WH1: The Rise of Rome 2: Greek and Etruscan
Influence and the rise of civilization in Latium
Part 1: Essential Questions
1. What specific influences did the Greek and Etruscan cultures have
on Rome’s development?
2. How specifically does the traditional foundational myth of Rome’s
founding connect to Vergil’s Aeneid?
3. What was the nature of the early Roman Monarchy? Were all the
Kings Roman?
4. What was the extent of a father’s authority in the Roman
household? Describe and give specific examples of Roman
Patronimics (i.e., Praenomen, Nomen, Cognomen) and the
significance of each name.
5. What were the traditional events that led to Rome’s transition from
a monarchy to a republic?
The past is not something we’ve left behind, but something that goes along
with us as we move into the future. It may have happened centuries ago,
but it is still with us.
1) There is a very long history of Italian contact with
GREECE as shown by pottery and Greek colonies
especially in Southern Italy. Rome gave them the name
MAGNA GRAECIA and thus gave name to the
GREEKS.
2) Into Italy, the Greeks introduced grape vines, olive trees,
adapted the PHOENICIAN ALPHABET to fit the INDOEUROPEAN dialects of the Italians and taught the
Italians to WRITE. But the Greeks quarreled among
themselves, and lost the opportunity to control ITALY.
3) The group that did the most to instruct the Roman people
were the ETRUSCANS, whose language was definitely
not Indo-European and whose origins are UNCLEAR.
They may have come from Asia Minor (LYDIA). They
established themselves on Italy’s West Coast in the area
that is now TUSCANY. However, more recent evidence
suggests that they were actually highly HELLENIZED
indigenous ITALIANS—i.e., native Italian people who
had much significant contact with the Greeks who had
established many colonies in southern Italy. The
Etruscans established a chain of CITY STATES, each
with a group of noblemen and a king. They were able
teachers of practical arts; cutting trees, draining swamps,
introducing new grains & crops. Like the Greeks, they
also brought wine and olives. Also skilled at iron &
bronze smithing, stone cutting, weaving, carpentry &
farming. They put poor ports to use, began commerce
with the outside world, and brought political &
intellectual changes.
4) The ETRUSCANS didn’t form a nation, but rather a
league of approximately twelve CITIES. There was an
army of Italian soldiers, ETRUSCAN CAVALRY.
5) In the 6th century BCE, the ETRUSCAN EMPIRE spread
over northern Italy, out to the island of CORSICA
(birthplace of NAPOLEON) and as far south as
POMPEII. By 500 BCE they were on the way out.
Etruscans were defeated in 524 BC by Greek forces that
also incited rebellion against them. They quickly vanished
as an EMPIRE because they had not assimilated Italian
NATIVES into their society.
6) Italian city life—with its walls and streets—are Etruscan
creations; they left central Italy an URBAN SOCIETY.
7) The ETRUSCANS also left behind a SHARP DIVISION
between agricultural low-landers with strong notions of
PRIVATE PROPERTY and governments based on the
sovereignty of the land and the more primitive pastoral
peoples of the up-lands. The STRUGGLE between these
two ways of life is one of the great heritages of the
Etruscans, was vital to the rise of ROME to dominance in
ITALY.
So, the Italian peoples were descendents of the IndoEuropean immigrants of the 2nd millennium BC who
had been taught by two sets of teachers: the
ETRUSCANS—who may themselves have been highly
Hellenized indigenous Italian peoples-- and the
GREEKS. The Greeks contributed (1) alphabetic
writing; (2) religious practices; (3) coined money; (4)
shipbuilding; and (5) statuary & literary models. The
Etruscans contributed (1) practical instruction in
engineering, swamp draining, etc.; (2) effective
farming strategies. These two influences prepared the
way for the dominance of Rome, for, with the defeat of
the Etruscans, the center of political power moved
across the TIBER to LATIUM and Rome.
8) The story of ROME begins with LATIUM, a region along
the WESTERN coast of Italy approximately in the middle
of the Peninsula. It is a district between the TIBER
RIVER and the Sea and the western edge of the
APPENNINES, shaped roughly like a baseball field with
each side equaling approximately 40 miles. In the center
region was a group of volcanic mountains about 3000 feet
high. The land itself was RICH but badly drained because
of hard clay under volcanic soil. The Tiber was also
difficult to cross, and along its course floods were
common and mosquitoes bred in the stagnant pools. But
the hills offered sites for human inhabitants, for they
were also volcanic and the hillsides were as rich as the
plains around, and being higher were also healthier. It
was here, on the hills that the religious and social life of
the LATIN people began.
9) The Latins had no memory or folk traditions of how or
when they first came to the land. Archeological evidence
indicates that they were the most RECENT arrivals.
There is little evidence of habitation in LATIUM prior to
1000 BCE—probably because VOLCANOES were still
active in the area up to that time. Circa 1000 BCE the
volcanoes silenced and people—FARMERS and
HERDSMEN-- began populating the hillsides. Recent
archeological evidence does indicate the presence of a
LATE STONE AGE (i.e., prior to 1000BCE) settlement
on the AVENTINE hill and possible settlements on other
hills as well.
10)
These villages combined the worship of the Gods,
especially JUPITER, DIANA, AND VENUS on the
ALBAN hill. The village of ALBA LONGA was closest to
the site of Jupiter worship, and so it had a position of
leadership among the towns. Today it is the site of Castel
Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence. In time, the
central town became ROME.
11)
Rome was located on the border between LATIUM
and ETRURIA on the Tiber river.
ETYMOLOGICALLY, It is believed that the word
“Rome” is of Etruscan origin and means RIVER.
12)
The site of Rome was rich land capable of
supporting a large population. The TIBER produced easy
access to the Mediterranean Sea, and the city was
centrally located on the peninsula along the main northsouth road network. There were seven hills, each about
100 feet above the floodplain. People escaped to these hills
when the Tiber FLOODED. Otherwise, the WEALTHY
lived on these hills, and left the MALARIA-INFESTED
lowland swamps bordering the Tiber to the POOR.
Here is the traditional (fictional) story of the founding of
Rome: The starting point was the invention of the namegiving founder (Eponymous name) ROMULUS. He had a
twin, REMUS. Their mother was Rhea Silvia and their
father was the god MARS, one of Rome’s PATRON
DEITIES. Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, King
of ALBA LONGA. Since Romulus & Remus were born
out of Wedlock, they were cast into the Tiber to die. But
the god PROVIDENCE directed the river to save them,
and they were put ashore. They were nursed by a WOLF
and fed by a WOODPECKER. They were raised by
FAUSTALUS, a shepherd. When they grew they founded
the city of Rome; Romulus built a wall around it, and
when Remus jumped over it killed him saying “thus
perish any other who leaps over my walls.” Romulus thus
ruled supreme; he built the city population by inviting
fugitives and exiles to be citizens and then found wives for
them by kidnapping women from local towns—relevant
here is the story of the rape of the Sabine women.
Romulus vanished in a storm (some say that he ascended
into heaven), and was later worshipped as Quirimus, a
form of Mars.
13)
What seems clear is that Rome was of relatively
recent origin. For about a century, they were under a
royal government, and some of these kings were
ETRUSCANS. Early Rome was under Etruscan
domination. Tradition holds that there were 7 kings; the
first was ROMULUS and the last was expelled circa 509
BCE. Some of these kings are referred to in writings,
although whether or not they were REAL PEOPLE
remains uncertain.
14)
Under the kings, the OLDEST living male family
member had absolute control over all other family
members. He could kill his wife without penalty and
could sell his children into SLAVERY. When a girl
married, she passed from the home of her FATHER to
the home of her HUSBAND. Families were organized into
CLANS. The clans were organized into a CURIA, a word
which later came to mean COURT, and later to the word
QUIRITES to mean citizen body.
15)
The Curia met in a joint convention known as the
Comitia Curiata, or CURIATE ASSEMBLY, to ratify the
choice of a KING or to pledge loyalty during a time of
CRISIS. And so, the monarchy was ELECTIVE, not
HEREDITARY; that is, IMPERIUM, or the power of
command, was given to the king by the people. The
SENATE (derived from SENEX, or “old man”) was an
assembly of nobles and an advisory body to the King.
When the King died, his power reverted to the Senate,
which appointed interim rulers (INTER-REX) and then
chose a new permanent King from among its members.
16)
The functions of the Kings were chiefly
RELIGIOUS. The King was a father to his people rather
than mainly a POLITICAL LEADER. Religion in ancient
Rome was a very serious thing—so much so that, despite
the security it provided, it never fostered art, music, and
literature among the most ancient Romans as it did the
GREEKS.
17)
On Capitoline Hill were temples to the Etruscan
Trinity—JUPITER, JUNO, and MINERVA. There were
many other Gods (e.g., VESTA kept fire alive on the
hearth, leading to the institution of the Vestal Virgins.
These were six daughters of leading families who gave
thirty years of their lives to keep Vesta’s fire burning—
this symbolized the eternity of the state.
18)
The Etruscans were the founders of Rome in the
sense that, during the monarchy, the unity of the hill
villages was cemented, and would never again be
SEPARATED. Under ETRURIAN rule, swamps were
drained and the area of cultivation extended, the Forum
was made into a market place, LATIN was made into a
written language, and Rome became the capital of
LATIUM.
19)
And yet, much was still primitive. CATTLE did
double-duty as currency (Latin PECUNIA = wealth;
etymologically this derives from pecus, or flock).
Differences in wealth/social class began to appear; the
population was divided into PLEBES (commoners) who
were permanently inferior and could not marry above
their social class or otherwise escape their low estate, and
PATRICIANS or descendants of the fathers of the state
who held all the political, social, and religious power.
20)
Towards the end of the 6th century c. 509 BCE, there
was a revolt against the kings. The last one—perhaps a
real person named Tarquin the Proud—was forced from
power (here remember the story of the Rape of
LUCRETIA), and ever afterward the title REX was hated
and feared by the Romans. But Etrurian culture had
already done its part in making the city that would rule
all of Italy and then the known Western world.