Italy’s First Civilization

Rise of Rome and the influence of the Etruscans Italy’s First Civilization

The Etruscans • Origins, Herodotus • Archaeological evidence, continuation • Etruscan language, alphabet derived from Greece, and appears unrelated to any other language • Etruscan civilization • Appears to have centered around Etruria over the course of 7th century BCE, several communities came together • Mid 6th century BCE, they faced Greek pressure from the south due to colonization, 12 of these groups united to form a religious and military confederation that would provide influence into the 5th century BCE into the Po Valley and as far couth as Campania. (most of peninsula)

The Etruscans • Etruscan civilization • Cities ruled by kings, Etruscan confed. loose not a centralized empire • Women • Much elevated than that in Greek or Roman life • Woman took part in banquets, eating with male companions • Attended and presided over dances, concerts, and sporting events • Politically, Role of women important in choosing King

The Etruscans • Religion • Variety of Gods, later to be appropriated both Romans. • Gods and humans were controlled by nameless powers that were the “fates”. • Developed highly sophisticated means of divination, or prediction of the future through the study of the flight of birds. • Afterlife: great emphasis, tombs took on form of homes of the dead,

The Etruscans • Foreign policy • Maritime power. From 7th to the 5th centuries BCE the controlled the Italian cast o f the Tyrrhenian Seas, Sardinia (where their ships could reach France/Spain) • Forged alliance with the Carthaginians, hostility toward the Greeks, end of the 6th century BCE • Etruscan cities, including Rome, signed a series of pacts that created a military alliance against the Phoenicians and Syracuse.

The Etruscans • Foreign Policy • 474 BCE, defeat at Himera, the Syracusan fleet destroyed the Etruscans of Cumae, beginning of the decline of Etruscans in Italy, losing control of sea throughout the 5th century to the Greeks. • Similarly, the Celts invaded PO valley from the north • In the south, the Etruscans saw their inland territories slip into the hands of their former subjects – the Romans

Founding Myths of Rome • Roman Lore • Clear models referred to throughout their existence • Cincinnatus: farmer/dictator • Historical image of city predestined by the Gods • Myth founding: Romulus and Remus • Myth founding 2: having absorbed the Greek traditions of Homer, some though founder of Rome was Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, and the Trojan Anchises, • All agreed, Rome had been ruled by Kings who underwent a decline until the last Tarquin the Proud was expelled by the Latins.

The Role of Latins • The Alban League • Alban hills, south of the Tiber, 8th BCE, 40 Latin villages formed league • Due to expansion of Etruscans and Sabines, Albans established a village on the Palatine hill to the north • Palatine hill one of several hills overlooking natural ford in Tiber, 1st high ground some 14 miles from sea. • Strategic site • The Alban village of Roma Quadrata, was joined by other Latin and Sabine settlements in the nearby hills • End of 7th, 7 Latin villages clustered along the route from Tiber to Alba formed a league of mutual defense.

Early Roman Society • Composed/ centered around households; clans or gentes, and village councils or curiae (curia, singular) • Paterfamilias: head of household, power of life and death, responsible for proper worship of the spirits of the family’s ancestors, • In the villages, families were clustered into gentes (clans) that claimed descent from a common semi-mythical ancestor.

Early Roman Society • Village Councils • Controlled by male members of village/ form of public discussion. • Curiae: dominated by the gentes (clans) but all males could participate including those who belonged to the Plebs • Plebs: families that were not organized into gentes • Distinction was one of custom r/the any economic, social or political importance, Originally • Later in Roman society leaders of the gentes called themselves Patricians (descendants of fathers) and claimed superiority over the Plebs.

Early Roman Society • Personal Relationships/ Key system of power • Clientage: fundamental aspect of social and political organization that will remain throughout Roman History • Clients: freemen who depended on the protection of a more powerful individual family. • Clients: owed certain services in return for protection that included political support.

Early Roman Society • Tribes • Tribus, villages would group together for military support and voting purposes, each composed a number of curiae, and each curia supplied a contingent of infantry, and each tribe cooperated to supply a unit of horsemen to the Roman Army • Assemblies: all members of the Curiae (VC) make major decisions esp: War, and selection of King.

Early Roman Society • Tribes • Role of Senate (assembly of elders), composed of heads of families, chose the candidate for king then presented to the Curiae for approval • Kings: religious leaders primary means of communication between gods/men • King: political and judicial authority, during this early Latin period, royal power remained limited to religious areas and limited by Senate, Curiae, and families • The 7 villages that made-up primitive Rome developed independently of Etruscans and Greeks, until the mid 7th century BCE when Etruscans overwhelmed Latinum and absorbed them into their civilization

Etruscan Legacy • Introduced into Latinum, esp Rome, their political, religious, and economic traditions • Etruscan city organization replaced partially, the Latin tribal structure • Etruscan kings and magistrates ruled Latin towns that increased the power of traditional Latin kingship • Kings were religious leaders, directed cults of their humanlike gods, also lead armies and served as judges, held supreme political power.

Etruscan Legacy • In Rome, series of kings, most notably Tarquin the Elder and ServiusTullis, used the city’s location on the Tiber river as a strategic position on the river to control Latium to the south • Latium became integral part of the Etruscan world, the Tiber became a major commercial highway importing and exporting goods, making connections to other Latium ports and the Greek colonies to the south.

Etruscan Legacy • Commercial success, Rome entered the wider orbit of Mediterranean civilization. Town’s people swelled with the arrival of merchants and artisans • Key physical/cultural change Etruscans brought to Latium was the restructure of society with changes in the military. • Learned from the Greeks importance of hoplite tactics • Eliminated old village curiae based military and put one based on property holding.

Etruscan Legacy • Weakened traditional Latin Social units • Divided Roman society into two groups the 5 classes and the infra classem • Land owners wealthy enough to provide armed military service were organized into 5 CLASSIS. Ranked according to the quality of those arms and their wealth. • Classis was further divided into Centuries, military units, this would also have political consequences for the centuries would make constitute the Centuriate assembly (replaced curiae assemblies)

Etruscan Legacy • Centuriate Assembly • Replaced the Curiae assembly • Replaced by the most conservative forces within society. Small centuries of wealthy, well armed cavalrymen and fully armed warri0rs dominated the more modestly equipped but numerically greater centuries. Men over the age of 47 though in a minority controlled more than half of the centuries in each class • Votes in assembly were not done by individual but by century, ensured within the assembly the domination of the rich over the poor, the elder over the younger, the remainder of society were the infra classem inferior classes.

Development of the Republic • The expulsion of King Tarquin • Patricians dominated the offices and new institutions of new republic, Plebs lost defender in king • Characteristic of Roman Institutions • Power at every level shared by two or more equals for fixed terms • No individual would achieve supreme power at any level • King was replaced by 2 Consuls elected for 1 year (initially only Consuls held Imperium) • Grave crisis, Consul became a Dictator (6mos term)

Development of the Republic • Other offices • Praetors, exercised imperium, administered justice, defended city in absence of Consuls • Quaestors: controlled finance • Censors: assigned individuals their places in society • Military commanders: directed wars against neighboring cities/peoples under Imperium of Consuls • Senate: 300 powerful former magistrates • Centuriateassembly: functioned as the legislative organ of state, but it continued to be dominated by the oldest and wealthiest members of society

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Patricians, wealthy, dominated early Roman Republic • Aided by their clients • Monopolized Senate and magistracies • Successful magistrates rose though a series of increasingly important offices, this became known as the Curses Honored, eventually to become Consul

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Censors selected from among former magistrates new senators, ensuring the Senate would remain the domain of the patrician elite • Patricians held control of the system of priesthoods (positions held for life) • Plebeians found themselves sinking into debt to wealthy patricians, losing their property, (and basis of military support and political participation

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • The Plebs organize by 5th century BCE • Whole plebian order withdrew a short distance from the city, refusing to return to serve in military until conflicts with the patricians were resolved. • Plebs create their own assembly, the Council of Plebs, enacted laws binding on Plebeians • Council founded its own temple and elected magistrates calling them TRIBUNES, whose persona were declared sacred to the Gods. • Tribunes protected Plebs from arbitrary power of patricians • Anyone harming the Tribunes, plebeian or patrician, could be killed by the plebs without trial • Plebeians were on their way to creating a separate republic

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Struggle of the Orders: Conflict between plebeians and the patricians threatened to tear Rome apart just as hostile neighbors threatened Rome • Roman Preeminence in Latium ended with the last king, Etruscan town of Veii just north of the Tiber began launching periodic attacks against Rome. To the south, there were pressures from other people expanding their territory. 1. Inability of Partisans to meet the military pressure alone forced them to compromise with the Plebeians.

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Compromises due to outside pressures • Around 450 BCE, first victories by the Plebs, codification of Roman LAW, Law of the 12 Tables, recognized basic right of all free citizens. • Law covered private, criminal, sacred, and public matters. • Gradually, the state began open doors to Plebeians, eventually absorbed the plebeian political and religious organizations intact (Council of plebs, etc) • 367 BCE the Consulship was finally won by the Plebs • 286 BCE Plebeian Assembly became binding on all citizens, patricians and plebeians alike.

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Foreign Affairs • patrician/ Plebeian alliance at home, Rome began to expand its rule both north and south. External conquest deflected internal hostility and profited both orders. • Roman legions commanded by patricians formed from whole of Roman property owing people, • Reestablished Roman preeminence in Latium, and a series of wars that brought most of Italy under Roman control. • Beginning in the 4th century BCE they defeated the last of Etruscan city of Veii, 295 BCE Rome secured its rule as far north as Po Valley

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Foreign Affairs • South, Romans won a war of attrition against a series of Hellenistic commanders, the last being the Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus. (term Pyrrhic victory) withdrew by 265 BCE Rome absorbed the Hellenistic cities of the south.

Patricians, Plebs, Public Law • Benefits of Plebeians and Patricians • Patricians obtained wealth and power, plebeians received land • After conquered a city, land given to poor Romans, who were now obliged to serve in military • Constant supply of land did much to diffuse tensions between orders • It did not resolve all the tensions, into the late 3rd century, debt and landless ness remained major problems • Probably not more than ½ of Roman Citizen population owned land by 200 BCE • Conquered were incorporated into Roman society. In defeat, Romans were very generous, even though their legions were known for destruction.

Italy’s First Civilization