A History of the Roman World

by Scullard, H. H.

  31 ETRUSCAN RELIGION. C. Clemen, Die Religion der Etrusker (1936); L. Ross Taylor, Local Cults in Etruria (1923); C. O. Thulin, Die Etruskische Disciplin, 3 vols (1906–9); F. de Ruyt, Charun, démon étrusque de la mort (1934); A. J. Pfiffig, Religio Etrusca (Graz, 1975).

  32 ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. The majority of inscriptions have been published in Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum (1893–, still in progress). New material appears in the annual periodical, Studi Etruschi. M. Pallottino, Testimonia Linguae Etruscae, edn 2 (1968) provides a collection of over 900 inscriptions. For general treatment see M. Pallottino, The Etruscans (1974), chs 10–12; R. A. Staccioli, La lingua degli Etruschi, edn 2 (1969).

  The Pyrgi inscriptions were written on sheets of gold leaf, two in Etruscan and one in Punic; they were found between two early fifth-century temples. They record a dedication by Thefarie Valianas, ruler of Caere, to Uni-Astarte, a Phoenician goddess, and belong to c. 500 BC. Their linguistic value is great, even though they do not provide a strictly bilingual inscription since their content is only similar and not exactly the same. The dedication of a shrine by an Etruscan to a Punic deity suggests very close relations between Caere and Carthage, and probably the existence at Pyrgi of a small settlement of Carthaginian merchants. Of the large bibliography which has grown up since the discovery of the tablets in 1964 reference may be made to J. Heurgon, JRS, 1966, 1 ff.; J. Ferron, Aufstieg NRW, I, i, 189 ff.

  33 ETRUSCAN LITERATURE. See especially J. Heurgon, Daily Life of the Etruscans (1964), ch. viii, who emphasizes its volume, and W. V. Harris, Rome in Etruria and Umbria (1971), ch. i, who circumscribes its extent. On Claudius the Etruscologist see A. D. Momigliano, Claudius, edn 2 (1961), 11 ff., 85 f., 128. The François tomb painting at Vulci: Momigliano, op. cit., 85; for the date 340–310 see M. Cristofani, Dialoghi di Archeologia 1967, 186 ff. Elogia: see M. Torelli, Elogia Tarquiniensia (1975) and the discussion of this by T. J. Cornell, JRS, 1978, 167 ff. On Etruscan historiography see Cornell, Annali di Pisa, iii, 6 (1976), 432 ff.

  34 ETRUSCAN MAGISTRATES. A model iron axe with fasces of c. 600 BC was found in a tomb at Vetulonia, the very place where this symbol of power was said by the ancient sources to have been invented. When the twelve cities of the Etruscan League united for a common enterprise, the twelve rulers of the cities each carried one axe; this was probably the origin of the twelve fasces carried by lictors in front of the kings and consuls of Rome. Funerary sarcophagi from southern Etruria and alabaster urns from Volterrae depict processions of Etruscan magistrates, generally riding in chariots, with attendants carrying fasces. See R. Lambrechts, Essai sur les magistratures des républiques étrusques (1959), with illustrations. On the constitutional aspect of the magistrates see J. Heurgon, Historia, 1957, 63 ff.

  35 THE ETRUSCAN LEAGUE. Its strength or weakness, its composition and functions and other problems are briefly discussed by Scullard, Etruscan Cities, 231–6.

  36 ETRUSCAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE. See J. Heurgon, Latomus, 1959, 3 ff.; S. Mazzarino, Historia, 1957, 98 ff.; Scullard, Etruscan Cities, 236 ff. Military reforms: A. M. Snodgrass, Arms and Armour of the Greeks (1967), ch. iii.

  37 ETRUSCAN EXPANSION. Cato, Origines, ii frg. 62P. For more detail and references to the ancient and modern authorities on Etruscan expansion in Italy see Scullard, The Etruscan Cities and Rome (1967), ch. vi (in the south) and vii (in the north). On Etruscan influence in northern Italy see L. Bonfante, Archaeological News, v, 1976, 93 ff.

  38 ALALIA. See Herodotus, i, 163 ff.; Diodorus, v, 13; Strabo, v, 2, 7.

  39 ETRUSCO-CARTHAGINIAN TREATY. See Aristotle, Politics, iii, 9; 1280a 35.

  40 ARISTODEMUS AND CUMAE. The history of Aristodemus is recorded by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, vii, 2–12 (cf. Jacoby, FGrH, no. 576). Whatever other elements have gone into this story, these include a local chronicle of Cumae which may be regarded as essentially reliable. This has wider implications, since it provides an account which is independent of the Roman tradition and bears testimony to the general historical background of events in Roman history connected with the fall of the monarchy there, with Porsenna and the Latins before the end of the sixth century.

  The battle of Cumae was celebrated in one of Pindar’s Odes to Hiero, and by the spoils that Hiero sent to Olympia: these include two surviving Etruscan helmets, inscribed: ‘Hiero and the Syracusans (dedicated) to Zeus the Etruscan spoils won at Cumae.’ See Pindar, Pythian, i, 71 and (for the helmets) Meiggs and Lewis, Greek Historical Inscriptions, vol. 1 (1969), n. 29, p. 62.

  41 ETRUSCANS IN NORTHERN ITALY. In general see G. A. Mansuelli and R. Scarani, L’Emilia prima dei Romani (1961), especially ch. vi; Mostra dell’Etruria Padana, edn 2, 2 vols (1961). An introduction to Marzabotto is provided by G. A. Mansuelli, Marzabotto. Guida alla Città (Bologna, 1966). On Spina see S. Aurigemma, Il Museo naz. arch. di Spina in Ferrara (1957); P. E. Arias and N. Alfieri, Spina (1958).

  42 LATIUM. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant., v, 8, 3. See T. Ashby, The Roman Campagna in Classical Times (1927, reprinted 1970); B. Tilley, Vergil’s Latium (1947). Traces of the primitive forests survive in the Forests of Castel Porziano and of Circeo, while Romans of later days could be reminded of the numerous lakes, lagoons and ponds of early times when they looked at the Lacus Curtius in the Forum or the low-lying ground occupied by the Circus Maximus or the Colosseum.

  43 LATIAL CULTURE. The archaeological evidence is published in a massive corpus by P. G. Gierow, The Iron Age Culture of Latium, I (1966), II, i (1964). See also the catalogue of the exhibition in Rome in 1976 entitled Civiltà del Lazio primitivo, published under the direction of G. Colonna. For comparison with southern Villanovan culture see Gierow, I, 483 ff. It is not certain whether the hut-urn type of ossuary spread from southern Etruria to Latium or vice versa. Gierow supposes that Latial culture arrived in two waves, first to the Alban Hills, Rome, Ardea, and perhaps Antium and Tibur, the second to Satricum and Praeneste. The early evidence from the Alban group corresponds to that of the Palatine group at Rome, while the south Latin group is linked to the Esquiline settlement. Those who argue for a long chronology (from the tenth century) include H. Müller-Karpe and R. Peroni, while E. Gjerstad and P. G. Gierow are among the proponents of the short chronology (starting c. 800).

  44 DECIMA AND OTHER SETTLEMENTS. For these Latin cities and recent excavations see Civiltà del Lazio primitivo (1976). Decima is most probably to be identified with Politorium, on which see Livy, i, 33, 1, Cato, frg. 54P and Pliny, NH, iii, 68–9. Pliny says that it had long since disappeared without trace (sine vestigiis) and that it had been a member of the Alban League. For the excavations see Civiltà del Lazio primitivo (1976), 252 ff., D. Ridgway, Arch. Reports 1973–4, 45 f. and Par. Pass. xxxii, 1977, 241 ff. Ficana: Civiltà, 250, Ridgway, 46, Par. Pass., 1977, 315 ff. La Rustica and Osteria dell’Osa; Civiltà, 153 ff. and 166 ff. Other sites (e.g. Alban hills, Rome, Gabii, Tivoli, Praeneste, Lavinium, Ardea, Anzio, and Satricum) are discussed in Civiltà. Arch. Labiale, i, 1978, 35 ff. (Ficana), 42 ff. (Gabà), 65 ff. (Satricum). On Gabii see F. Castagnoli, Comptes Rendus, 1977, 468 ff.: a sanctuary (to Juno?) existed from the seventh to the second century, its origin going back to the period of Gabii’s independence. On Decima see now Archaeologia laziale, 1979.

  45 PRISCI LATINI. See Livy, i, 38, 4; Dion. Hal. iii, 49–50; Pliny, NH, iii, 68–9. Dionysius reckons the number of communities sharing in the festival of Jupiter Latiaris in the sixth century at forty-seven. A. N. Sherwin-White, Rom. Cit., 9, equates Livy’s Prisci Latini with those living between the Anio and Tiber. See also A. Bernardi, Athenaeum, 1964, 223 ff.

  46 THE LATIN LEAGUE. See A. N. Sherwin-White, Rom. Cit., 11 ff.

  47 ETRUSCAN LATIUM. See briefly H. H. Scullard, The Etruscan Cities (1967), 170–7. Praeneste in the fourth century had eight tributaries among the lesser Latin communities: Livy, vi, 29, 6. On the Manios inscription (Manios med fhefhaked Numasioi’) see Civiltà del Lazio primitivo, 376 ff.; A. E. Gordon, The Inscribed Fibula Praenestina. Problems of Authenticity (University of Cal
ifornia Publications: Classical Studies, vol. 16, 1975); D. Ridgway, ‘Manios Faked?’, BICS, 24, 1977, 17 ff., who traces the ambiguous history of the fibula in modern times and concludes: ‘I see the question of authenticity in terms of precisely a “50–50” chance’.

  48 ALTARS AT LAVINIUM. The two earliest of the thirteen (8th and 13th) probably date to the sixth century. ‘The full complement of twelve altars was reached in the fifth-fourth centuries, by which time the thirteenth had been abandoned and the eighth reconstructed’: D. Ridgway, Arch. Reports 1967–8, 34 (fig. 5 provides a photograph). See also C. F. Giulani and P. Sommella, Par. Pass., xxxii, 1977, 356 ff; F. Castagnoli, Comptes Rendues, 1977, 464 ff. For the inscription (‘Castorei Podluqveiqve Qvrois) see S. Weinstock, JRS, 1960, 112 ff.

  II REGAL ROME

  1 THE TIBER. See J. le Gall, Le Tibre (1953); L. A. Holland, TAPA, 1949, 281 ff. Although the site of Rome offered the best crossing-place, the Etruscans could cross the river a little further north at Fidenae (near Veii) and Lucus Feroniae and thus reach Campania via Praeneste and the route of the later Via Latina.

  2 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL. This is published in the monumental work of E. Gjerstad, Early Rome, vols i–vi (1953–73): vol. iv is partly resumptive of vols i–iii; vol. v deals with the literary evidence and vol. vi provides an historical survey. As a corpus of material it is unsurpassed, but not all Gjerstad’s interpretations of it have won general acceptance (p. 465 n. 49). For an assessment of the problems involved see A. Momig-liano, JRS, 1963, 95 ff. (= Terzo Contrib., 545 ff). For discussion of many other aspects of early Rome see Terzo Contrib., 545–695, Quarto, 273–499 and Quinto, 293–331. See also G. Poma, Gli Studi recenti sull’ origine della repubblica romana, 1963–73 (Bologna, 1974); for various aspects of recent archaeological work see several writers in Par. Pass., xxxii, 1977. A general sketch is given by R. Bloch, The Origins of Rome (1960), while much of great value is contained in Ogilvie, Livy.

  3 THE ARGEI. See Varro, De Lingua Latina, v, 45–54. They were straw puppets which were thrown into the Tiber on 14 May as a purificatory sacrifice, possibly being surrogates for human victims of earlier times.

  4 SEPTIMONTIUM. The derivation from Saeptimontium is proposed by L. A. Holland, TAPA (1953), 16 ff. One problem is that the sources give 8 not 7 hills, but this can be explained, e.g. by eliminating Subura because it was a valley or a gloss on Caelius, or Germalus might be rejected and Palatium applied to the whole hill. It is noteworthy that Septimontium belonged to a group of sacra publica named pro montibus and that these seven hills were called montes, whereas the excluded Quirinal and Viminal were colles. R. Gelsomino, Varrone e i sette colli di Roma (1975), argues that, although the festival was old, it was not connected with septem until this derivation was propounded by Varro in 52–51 BC.

  5 JANUS. L. A. Holland, Janus and the Bridge (1961) has argued that the god Janus was a numen attached to water-crossings, Janus meaning gateway. In later times the gateways and temples of Janus were opened in war and closed in peace: Mrs Holland explains that originally the Janus was opened by removing the bridge (Ianus invius) when war threatened, and closed (Ianus pervius) by replacing the bridge in times of peace. Her book is full of ingenious ideas and her thesis has been accepted by e.g. E. Gjerstad (cf. JRS, 1963, 229 f.) and (apparently) J. Heurgon (Rise of R., 32). A major obstacle is that the ancient sources do not seem to connect Janus with water-crossings.

  6 FOUNDATION LEGENDS. See especially Dion. Hal., i, 72–4; Livy, i, 1–7 (with Ogilvie’s Livy). A full up-to-date bibliography of the large modern literature on this topic is given by T. J. Cornell, Proc. Cambr. Phil. Soc., 1976, 1, n. 2 (note also two recent discussions: H. Strasburger, ‘Zur Sage von der Gründung Roms’, Sb. Heidelb. Akad., 1968, and G. K. Galinsky, Aeneas, Sicily and Rome (1969)). Cornell’s article, ‘Aeneas and the Twins: the Development of the Roman Foundation Legend’ (op. cit. supra) is a valuable and thoroughly documented discussion. He argues that the story of Romulus and Remus was the original authentic Roman version of the founding of the city. He counters the arguments of Strasburger who believes in a late literary origin for the twins (early third century) and that the story was invented as anti-Roman propaganda by an unknown Greek author (the story had unsavoury episodes, such as the murder of Remus and the rape of the Sabine women). The evidence is extremely complex, so reference must be made to Cornell’s article for further detail. On the myths of early Rome in general see M. Grant, Roman Myths (1973).

  7 AENEAS IN ETRURIA. See G. K. Galinsky, op. cit, n. 6, ch. iii; and A. Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins (1965), 287. For recent attempts to lower considerably the date of the Aeneas statuettes in Etruria see M. Torelli, Roma medio-repubblicana, 335 f., Dialoghi di Arch., 1973, 339 ff., and for the consequential dating of the whole legend of Aeneas in Italy see T. J. Cornell, Liverpool Classical Monthly, 4, April 1977, 75 ff.

  8 LAVINIUM AND ALBA LONGA. See F. Castagnoli (ed.), Lavinium, i (1972), ii (forthcoming), Par. Pass, xxxii, 1977, 340 ff. Timaeus: Dion. Hal., i, 67; Jacoby, FGrH 566 F 59. Inscription to Lar: S. Weinstock, JRS, 1960, 114 ff; doubts about the reading have been raised by H. G. Kolbe, Röm. Mitt., 1970, 1 ff. which though countered by M. Guarducci, ibid., 1971, 73 ff., still persist (see Cornell, op. cit supra, n. 7). Heroon: Dion. Hal, i, 64; P. Sommella, Atti pont, accad. rom. arch. Rendiconti, xliv (1971–2), 47 ff.; Civiltà del Lazio primitivo (1976), 305 f., (bibliography in Cornell, op. cit. supra, n. 6, p. 14 n. 3; photograph in Arch. Reports 1973–4, 47). For some difficulties in accepting the identification with the shrine described by Dionysius and an origin of the cult in the sixth century see Cornell, Liverpool Cl. Monthly, April 1977, 79 ff.

  Aeneas was linked with Alba Longa as well as with Lavinium. In rivalry, Alba twice unsuccessfully tried to transfer the Penates from Lavinium to itself (Dion. Hal., i, 67), and a Greek mythologer Conon (first century BC) preserved a version that Aeneas had settled in Alba, not Lavinium; in Ennius and Naevius Aeneas may have married the daughter of the king of Alba, not Lavinia. Further, according to legend Aeneas was led by a sow (with thirty piglets, symbolizing the thirty Latin peoples) to the site of Lavinium (so e.g. Timaeus) or alternatively to the site of Alba, which got its name Alba from a sus alba (so Fabius Pictor, frg. 4, Peter). Though no archaeological evidence supports the claim that Rome was settled by Alba (as has often been believed), yet Alba may well have exercised some leadership (through the religious league) in Latium before she was destroyed in the mid-seventh century, and as such would be thought to have claims as strong as Lavinium. On Alba’s claim to Aeneas see Galinsky, Aeneas, Sicily and Rome (1966), 43 ff.; Alföldi, Early Rome and the Latins, 271 ff.

  9 THE EARLY KINGS AND DUMÉZIL. Attempts to dismiss the early kings as gods or as personifications of the seven hills have been demolished by G. De Sanctis, SR, 1,358 ff. With great ingenuity and in a large number of books G. Dumézil has developed novel ideas about early Roman society, its gods, and kings. These are based on the assumption that, since the Romans shared with Indians and Celts a common Indo-European ancestry, it is legitimate to seek help in these other areas in order to solve problems and obscurities in early Rome. Thus he believes that early Roman society, like early Indian, was divided into three classes: the priests (who included the kings), the warriors, and the producers or farmers, corresponding respectively to religious sovereignty, military strength and fertility. This tripartite division was seen in early Rome in the three tribes of Ramnes (priests), Luceres (warriors) and Tities (producers). In religion Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus were responsible for the three functions, with their corresponding priests (flamines). In many legends and myths a ‘terrible’ type of king (who was also a magician) was contrasted with a more just ruler: in India they are Varuna and Mitra, in Rome they are the gods Jupiter and Fides (or Divus Fidius) and the earthly kings the terrible Romulus and the pious and peaceful Numa. The second, military, function produced Indra, Mars and Tullus Hostilius; the third, fertility, produced Quirinus and Ancus Marcius. Later, Tarquin
contrasted with Servius Tullius. It is unnecessary here to list the numerous works in which Dumézil has argued his views, except his synthesis, Archaic Roman Religion, 2 vols (1970): these views have had considerable influence especially among French historians of religion, but for rejection see, e.g., H. J. Rose, JRS, 1947, 183 ff., or A. Momigliano, Terzo Contrib., 581 ff., who concludes that ‘not only is his evidence weak, but his theories are unnecessary’.

  For discussion about the legends concerning the kings, and indeed on all aspects down to 390 BC see above all R. M. Ogilvie, Livy. This work is indispensable for any study of this period but since reference cannot be made to it at all relevant points, this general direction of the reader’s attention to it must be emphasized. See also Ogilvie’s shorter synoptic work, Early Rome and the Etruscans (1976).

  A. Alföldi, Die Struktur des voretruskischen Römerstaates (1974) is ‘essentially a work of comparative anthropology, not history’: so writes R. M. Ogilvie in his review of this book (Cl. Rev., 1976, 240 f.). It tries to discern the society of the Latins while they were still living in a nomadic state when they passed, so it is supposed, from a matriarchy with triadic institutions to a patriarchy with binary institutions: see A. Momigliano, Rivista Storia Italiana (1977), 160 ff.

  10 SABINE SETTLEMENT. Long ago Mommsen dismissed a supposed early union of some Sabines and Romans as an anticipation of the granting of Roman citizenship to the Sabines in the third century. The most recent exponent of this negative view is J. Poucet: at length in Recherches sur la légende sabine des origines de Rome (1967), at medium length in Aufstieg NRW, i, i (1972), 48–135, and more briefly in L’Ant. Class., 1971, 129 ff., 293 ff. With Mommsen, Poucet believes the whole story was designed to justify the dual magistracy at Rome; also that the fighting in Rome was based on the capture of the Capitol by the Sabine Appius Herdonius in 460 BC (Livy, iii, 15) and on the battle with the Samnites at Luceria in 294 (if the former of these supposed precedents is possible, the latter is almost certainly to be rejected). For a criticism of Poucet’s views (including his assumption about Livy’s sources) see R. M. Ogilvie Cl. Rev., 1968, 327 ff. From the historical point of view the important question is not so much the details of the legends but rather whether a vague tradition of a real infusion of Sabines into early Rome is likely to have survived into later times.