Il vero segreto della romanizzazione dell’Umbria | Filippo Coarelli

How did Rome conquer Umbria without destroying it? In this masterclass in Todi on November 30, 2024, Filippo Coarelli reconstructs one of the most intelligent and least violent processes in Roman history: the Romanization of ancient Umbria. Not a brutal conquest, but a strategy based on alliances, infrastructure, and symbols of power. Roads like the Via Amerina, allied cities, political treaties, and urban monuments became the tools with which Rome integrated territories and communities. The case of Perugia is emblematic: a city that maintained its identity but gradually integrated into the Roman-Italic network, transforming its walls, gates, and roads into visible signs of the new political order. Through archaeology, topography, and ancient sources, this lecture shows how Rome built its dominion more with roads than with legions. A fundamental key to understanding the birth of Roman power and why Romanization was, above all, a political project.