HST 1100 Lecture 5: Module 5: Early Rome
Early Rome
The Emergence of Rome
Geography of Italy
o 750 miles long; 120 miles across – peninsula
▪ Easy to get across, but hard to get down into it
▪ Easily defendable land point
o Mountains block travel from other parts of Europe into easily a
o Fertile plains that can grow grain easily
o Islands
o Rivers
▪ Tiber River gives access to the city of Rome
Rome is buffered from coastal invasion but they have the Tiber river which gives them
access to the sea
o But invaders don’t have easy access to Rome
o Access to the Mediterranean sea on both sides
▪ Good for expansion, exploration and trade
Early Inhabitants
The Greeks
o Arrived between 750 – 550 BCE (before Alexander the Great)
o Have a great influence on the Romans
▪ While they live there and afterwards
o Romans adopt Greek Culture
The Etruscans
o Settlers in Northern Italy speaking an Indo-European language
o 600 BCE
o Urbanized living in walled-cities
▪ Influence roman culture
o Probably dominated Early Romans
Early Rome
o Latium plains (where we get the word Latin)
o Romulus and Remus (753 BCE)
▪ Origin story
▪ Sons of a Trojan princess
▪ Father is Aries the God of War
▪ Adopted by a she-wolf
▪ They founded the city of Rome by gathering followers
▪ Romulus kills Remus which is why it’s called Roan
o Bereft of women
▪ Invited Sabines to a party
▪ While the men were occupied they romans abducted their women
▪ Aka they merged
o Monarchy
▪ 7 kings
• First being Romulus
▪ Numa Pompilies
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• Introduced a ritualized religion
• Became pius and reverent of their gods
• Adopt the same pantheon as the greeks but under different names
• Planetary names
o Etruscan Influence
▪ As a monarchy may have dominated romans
▪ Tarkwin was an Etruscan who was elected king
▪ His son Lucius Tarkwin was an oppressive king and a final king of rome
▪ The Rape of Lucretia (509 BCE)
• Lucius breaks into a friend’s house and finds his friends wife Lucretia
and rapes her
• She tells everyone then kills herself
▪ Sparked a revolt against the Tarkwin kings
o Overthrows monarchy and institutes a Republic
o Roman art:
▪ Chimera: lion head, goat head, and snake head
▪ The Tragedy
▪ of Lucretia by Sandro Boticelli c. 1500 AD
Roman Republic: Political Institutions
Government only for the city of Rome at first
Imperium: the right to command
o Officials are invested with authority but only held power for a certain time
Consuls and Praetors
o Two consuls: the top administrators of government and led the forces of the Republic
in war
▪ Elected
▪ Annually chosen
o Praetors: governors of Rome while consuls were away
▪ Judicial operations
▪ Applying civil law
Specialized Officials
o Praetor to judge cases with foreigners
o Questors and Aediles
▪ Questors: investigate crime and run financial things
▪ Aediles: oversee the cities food supply and building upkeep
o Occasionally elected a provisional dictator for the duration of a crisis
▪ Cincinnatus was one of these dictators
▪ Willingly gave up his power after 16 days
▪ George Washington is seen as the Cincinnatus of America
o Lictors – bearers of the fasces (fascism comes from this word)
▪ Police force
▪ Attendants and guards
▪ Strength in unity
▪ The need to use force if necessary
Roman Senate
o Comes from the word senex (means old men)
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o 300 men served for life
▪ Don’t have to be re-elected
o Advisory board for the Praetors and Consuls
o Began to have more power and eventually they became law-makers
o Most long-lived of rome’s political institutions
The Assemblies
o Centuriate Assembly – the roman army
o Met in order to confer on want the commoners want
o Places to vote
o Become less important
Roman Republic: Social Structure
The Roman family
o Mirrors the idea of the state
o Family works in concert for the larger family
Paterfamilias
o Patriarch
o Oldest male of the household who controls household as the family head
Struggle between patricians and plebeians 5th century
o Patricians: wealthy landowners with political power
▪ Descendants of Rome’s original Senators
▪ Only patricians could be praetors, consuls, etc.
o Plebeians: artisans, lesser landowners, poor
▪ No political power
▪ Civic rights but excluded from government
o Plebeians get angry that they have no say
▪ They fought and defended Rome and were angry
▪ So they left the Roman state
o Patricians offered a compromise of 2 officials and a council
Tribunes of the Plebes
o The two officials
o Protect Plebeians
o Could veto acts of Senate and magistrate
o Personally sacrosanct – cannot be arrested or assaulted
o Could convene a council of the plebes to discuss Plebeian interest
▪ Plebiscitia/plebiscite
• Type of law the council instituted, but only applied to plebeians
o Overtime Roman law brought them together
▪ By the 12 tables of law – social laws
▪ Initially forbid intermarriage but that was brought down by the Plebs
▪ Some Plebeians have more power
Hortensian Law (287 BCE)
o Made the decisions of the Plebiscitia matter for the entire roman community
o New type of authority: Nobiles
▪ Family connections regardless of patrician or plebeian
Romans had three names
o A first name
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