EarlyItaly

When Italy emerged into the light of history about 700bc, it was already inhabited by various peoples of differentcultures and languages. Most natives of the country lived in villages or small towns, supported themselves by agriculture oranimal husbandry (Italia means “Calf Land”), and spoke an Italicdialect belonging to the Indo-Europeanfamily of languages. Oscan and Umbrian were closely related Italicdialects spoken by the inhabitants of the Apennines. The other two Italic dialects, Latin and Venetic, were likewise closely related to each other and were spoken, respectively, by the Latins ofLatium (a plain of west-central Italy) and the people of northeastern Italy (near modern Venice). Iapyges and Messapii inhabited the southeastern coast. Their language resembled the speech of the Illyrians on the other side of the Adriatic. During the 5th centurybc the Po valley of northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul) was occupied by Gallictribes who spoke Celtic and who had migrated across theAlps from continental Europe. TheEtruscans were the first highly civilized people of Italy and were the only inhabitants who did not speak an Indo-European language. By 700bc several Greek colonies were established along the southern coast. Both Greeks and Phoenicians were actively engaged in trade with the Italian natives.

Modern historical analysis is making rapid progress in showing how Rome’s early development occurred in a multiculturalenvironment and was particularly influenced by the higher civilizations of the Etruscans to the north and the Greeks to the south.Roman religion was indebted to the beliefs and practices of the Etruscans. The Romans borrowed and adapted the alphabet from the Etruscans, who in turn had borrowed and adapted it from the Greek colonies of Italy. Senior officials of theRoman Republic derived their insignia from the Etruscans:curule chair, purple-bordered toga (toga praetexta), and bundle of rods (fasces). Gladiatorial combats and the military triumph (see below) were other customs adopted from the Etruscans. Rome lay 12 miles inland from the sea on the Tiber River, the border between Latium and Etruria. Because the site commanded a convenient river crossing and lay on a land route from the Apennines to the sea, it formed the meeting point of three distinct peoples: Latins, Etruscans, andSabines. Though Latin in speech and culture, the Roman population must have been somewhat diverse from earliest times, a circumstance that may help to account for the openness of Roman society in historical times.

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Historical sources on early Rome

The regal period (753–509bc) and the early republic (509–280bc) are the most poorly documented periods of Roman history because historical accounts of Rome were not written until much later. Greek historians did not take serious notice of Rome until thePyrrhic War (280–275bc), when Rome was completing its conquest of Italy and was fighting against the Greek city ofTarentum in southern Italy. Rome’s first native historian, a senator namedQuintus Fabius Pictor, lived and wrote even later, during theSecond Punic War (218–201bc). Thus historical writing at Rome did not begin until after Rome had completed its conquest of Italy, had emerged as a major power of the ancient world, and was engaged in a titanic struggle withCarthage for control of the western Mediterranean. Fabius Pictor’s history, which began with the city’s mythical Trojan ancestry and narrated events up to his own day, established the form of subsequent histories of Rome. During the last 200 yearsbc, 16 other Romans wrote similarlyinclusive narratives. All these works are now collectively termed “the Romanannalistic tradition” because many of them attempted to give a year-by-year (or annalistic) account of Roman affairs for the republic.

Although none of these histories are fully preserved, the first 10 books ofLivy, one of Rome’s greatest historians, areextant and cover Roman affairs from earliest times to the year 293bc (extant are also Books 21 to 45 treating the events from 218bc to 167bc). Since Livy wrote during the reign of the emperorAugustus (27bc–ad 14), he was separated by 200 years from Fabius Pictor, who, in turn, had lived long after many of the events his history described. Thus, in writing about early Rome, ancient historians were confronted with great difficulties inascertaining the truth. They possessed a list of annual magistrates from the beginning of the republic onward (the consularfasti), which formed the chronological framework of their accounts. Religious records and the texts of some laws and treaties provided a bare outline of major events. Ancient historians fleshed out this meagre factual material with both native and Greek folklore. Consequently, over time, historical facts about early Rome often suffered from patriotic or face-saving reinterpretations involving exaggeration of the truth, suppression of embarrassing facts, and invention.

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The evidence for the annalistic tradition shows that the Roman histories written during the 2nd centurybc were relatively brief resumes of facts and stories. Yet in the course of the 1st centurybc Roman writers were increasingly influenced by Greekrhetorical training, with the result that their histories became greatly expanded in length; included in them were fictitious speeches and lengthy narratives of spurious battles and political confrontations, which, however, reflect the military and political conditions and controversies of the late republic rather than accurately portraying the events of early Rome. Livy’s history of early Rome, for example, is a blend of some facts and much fiction. Since it is often difficult to separate fact from fiction in his works and doing so involves personal judgment, modern scholars have disagreed about many aspects of early Roman history and will continue to do so.