Classical Studies 202 Ancient Roman Society Lecture

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Classical Studies 202Ancient Roman
SocietyLecture I

• -SOURCES FOR ROMAN SOCIETY-
• -GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND-
• -EARLY ITALY-
• -EARLY ITALY THE ETRUSCANS-
• -THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)-
• -THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY (510 BC)-
• -BREAK (10 minutes)-
• FILM The Romans

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SOURCES FOR ROMAN SOCIETY

• a) Literature on papyrus (e.g. in Egypt and
  Herculaneum),
• on parchment (e.g. Dead Sea Scrolls),
• or recopied by monks in the Middle Ages
• Includes historians, philosophers, geographers,
  poets, politicians speeches, letters,
  biographies, and encyclopaedias

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SOURCES FOR ROMAN SOCIETY

• b) Art and Artifacts
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Architecture
• Daily Life

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SOURCES FOR ROMAN SOCIETY

• Inscriptions
• on stone or metal
• Graffiti (graffito a message scratched or
  painted on a wall)

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ROMAN GRAFFITI FROM POMPEII

• POLITICS
• "I ask you to elect Marcus Cerrinius Vatia to the
  aedileship. All the late drinkers support him.
  Florus and Fructus wrote this."
• "The goldsmiths unanimously urge the election of
  Gaius Cuspius Pansa as aedile."
• "The petty thieves support Vatia for the
  aedileship."

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ROMAN GRAFFITI FROM POMPEII

• LOVE
• "The weaver Successus loves the innkeeper's slave
  girl, Iris by name.
• "I write at Love's dictation and Cupid's
  instruction But damn it! I don't want to be a
  god without you."

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ROMAN GRAFFITI FROM POMPEII

• BUSINESS(?!)
• "A prostitute's sign I am yours for 2
  asses(dollars) cash.
• DEEP THOUGHTS"I wonder, O wall, that you have
  not fallen in ruins from supporting the
  stupidities of so many scribblers."

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SOURCES FOR ROMAN SOCIETY

• d) Coins
• e) Administrative Records on papyrus or wooden
  tablets
• f) Why not grave finds?

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GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

• Roman World Mediterranean World
• Our Sea Gibraltar to the Dardanelles
• 7600 km coastline / 90,000sq miles / 4x Greece
• 1600 km long peninsula
• Climate control Sahara Desert
• Mediterranean triad (grain, olives, grapes)

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GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

• Italian mountain ranges
• Alps in the north
• Apennines down the centre
• Major rivers
• Po in the north
• Tiber at Rome (centre)

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GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

• Celts north of the Po
• Greeks in southern Italy
• Latium (the Latin plain surrounding Rome)
• Rome 7 hills (Capitoline stronghold)

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EARLY ITALY

• Urnfield Culture
• Villanovans (about 1000-750 BC)
• Palatine
• wattle and daub houses (twigs covered with mud)
• Fossa People (buried their dead in trenches)
• Magna Graecia (southern Italy settled by Greeks)

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EARLY ITALY THE ETRUSCANS

• 900/800 BC Etruscans
• lived in Etruria(north-west Italy)
• Language unknown
• Famed as town planners
• Etruscan League (12 tribes 12 cities)

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EARLY ITALY THE ETRUSCANS

• Mudbrick houses
• Burial in decorated tombs arranged in streets
  (necropolis)
• Bucchero (Etruscan black pottery)
• Final metal workers and craftsmen in terracotta
• Juppiter, Juno, Minerva

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EARLY ITALY THE ETRUSCANS

• 550 BC Expansion into Campania beginning of
  Hellenistic phase
• Emperor Claudius (last Etruscan speaker)

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THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)

• Aeneas (Troy)
• Alba Longa Chief city on Latian Plain
• Romulus Remus (legendary founders of Rome)
• She-wolf
• Pomoerium (sacred boundary)
• Rape of the Sabine Women

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THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)

• Rex (King)
• Lictors (attendans of Kings, and later
  magistrates)
• Fasces (bundles of rods and axes, carried by
  Lictors)
• Triumph (victory parade)

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THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)

• Patricians (social upper class order) 10 20
• Plebeians or plebs (social lower class orders) 80
  90
• gentes (singular gens) (clans)

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THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)

• Curiate Assembly (10 x 3 30 curiae)
• centuries (units of 100 men)
• Servius Tullius(578 535 BC)
• political reforms wall around Rome / class system
  by wealth
• census

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THE MONARCHY (753 - 510 BC)

• Centuriate Assembly (18 cavalry 80 first class
  90 other)
• Ostia (port on the mouth of the Tiber)

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THE FALL OF THE MONARCHY (510 BC)

• Tarquinius Superbus (the arrogant)
• Lucretia, Brutus
• Establishment of the Res Publica (Republic of
  Rome)

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• BREAK (10 minutes)
• FILM The Romans