Early Rome and Its Culture

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Early Rome and Its Culture

• By 500 B.C.

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When was Rome founded?

• The Imperial Romans celebrated April 21, 753 B.C.
  as the date of the founding.
• Most modern scholars now hold it to be somewhere
  around 625 B.C., even though the site had been
  continuously occupied at least since 1300 B.C.
• The villages scattered on the fabled seven hills
  would have been united and the process of
  urbanization significantly underway.
• Around this time houses of tufa blocks and stone
  walls, with roofs of terracotta tiles.
• The Forum was filled, provided with a permanent
  drain (Cloaca Maxima), and paved over, becoming
  the center of the new city.

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That aint the way I heard it!

• The Popular Version
• Of Roman Origins

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Lets begin with the story many ancient Romans
believed

• It all began with Aeneas, Trojan hero who escaped
  the fall of Troy.
• After years of wandering he settles in Latium,
  where he joined the Greek hero Evander and won
  the heart and hand of Lavinia, daughter of
  Latinus, king of the Latins.
• Aeneas founds a city named Lavinium and his son,
  Ascanius, founds Alba Longa as its first king.
  The twelfth king of Alba Longa was Numitor
  (Etruscan lucky 12).

Aeneas carries his family from burning
Troy, Detail Adam Elsheimer, Burning of Troy
(1600)
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Lets begin with the story many ancient Romans
believed

• Numitor is overthrown by his brother Amulius, and
  he forces Numitors beloved daughter, Rhea Silva
  to join the Vestal Virgins.
• Mars, god of war, raped and impregnated her and
  she bore twin sons, Romulus and Remus.
• Amulius was furious and ordered their death. He
  imprisoned poor Rhea Silva and ordered the twins
  killed. His servants placed them in a basket and
  set them afloat on the Tiber River.

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the story continues

• The basket floats for awhile, and then the waters
  recede. A she-wolf hears the children crying and
  suckles them.
• A shepherd named Faustulus finds them with the
  wolf and carries them home to his wife, Larentia,
  who raises them.
• They grow up as shepherds and herdsmen and grew
  up to lead rival followings. One day their
  followers got in a snit over the interpretation
  of an omen. The twins show off with taunting,
  then fisticuffs, and Romulus kills Remus.
• Romulus builds his city with exiles and criminals
  from throughout Italy, but no women answer his
  summons.

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Rape of the Sabine Women.

• Lacking wives, Romans trick the men of a nearby
  hill community of Sabines (say-bynes) to bring
  wives and daughters to a progressive dinner
  party.
• At a prescribed moment the Romans grab a woman
  and carry her off to their house.
• The Sabines cry foul, but the Romans persist, and
  war results.
• The war is a stalemate and ends in reconciliation
  of the two groups and a joint rule of Romulus and
  the Sabine Titus Tatius.
• The story is a fascinating combination of
  Etruscan, Latin, Greek, Roman, (and perhaps even
  Ancient Near East!) traditions.

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What we make of the story

• The story contains eponymous elements Romulus,
  Lavinium, Latinus. This is an origin myth.
• Rome is a glorious amalgam of misfits Aeneas,
  Romulus and Remus, criminals and exiles. Speaks
  of inclusion.
• A miraculous origin bespeaks destiny.
• Revenge of the Trojans! Watch out Greeks! Watch
  out kings!
• The chronology of the kings is improbable 33
  year average reigns in the ancient world?
  (Augustus reigned 43 years, a long one)
• But there is the real story.

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The Latins

• Weve got to return to the Latins to begin to
  understand Romes founding..
• Latium was a land bordered by the Tyrrhenian Sea
  on the west, roughly the Tiber river on the
  north, The Apennine Mountains on the east, and
  the Liris River on the south.
• It was roughly 1600 square miles, roughly the
  size of Butler County, Kansas.
• There was only one seaport, Antium, and it wasnt
  that great. The Tiber was not navigable, flooded
  in the spring and was mosquito-infested and dried
  to a trickle in the summer.
• It became Latium when the Indo-European speaking
  people from the north invaded and intermarried
  with the locals, about 1000 BC.

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Simple, honest folk

• The Latins were relatively backward living in
  round huts of wattle-and-daub, having little
  iron, and living in clan groups of herders and
  farmers.
• Their kings ruled over something called a pagus
  made up of a group of related clans, helped by
  council of elders and an assembly of men who were
  to defend the community and to tend the religious
  duties.
• They were considered to simple, honest people who
  were the first to settle the seven hills of
  Rome, because the hills were the only healthful
  places to live.

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The Seven Hills of Rome Aventinus (Aventine)
Caelius (Caelian) Capitolium (Capitoline)
Esquiliae (Esquiline) Palatium (Palatine)
Quirinalis (Quirinal) Viminalis (Viminal)
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Latin villages on the site of Rome

• The Aventine Hill of Rome had already been
  inhabited for centuries. It overlooked an
  islandthe only way to cross the Tiber when the
  river flowed normally.
• In the 900s BC a Latin colony was established on
  the Palatine Hill.
• By 700 BC there were ten villages within what
  would become the city of Rome, but no city yet.
• Seven of the ten villages were Latin (others
  Sabine) and they formed a religious league called
  the Septimontium,or the League of Seven Hills.
• In the last half of the 7th century BC, strong
  marauders seized the river crossing! They could
  have been Etruscans.

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The Overlords

• The conquerers ruled the villages for perhaps a
  century.
• They united the villages under a common central
  king.
• At some point the king plowed the sacred furrow
  designating the sacred city area. The plow was
  drawn by a white bull and a white cow. No one
  was to cross the furrow. He picked up the plow
  to form the city gates.
• The kings made Rome a city-state and an upper
  class appeared (patricians) and a lower class
  (plebeians).
• Temple to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva was built on
  Capitoline Hill.
• These kings extended Rome to about 400 square
  miles (roughly the size of Geary County).

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Kingship is evident.

• The Roman tradition held that there were seven
  kings of Rome (four Latin/Sabine, two or three
  Etruscans).
• Archaelogical evidence supports kings as the
  first rulers and a shorter Etruscan dominance.
• Literary tradition holds that the later, Etruscan
  kings were tyrants in the Greek sense.
• This bespeaks the conflict between the Etruscans
  and the Romans that was brewing in the sixth
  century.

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How Roman kingship worked.

• When a king died, the community fathers (patres)
  took auspices, interpretation of signs from the
  gods, based on the flight patterns of birds.
  (favorable, auspicious unfavorable,
  inauspicious)
• While awaiting the verdict, one of their own was
  appointed interrex for a five day term. This
  interrex appointed another, and so on in five day
  increments until they had a nominee to present to
  the comita curiata, the assembly of the populus,
  all adult arm-bearing men.
• Auspices were again taken, and if confirmatory
  the new king was approved by acclamation, each
  vowing their loyalty and obedience.

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The Roman kings duties.

• Commander in chief and head of state.
• Both lawmaking and law enforcing functions except
  in civil (private) law, which was based on
  unwritten traditions.
• He was the high priest, or pontiff over the
  pantheon. This was deemed crucial for he was in
  charge of feasts that appropriately honored god,
  and he discerned their will.
• He was advised by the Senate, which had not yet
  reached its zenith of power. Made up mainly of
  patriarchs of the most powerful families, whose
  support the king needed.

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The Comitia Curiata i.

• This was the assembly of armed men of Rome and
  the nucleus of the early Roman army.
• For purposes of military organization the
  populace was divided into three parts, a
  tribus, from which we get our word tribe.
• The tribes were named for the most powerful
  family in each area at that time Luceres,
  Ramnes, and Tities. Later a fourth urban tribe
  was added from the annexed Quirinal.

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The Comitia Curiata ii.

• Each tribe was divided into ten curiae, but this
  became obsolete and was replaced by groups of 100
  men called centuriae.
• Leaders of each tribe were called tribunes,
  leaders of each century were centurions.
• At the end of the 7th century, Romans had learned
  the secret of the hoplite phalanx from the Greeks
  and called their infantry the classis.
• Eventually in this period there were 35 tribes as
  rural populae were added, and there were 193
  centuries (19,300 men).

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Early Roman Family Life.

• Father knows best.

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Family was closely related to country.

• The Roman paterfamilias was the basis of the
  early roman state.
• Together, with other Roman families they made up
  the commonwealth, the Res Publica.
• The Latin word for country was patria, or
  fathers land, basis for the English word
  patriot.
• This strong family flavor was born in the early
  days of Roman monarchy, and survived throughout
  the Empire period.

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Roman family was broader than ours.

• Romans thought of more than the nuclear family
  as the familia.
• The Roman household included agnates (blood or
  adopted through male line), affines (kin through
  marriage), cognates (mom, dad, uncles, aunts,
  siblings, siblings kids), clients (free
  dependents), liberti (freed slaves), and slaves.
• It also included the spirits of dead male
  ancestors called maiores (the greater majors)

Junius Brutus with busts of dad and grandpa.
From first century.
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The state in miniature dad rules.

• The Roman family was the state in miniature the
  paterfamilias was owner, manager, lawmaker, and
  judge.
• He was subject only to the state, and unless he
  was proved insane his decisions would not be
  overruled.
• Nevertheless, he was expected to rule wisely, and
  it was his duty to consult the family council
  adult males and the matriarch (his wife?) known
  as materfamilias.
• The matriarch served as vice-regent in his
  absence, but if he died another paterfamilias was
  identified.
• Paterfamilias determined if infants would live.
  Girls could exposed if pater perceived a surplus
  of available females. Unless deformed, boys
  rarely fell victim to infanticide.

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What was it like for women?

• Women and children were always subject to some
  adult male children had no official legal
  status.
• Woman could not buy or sell property without
  permission from her tutor, husband, or father.
• Marriage was actually manus (hand), a husbands
  control over a wife. Some women were sold by the
  paterfamilias for a nominal fee into marriage,
  and some marriages were automatic after a couple
  lived together for a year without being apart for
  more than 3 days.
• Divorce was rare in early Rome, but her husband
  or her father could call for a divorce attempted
  poisoning, adultery, lewd behavior, or
  drunkenness were common grounds.
• In some situations she could initiate divorce,
  but the husband always got custody of the
  children.

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The Name Game.

• All Roman citizens belonged to a family clan
  called a gens, the plural is gentes.
• With few exceptions everyone had three names in
  the following order personal name, the
  gentilicium (clan name), and the cognomen (branch
  of the gens). Gentilicium was most important,
  and this is treated like a last name in indexing.
• Caesars full name was Gaius Julius Caesar. He
  was from the Caesar branch of the Julian line and
  as a child he might have been called Guy for
  Gaius.

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The Name Game continued.

• Oldest sons usually received their fathers
  personal name. Additional sons received a short
  list of family names (there were only about two
  dozen to choose from). Some received numerical
  names Tertius for the third, Quintus for the
  fifth, Octavian for the eighth.
• Daughters got the feminine version of the
  Gentilicium. Caesars oldest was Julia.
  Multiple daughters were usually numbered, and
  clanned Julia Prima, Julia Secunda, Julia
  Tertia. George Foreman would have loved it!

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Origin of gentility Patricians.

• Patrician families grew out of the families who
  monopolized the priesthoods of cults and thus
  became the kingmakers and advisers.
• It was about connections rather than wealth.
• It was not about ethnicity Romans were more
  inclusive than Greeks (think of the civic myth).
  Romans were Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan.
• Early on, non-patricians (later called plebeian)
  enjoyed all the same rights as patricians except
  no member of their family could hold public
  priesthoods.
• Religious power was the big difference.

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The Religion of Early Rome.

• From Mana-animistic Origins to
• Urbanized Syncretism.

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The Numina (singular numen).

• The early Romans had a strong belief in numina,
  life forces that inhabited some places, set-apart
  objects and animals, and the gods that are in
  relation to certain objects.
• Some of these life forces, or spirits, were
  friendly and some were hostile. All had to be
  placated with prayers and offerings.
• Some numina superintended various human
  activities, especially agriculture and specific
  aspects of agriculture, and war.
• Numina were believed to grow in power as
  devotion increased. A good relationship with the
  spirit was key, and the benefits were mutual. The
  worshipper received success in the endeavor, and
  the spirit increased in power, thus becoming more
  potent for the future needs of devotees.

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The purpose behind sacrifice.

• To make right their relationship with the spirits
  that presided over crucial activities of life,
  the Romans performed animal sacrifices.
• Sacrifice restored power to the spirits numina
  and life force to the soil, drained by the
  production of crops.
• For example, the annual spring festival, the
  fordicidia involved sacrificing a pregnant cow
  and burning the unborn calf. This was thought to
  transfer the proven fertility of the cow to the
  depleted soil.
• Sacrifice was also used to consecrate important
  sites, such as new villages, homes, and boundary
  markers.
• Prayer was used to direct the empowered spirits
  to the desired end, but prayers had to be worded
  precisely, thus formulae were developed.

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The old native spirits.

• Janus spirit of the door let in friends and
  kept out foes. Became god of beginnings2nd
  century January named for him. Family prayers
  began with Janus and ended with Vesta.
• Vesta spirit of the hearth. Her festival was
  July 9 and she had associated spirits
• Penatea spirit of the pantry.
• The Lares spirits of the ancestors of the
  family that remained in the home as protectors.
  Lares familiaris was the founder of the family.

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The new anthropomorphic gods.

• Contact with the Greeks led to the rise of
  anthropomorphic gods that were worshipped by the
  Romans.
• Anthropomorphic gods had to have houses to dwell
  in and statues to embody them.
• Gods like Jupiter were promoted from tribal
  deities of agriculture to anthropomorphic gods
  of the city.
• A few gods like Hercules, had no parallel in
  Roman worship but were added to the pantheon.
  Hercules was the patron god of merchants.

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Roman values.

• The Mos Maiorum (way of the ancestors), the
  four basic virtues.

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The Roman Virtues.

• If you inculcate the values you receive honor and
  respect.
• Pietas devotion and loyalty to family and
  parental authority. Extrapolated to the state.
• Fides keeping ones promises. Rulers who
  lacked this virtue allowed for rebellion.
• Gravitas self-control, a stiff upper lip toward
  prosperity and failure alike.
• Virtus virtue itself know the difference
  between good and evil and choose the good
  healthy habits, heroism in war provide for
  family honor the state.

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The Romans were conservative.