Larinum, a pre-Roman town in the modern region of Molise, underwent a unique transition from independence to municipal status when it received Roman citizenship in the 80s BCE shortly after the Social War. Its trajectory during this period illuminates complex processes of cultural, social, and political change associated with the Roman conquest throughout the Italian peninsula in the first millennium BCE. This book uses all the available evidence to create a site biography of Larinum from 400 BCE to 100 CE, with a focus on the urban transformation that occurred there during the Roman conquest. This study is distinctive in utilizing many different types of evidence: literary sources (including the pro Cluentio), settlement patterns, inscriptions, monuments and artifacts. It highlights the importance of local isolated variability in studies of Roman conquest, and provides a narrative that supplements larger works on this theme.

In the midst of a war that has lasted since the beginnings of civilization, the leader of the Talismen training sector decides that it is time to call upon their foreseen hope for an unforeseen dilemma. But their newest recruit has failed to yet recognize even his simplest power. Whenever eleven-year-old Roman was asked "How did you know that?" by people like Hal, he struggled to find an answer, both for the person asking, and for himself. Roman and Caleb didn't think much at first when two out-of-place boys stopped them in their tracks coming home from school, until two of their classmates set off a fake bomb at the movie theater. Upon finding that these were connected, Roman would have to choose between facing his destiny alone, or trusting almost complete strangers. But even after joining the Talismen, Roman soon finds that he's more alone than he thinks.