What was happening in Rome when Homer was writing the Iliad in Greece? This book is the first detailed account in English to study both the earliest archaeological and literary evidence of Rome's earliest history, going right back to the Late Bronze Age. The book is also unique in setting the development of civilization in the context of the Mediterranean as a whole.

`this book serves the useful purpose of presenting in English a narrative that brings together important scholarship written in Italian' Gary Forsythe, American Historical Review `This volume offers pertinent analysis of the area and era which provided the "growing-ground" for the splendours which emerged in Rome in the Classical period.' Oxbow Book News `the first English-language account of this important period' Antiquity, Volume 70, Number 268, June 1996 `S.'s book valuably highlights the importance of looking at early Rome from the Bronze Age onwards ... its chief usefulness lies in the amount of scattered archaeological evidence marshalled together in English, which will be of benefit to those interested in early Italy.' Fay Glinister, University College, London, Journal of Roman Studies `For anyone who has tried to ferret out archaeological reports, let alone interpret them, Smith offers substantial help.' Religious Studies Review