Meat and the Birth of Rome explores faunal remains from archaeological sites dating to the early Iron Age through early Republican period in Rome and its environs and challenges a prevailing view of Rome’s exceptionalism. Victoria C. Moses tempers the myth by illuminating the roles of meat production, distribution, and consumption and ritual sacrifice in the social hierarchy, economy, and religious practices as Rome grew. During the transformative period around the eighth century BCE, Romans conserved older foodways and their diverse ritual practices. These findings within the broader zooarchaeological data from peninsular Italy show that, despite Rome’s later success, it shared many early characteristics with its neighbors.

This compelling narrative adds to the current archaeological conversations and research on the history of the eternal city.