the pre-Roman fragmentation to the Augustan unity aims to give (thanks to a set of three volumes) a picture of the peoples of ancient pre-Roman central Italy and of the contribution made by them to the formation of the ±unaccomplished identity» of the Italian peninsula during the late-Republic and Empire. Each book is the outcome of a conference, dedicated to a specific chronological period and to its problems. 0The first volume, centred on the phase preceding the Roman conquest of the peninsula, takes into consideration a selection of peoples: Sabini, Umbri, Piceni, Samnites, Campani, Lucani, Volsci, Falisci, Capenates and Latini. For each of them the following themes are tackled in detail: the emergence of the ethnos in ancient written sources and the possibility of recognizing a cultural specificity in the archaeological record, the link between the ethnos and the territory, and the relationship with the neighbouring ethne. 0The peoples are analysed individually each by a couple of scholars, highlighting the expression of diverse European academic traditions from different scientific.