The birth of Italy : the institutionalisation of Italy as a region 3rd 1st century BCE This book deals with the widely debated question about the existence of an Italian identity in the time of the Roman Republic. Moving from theories and models developed in the field of social geography the volume investigates the forms in which Italy was transformed into a region with a clear territorial and symbolic shape and approaches therefore from a new and original direction the question of the development of a regional identity. Provided by publisher