ABSTRACT
Recent studies of Roman imperialism in the later Republic are abundant, 1 and there are classic narratives of her early history. 2 Yet it is hard to find many works devoted primarily to the dynamics of the conquest of Italy before the First Punic War, 3 and the main concern of this essay will be to identify the structures which led Rome to expand in the period before 264, 4 and to discuss their origin, nature, and development; we shall also consider the rather cruder question of whether or 10not one should term Rome ‘aggressive’ or ‘imperialistic’ in this period. 1
