There seems fortunately to be little sign of the economic crisis when it comes to the publication of books on the local histories of Italy, many of which make available important archaeological material for the first time; and these beautiful volumes, luxuriously magnificent examples of the genre (with over five hundred colour plates in each), are no exception. A certain diffuseness in approach is perhaps inevitable, and I suppose that one cannot leave the Capestrano warrior out — even though it is from the territory of the Vestini Cismontani, not the area of Pinna; but inclusion is justified by a fine account of the archaeological context of its discovery. A. La Regina usefully includes superb pictures of the inscriptions (mis-)described as ‘South Picene’, with transcriptions that need checking before using and rather imaginative translations. The chapter on military matters, on the other hand, hovers between discussing the Vestini and discussing war in ancient Italy. Chapters on glass and funerary beds by A. Martellone take us even further afield, as do S. Cosentino on the relief with a funerary procession from Amiternum and R. Tuteri on a fibula from Pizzoli, near Amiternum, interestingly showing typological links with material from Capua.

The chapter by A. R. Staffa could have done with some serious editing, repeating word for word information, in any case inaccurate, on the Città Sant'Angelo hoard (60 and 202); and on the Rapino bronze (34 and 40). T. Vetis is Roman on 41 (where the inscription is wrongly described as a fragment), Vestine in n. 66 (but perhaps in fact Paelignian: see Imagines Italicae, Interpromium 4). The bracelet with a ‘South Picene’ inscription is not certainly from Monte la Queglia, near Pescosansonesco (Imagines Italicae, Interpromium (?) 1). And it is interesting to find another Italic sanctuary ended, not by the Social War, but by Christianity, in the fourth century a.d. The sanctuaries discussed include that at Poggio Ragone, whose life was ended by a landslide.

Volume II is more focused, with a full account of the archaeology of the Roman period of Pinna, and a fine account of its rich Latin epigraphy by M. Buonocore. Pl. 19 d is a picture of the inscription TI. FOFICIS, the only known Italic inscription from Pinna, without any discussion that I have been able to find. And the caption to pl. 34 is unable to resist the introduction of the hoary canard of sacred prostitution.