ITALY BEFORE ROME Rome Course Handout #1
GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS: ETHNIC GROUPS
CONTINENTAL
ITALY (Po Valley): CELTS
(called GAULS by Romans;
GALLIA
CISALPINA arrive
around 500 BC)
PENINSULAR
ITALY (Mediterranean climate)
APPENINES:
SABINES
NORTH/CENTRAL:
ETRURIA = Tuscany ETRUSCANS
CENTRAL: LATIUM = Lazio LATINS, including ROMANS
SOUTH: MAGNA GRAECIA
GREEKS colonists
from Greece
= Greater Greece (includes
Neapolis, Capua)
ETRUSCANS: area
north of Tiber River = ETRURIA
city
states organized into confederation; fortified walled cities,
built on hill tops for defense (eg Volterra);
wealth
based on mining, trade; skilled metal workers,
road building techniques copied by Romans
VEII:
Etruscan city just north of Rome, now within city’s borders
first
war between Etruscans & Romans is between Veii & Rome
NECROPOLIS
= city of the dead: burial sites outside of city walls
(above and below ground) as major archeological remains
Examples
north of Rome: Tarquinia, Tuscia, Ceveteri (SLIDES)
LANGUAGE:
written in Greek alphabet, but of unknown origin,
not fully deciphered, not related to any other languages in Italy;
mostly inscriptions survive (eg tombs, dedications, or statues)
CULTURE:
art seen in surviving statuary, walls paintings in tombs,
sarcophagi
(stone coffins, often carved) (SLIDES)
Villa
Giulia Roman museum of Etruscan art, sculpture, ceramics
Sarcophagus of Etruscan married couple (SLIDES)
Women:
higher status than women of Greece or Rome; able to appear
in
public; strong affection shown in sarcophagi sculptures
RELIGION:
archaic, ritualized; some elements adopted by Romans, eg
FASCES as symbols
of state power; TOGA as dress of elite men
AUGURIES:
reading omens in sky, entrails of dead animals
TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME:
TIBER
RIVER (Tevere in Italian); TIBER ISLAND as point of crossing
SEVEN HILLS:
(see Penguin Atlas, p. 21)
Capitoline:
Capitol Hill, site of Temple of Jupiter
in early texts, also called Mons Sacra, or Sacred
Mountain
Palatine: site of Hut of Romulus; later Imperial palaces
Hut maintained by Romans as memorial to Rome's
founder
Aventine:
southern most hill; associated with Remus, plebians
Quirinal:
named for deified Romulus (after his death/ascension)
other three: Viminal; Esquiline; Caelian
FORUM ROMANUM:
foro = “outside”; built in low lying, marshy area below
& between Capitoline and Palatine Hills; drained in 7th C BC
by
CLOACA MAXIMA: “big sewer” empties into Tiber (see photo, Atlas,
p14)
VIA SACRA: Sacred Way, leads through Forum to eastern gate
FORUM BOARIUM: near river & Tiber Island; meat market
site of Temple of Hercules and Temple of Portunus (God of
the port)
ROMAN RELIGION: DII or
DIVI = little gods vs Olympian gods Jupiter, Juno etc
LARES &
PENATES: household gods
Lars =
ancestral spirit; Penates = fertility, abundance
PALLADIUM:
household gods of Troy brought by Aeneas to Lavinium
PIUS
AENEAS = PIETAS as central virtue of founder & father
TROJAN GROUP = Aeneas carrying Anchises (his father) out
of Troy
Anchises carries Palladium, Ascanius (son) led by hand
NUMINA: spirits
within natural objects
GENIUS: creative
force within individual man (symbol = serpent)
JUNO: analogous
version for woman; both associated with fertility
ROMAN FOUNDING LEGENDS: MYTH VS HISTORY
I. FOUNDING OF CITY OF
ROME: Roman calendar is dated from 753 or 754 BC
Ab Urbe Condita = from the founding of the city = A.U.C.
A. GREEK FOUNDING MYTH:
Romans accept Greek version of their origins
(“Greek” because
of connection to Greek Homeric epic tradition)
AENEAS
THE TROJAN son of Anchises of Troy, and Venus; father of
Ascanius
wanders in Mediterranean after
defeat of Troy by the Greeks (in Homer’s Iliad)
arrives
in Lavinium, south of Rome (sees white sow predicted by sybil);
son Ascanius starts line of
Kings of Alba Longa, ancestor of Romulus
* Virgil’s Aeneid (1st century AD) as most complete version of Aeneas’
story
B. ITALIAN/ROMAN MYTH:
ROMULUS & REMUS
our source = Livy’s History of the Rome from the Founding of the
City, Book I
connects their story with Aeneas’ by
filling in chronological gap from
12th C BC fall of Troy (1184 traditional date) and
8th C (April 21, 753 BC) founding of Rome by Romulus
through generations of successive
of Kings of Alba Longa, descended from Ascanius
leading up to
NUMITOR & AMULIUS: brothers, rivals
for kingship; Amulius wins unfairly
RHEA SILVIA (ILIA): daughter of Numitor,
forced to become Vestal Virgin so she will have no heirs
raped by MARS (god of war) who wants Rome founded; father
of
ROMULUS & REMUS: twins, floated
down Tiber to die, land at foot of
Palatine
Hill, at fig tree
called Ruminal, near cave called
Lupercal, where they are nursed by She-Wolf (gain ferocity) found by
Faustulus, shepherd of King Amulius, raised as shepherds
on Palatine Hill
grow up
to overthrow evil King, restoring their grandfather Numitor
to throne of Alba Longa; permission to start their own city
QUARREL OF ROMULUS
& REMUS: who should found Rome? different versions
AUGURIES:
wait for omen, Romulus on Palatine, Remus on Aventine
Remus sees
6 vultures (!), then Romulus sees 12
= priority
vs = numerical majority
WALL:
Romulus builds first wall on Palatine; kills Remus
FRATRICIDE = founding act of Roman state; purpose
is defense of wall
Quarrel as foreshadowing conflict of Patricians and Plebians
Romulus/Palatine = patrician aristocracy; Remus/Aventine
= plebians
RAPE OF THE SABINE
WOMEN: Rome needs men, opens gates to anyone
men need
wives, invite Sabines, rape the women, then marry them
= allegory
of the forcible expansion of city of Rome
ROMULUS as first King (Rex), founder
of Army and Senate (acc to legend)
DEATH
OF ROMULUS: ascends into Heaven from CAMPUS MARTIUS,
defied
as the god QUIRINUS, worshipped on Quirinal Hill
NUMA:
second Roman King, founder of religion, fixes calendar
TARQUIN KINGS:
last Roman Kings, overthrown by Republic
II. ROMAN REPUBLIC: FOUNDING LEGEND
RAPE OF LUCRETIA,
wife of COLLATINUS, Roman Army officer, by
SEXTUS TARQUINIUS,
son of the Tarquin King; she commits suicide
LUCIUS JUNIUS
BRUTUS avenges her death by overthrowing King
Brutus
governs as one of two Consuls; first act is to order the
execution
of his sons for plotting to restore the Tarquin Kings
Moral purpose
to the founding of republic:
defense
of domestic virtue of women by military virtue of men
Roman virtues:
PIETAS = loyalty to family, state
GRAVITAS = seriousness of purpose & demeanor
MORALITY
as key to Roman approach to life:
MORES
MAIORUM = customs of ancestors = rules of how to live