Download sample - Lessons of History

Sample from short course entitled Rome: from Origins to Republic by Fran
Andel.
This sample lasts for approximately 30 minutes worth of free study. The complete
short course covers 10 hours worth of study.
The complete short course is useful as: A general introduction for anyone studying a course on Ancient Rome
 An introduction for anyone studying a GCE in Ancient History
 A general interest course for anyone who wants to know more about the
foundation of Ancient Rome
The complete short course covers Etruria, Early Rome, and her neighbours, in much
more depth. It looks at the rule of the Kings of Rome and the founding of the
Republic, and at the origin of Republican institutions. It also considers Rome’s social
and cultural development down to 471 BC.
Using this sample
This sample contains both a short study guide and a power-point presentation with
supporting notes.
Read the study guide first. You will be told when to switch to your presentation.
The study guide also contains some simple self-assessment tasks. Do try these.
They are basic question and answer tasks to get you really thinking about the topic
under study.
Timing for this sample is 15 minutes on the study guide and 15 minutes on
presentation. It’s up to you how you handle the short tasks.
Content of sample
The Influence of the Etruscans on Early Rome
Sample study guide begins here:-
The Influence of the Etruscans on Early Rome
Early Rome lay 12 miles in land from the sea on the River Tiber, and the Tiber was
the boundary between Italia and Etruria.
In the later 7th Century BC an Etruscan dynasty, the Tarquins, took control of Rome
and began its transformation from a village of wattle and daub farmsteads set upon
the Seven Hills into a city. The ‘forum’ valley was partly drained by the Cloaca
Maxima, the Great Sewer of Rome, and converted into a public market square with a
gravel paved surface.
1 Copyright: Fran Andel at Lessons of History. Sample course.
The City of Rome had begun – but who were these Etruscans who began it?
Etruscans: Origin and Language
The Ancient Historians had various theories about the origins of the Etruscans. We
get our information about them from three main ancient sources: these sources are
the Greek historian, Herodotus who lived in the 5th Century BC; Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, another Greek from the 1st Century BC, and Livy, the great of
historian of Augustus’ rule, 27 BC to 14 AD.
Each of these historians had a different origin theory. Herodotus said the Etruscans
were Lydians (that’s modern Turkey now) who were forced to seek new homes
because of famine; Dionysius thought they were an enigmatic and ancient
indigenous Peoples, and Livy reckoned they were Germans from the Danube!
Which origin theory is supported today?
Well it’s still confused! The answer is no one really knows, but many historians and
archaeologists lean towards the idea that the Etruscans, whose art forms and burial
practices we know, may have moved into the Italic Peninsular in the Bronze Age and
intermingled with the older, indigenous inhabitants.
What we can say for sure is that Etruscan civilisation was a major player in the
development of the urban city-state in the seventh and sixth centuries BC.
What about Etruscan language?
Again, this can cause a problem. Everything about the Etruscans is often regarded
as ‘mysterious’ and ‘strange’. In many ways this view is correct. However, the idea
that Etruscan language can’t be translated is a wrong one. It can be deciphered, and
is based on a primitive form of the Greek alphabet.
Our problem comes from trying to understand the exact meaning of the words and
their grammatical forms. This is because Etruscan has no other language close
enough in kinship to allow a comprehensive and conclusive comparison. Etruscan
isn’t totally isolated because it does have connections with other Indo-European and
non-Indo-European languages, however, it can’t be classified as belonging wholly to
either Greek or Latin.
No Etruscan literature survives, although we know it did exist and that it was very
influential. However, there are more than 10,000 known Etruscan inscriptions, with
new ones being discovered each year.
Of the longer inscriptions, the most important is that of the “Zagreb mummy
wrapping”. This was found in Egypt in the 19th century and carried back to
Yugoslavia by a traveller.
It had originally been a book of linen cloth, which at some date was cut up into strips
to be wrapped around a mummy. With about 1,300 words, written in black ink on the
linen, it is the longest existing Etruscan text; it contains a calendar and instructions
for sacrifice, and is sufficient to give some idea of Etruscan religious literature
2 Copyright: Fran Andel at Lessons of History. Sample course.
Did the Etruscans have a name for themselves?
Yes, they did. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says the folk we call the Etruscans called
themselves the Rasenna; this is supported by evidence from inscriptions where the
word Rasna is found.
The Greeks called the Etruscans Tyrsenoi or Tyrrhenoi, while the Latins referred to
them as Tusci or Etrusci, hence the English name for them.
How did the Etruscans influence Early Rome?
Romulus traditionally founded Rome on 21st April 753 BC. From then until the
founding of the Republic in 510 BC, Rome was under the rule of seven kings, the fifth
of these kings was called Tarquinius Priscus (616-578 BC), and he was Etruscan.
The Tarquin dynasty held Rome from 616 to 510 BC.
Even before Tarquin the Elder took over Rome there seems to have been a fair
amount of interaction between the two peoples, and this can be seen in all areas of
Roman political, religious and cultural life.
What did the Etruscans ever do for Rome?
Well, for one thing they gave Romans that most celebrated of all Roman garb, the
toga! Livy says the toga praetexta, worn by magistrates and sporting a wide purple
stripe, was expressly derived from the Etruscans.
They also gave Rome the form of the Doric column, and the form of the Greek
temple. Etruscans built temples that were like the Greek ones, but they differed in
having a front and in being divided into three rooms inside.
Etruscan kings wore purple, carried an eagle-headed sceptre and had a folding ivory
throne. Roman magistrates, and later the Emperors, all continued to associate purple
with high status, power, and eventually ‘imperial’ rule.
The word ‘imperial’ comes from the Roman word for a military commander,
imperator. Imperator gave rise to the title Emperor.
It has been suggested by some historians that the reason the great General Marius
chose the emblem of the eagle as the symbol for the Roman armies, was because of
the Etruscan royal sceptre – a sceptre, of course, symbolising not only authority, but
victory in war.
The folding ivory throne eventually became transformed into the curule chair of
Rome’s ‘Republican’ consuls.
Romans had a band of bully-boys who preceded their magistrates when they went
out and about. These official bodyguards were called the Lictors, and they carried a
strange instrument of office called the fasces.
Both the office of the Lictors and the fasces were probably Etruscan in origin. The
fasces were cylindrical bundles of reed, elm or birch tied around an axe with a red
strap, ribbon or wool.
3 Copyright: Fran Andel at Lessons of History. Sample course.
The word ‘lictor’ might come from the latin verb ligare, ‘to bind’: the word fasces,
means ‘bundle’. Mussolini resurrected the fasces for his Fascists.
When Mussolini chose the ancient Roman fasces as a symbol of the fascist party, he
was at the same time playing with the similarity of the words fascio (peasant
organisation) and fasces. Very cleverly he chose an ancient symbol, thus drawing a
parallel between his type of fascism and the power symbols of Rome’s ancient past
Take a moment and consider this question:
Why do you think the lictors carried the fasces, and what do you think these
bundles of rods and axes symbolised?
Discussion
I have no idea how you answered the question above…if you tried it at all, but this is
what we know about the lictors and the fasces.
Some historians think the word ‘lictor’ actually comes from the Etruscan root word
lauchum, which means "royal". There is something to be said for this, because the
lictors had once been the bodyguard of the Etruscan and Roman kings.
Why did the lictors carry the fasces?
Well, we don’t really know! If you thought the fasces symbolised authority – then give
yourself a gold star! More than that, we can’t truly say.
The axe was sometimes turned around to face inwards or outwards in times of peace
or conflict. The use of red was a magical colour to the Romans, and they often used
it as a ritual binding. At festivals the fasces could be decked out with garlands of
myrtle, or crowned with laurel after a military victory. If the city suffered a disaster or
a loss, the fasces would be cloaked.
Obviously, the fasces had a deep significance and it had to do with war and strength
over enemies. Maybe the fasces were once symbolic of summary execution and
punishment – with rod and axe.
After Rome was governed more by laws than by instant retribution, maybe the fasces
took on a new meaning? Perhaps they came to represent not only the Law of Rome
to punish and judge all men, but the power of Rome based on war and military
subjugation?
What do you think?
How else did the Etruscans influence Early Rome?
Etruscans were famed for their practices of divination, and they passed these on to
the Early Romans.
4 Copyright: Fran Andel at Lessons of History. Sample course.
The most important form of divination was haruspicy – the study of the details of the
viscera, especially the livers, of sacrificial animals.
The deities revealed themselves and their intentions in the microcosm of the liver of
animals. To help understand these godly intentions special models were made.
Typical of these is a bronze model of a sheep's liver found near Piacenza, bearing
the incised names of divinities in its 16 outside and internal divisions.
The Piacenza model is thought to have been used as schoolroom ‘textbook’ to help
teach would be diviners. You will see it in the presentation that accompanies this
study guide.
The word haruspex is Latin for ‘diviner’. The Romans also had their own diviners.
They were called augurs, and they practiced augury: that is divination by flights of
birds and other natural omens.
The Etruscans influenced the Romans in other ways too, and if you want to know
more about this topic, and about Rome’s kings and the founding of the Republic –
then why not buy the complete short course!
You might like to turn to your presentation now. Run through this, and then return to
this study guide and try the self-assessment tasks below:Self-assessment Tasks.
1. What do we know about Etruscan language and literature?
2. What did the Etruscans call themselves?
3. In what ways did Etruria influence Early Rome?
End of Sample.
5 Copyright: Fran Andel at Lessons of History. Sample course.