Had they migrated from the east, as Latin writers such as Virgil and Cicero supposed, or were they indigenous to the region? For the author, the important question is “how their distinctive culture came into being in Italy”-the diffusion of objects, standards of taste, religious cults, etc. Abulafia weighs in on the dispute over the origins of the Etruscans who preceded the Romans and built the first cities in Italy. In this massive companion piece to The Mediterranean in History (2003), the author looks at the role played by trade, as opposed to physical migration of populations, in diffusing cultures and religion, as well as that of naval warfare and conquest. The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus, 2008, etc.) provides a “history of the Mediterranean Sea, rather than a history of the lands around it.” Abulafia (Mediterranean History/Cambridge Univ.
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