UNIT V:  ANCIENT ROME                                                            back to Rome page

  1. LOCATION:

  - It lies in the middle of the Mediterranean.

  - It is separated from the rest of Europe by the Alps.

  - The Italian peninsula is about 1000 kilometres long by about 200 wide.

  - It is divided for most of its length by the Apennines Mountains.

  - Rivers are few and short - the major exception: the Po River in the north.  Today, this river is to Italy

    what the Saint Lawrence River - Great Lakes system is to Canada. It is the industrial heartland of Italy and

     is home to several large cities (Turin, Milan,Verona, Venice).

  - At that time, it was the boundary between the supposed civilized inhabitants of Italy and their non- civilized

     northern neighbours.

  - The other river of consequence was the Tiber in central Italy.

  - The story of Rome is about the inhabitants of the Tiber, 20 kilometres inland.

  - Roman navies were stationed in the Bay of Naples south of Rome.  They built a port at Ostia at the mouth of

     the Tiber.

  - The peninsula was generally fertile along narrow coastal plains and river valleys, but Rome did have to

     import food.

  - The climate is much like that of Greece- very mild (Mediterranean Climate- like Southern California's )

  2. ORIGINS:

  A. THE LEGEND:  (From Will Durant- " Caesar and Christ ")

   - What we shall call April 21, 753 B.C., was given as the date, and events were reckoned " A.U.C. " - ANNO
     URBIS CONDITAE - "in the year from the city's foundation."

  - If imitation is the best form of flattery, than, using Homer as a guide, a hundred tales and a thousand poems
     has a Trojan prince, Aeneas, offspring of Aphrodite

  - Venus, had fled from burning Troy, and how, after suffering many lands and men, he had brought to Italy
     the gods or sacred effigies of Priam's city. ( Priam was king of Troy, defeated by the Mycenean (Greek city state)
     king Agamemnon. Sailing west, Aeneas' ships were wrecked off the coast of Africa. He was found by
     the Queen of Carthage who fell in love with him. She built him new ships and begged him to stay but hearing
     the cries of Apollo and the other gods, he left for Italy.  She killed herself by jumping into the fire and
     cursed Aeneas- that the city of Aeneas and Carthage would be bitter enemies, make war and hate each other
     forever. Aeneas, arriving in Italy, had married Lavinia, daughter of the king of Latium; and eight
     generations later their descendant Numitor, said the story, held the throne of Alba Longa, Latium's capital.
     A usurper, Amulius, killed Numitor's sons and forced his only daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a priestess
     of Vesta, vowed to virginity.  But Rhea lay down by the banks of a stream and opened her bosom to catch the
     breeze.  Too trustful of gods and men, she fell asleep.  Mars, overcome with her beauty, left her with
     twins. Amulius ordered them to be drowned.  They were placed on a raft, which kind waves carried to land
     where they were suckled by a she-wolf, the symbol of Rome.  When these twins Romulus and Remus grew
     up, they killed Amudius, restored Numitor and went resolutely forth to build a kingdom for themselves on
     the seven hills (the Palatine, Capitoline, Caelian, Esquiline, Aventine, Viminal, and Quirinal ) of Rome.

  B. THE TRUTH:

   - Roman history dates back to about 1,000 B.C.

  - The Greeks had already settled the island of Sicily.

  - The Phoenicians (merchants/pirates from current day Lebanon) had already built Carthage- a very rich city
     across the Bay of Carthage from the modem day city of Tunis in Tunisia.

  - Carthaginians were the first to explore the west coast of Italy.

  - Over time, different peoples settled on the west coast of Italy- Greeks, Carthaginians,and Etruscans ( from
    current day Tuscany, north of Rome, originally from Asia Minor) and northern barbarians

  - The Greeks settled Sicily and the eastern mainland.

  - The Etruscans settled in Etruria, the widest of the plains in central Italy.

  - These four groups shared the area for about 200 years.

  - The first major changes came about with the Etruscans.        

  - They paved their streets, built dams, walled their cities and called their area Italy.

  - The Etruscans conquered the barbarian tribes.

  - They became part of the Etruscan culture- music, painting, temples

  - They were rich & they believed life was to be enjoyed.

  - They believed death was a time of agony.

  - They soon began to fight with the Greeks.

  - More barbarians came in from the north.

  - The Etruscans were caught between them and the Greeks.

  - They retreated to Etruria and their own cities.

  - The Greeks had ( and still have ) a major influence in southern Italy- It starts south of Naples and many of
     the people have Greek versus Roman mannerisms.

  - Southern Italy became full of Greeks.

  - Syracuse on the island of Sicily became the largest Greek city.

  - The Etruscans and Italians took much of Greek culture and made it their Own.

  - They even took the Greek gods- they merely changed their names.

  - At this time (about 900 B.C.) just south of the River Tiber stood six low hills.

  - Each was a little town- home of barbarian tribesmen.

  - They shared a market place and a crude fortress on a seventh hill.

  - Rome fell under control of the Etruscans- they learned much from them like how to build buildings, arches,
    aqueducts, make ships and weapons.

  - The Etruscans ruled for two centuries.

  - Eventually, the Romans overthrew them and declared their independence.