ROME
ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY
THE ETRUSCANS
=Etruria.=--The word Italy never signified for the ancients the same
as for us: the Po Valley (Piedmont and Lombardy) was a part of Gaul.
The frontier country at the north was Tuscany. The Etruscans who dwelt
there have left it their name (Tusci).
Etruria was a country at once warm and humid; the atmosphere hung
heavily over the inhabitants. The region on the shore of the sea where
the Etruscans had most of their cities is the famous Maremma, a
wonderfully fertile area, covered with beautiful forests, but where
the water having no outlet forms marshes that poison the air. "In the
Maremma," says an Italian proverb, "one gets rich in a year, but dies
in six months."
=The Etruscan People.=--The Etruscans were for the ancients, and are
still for us, a mysterious people. They had no resemblance to their
neighbor's, and doubtless they came from a distance--from Germany,
Asia, or from Egypt; all these opinions have been maintained, but no
one of them is demonstrated.
We are ignorant even of the language that they spoke. Their alphabet
resembles that of the Greeks, but the Etruscan inscriptions present
only proper names, and these are too short to furnish a key to the
language.
The Etruscans established twelve cities in Tuscany, united in a
confederation, each with its own fortress, its king, and its
government. They had colonies on both coasts, twelve in Campania in
the vicinity of Naples, and twelve more in the valley of the Po.
=Etruscan Tombs.=--There remain to us from the Etruscans only city
walls and tombs.
When an Etruscan tomb is opened, one perceives a porch supported by
columns and behind this chambers with couches, and bodies laid on
these. Round about are ornaments of gold, ivory, and amber; purple
cloths, utensils, and especially large painted vases. On the walls are
paintings of combats, games, banquets, and fantastic scenes.
=Industry and Commerce.=--The Etruscans knew how to turn their fertile
soil to some account, but they were for the most part mariners and
traders. Like the Phoenicians they made long journeys to seek the ivory
of India, amber from the Baltic, tin, the Phoenician purple, Egyptian
jewels adorned with hieroglyphics, and even ostrich eggs. All these
objects are found in their tombs. Their navies sailed to the south as
far as Sicily. The Greeks hated them and called them "savage
Tyrrhenians" or "Etruscan pirates." At this time every mariner on
occasion was a pirate, and the Etruscans were especially interested to
exclude the Greeks so that they might keep for themselves the trade of
the west coast of Italy.
The famous Etruscan vases, which have been taken from the tombs by
the thousand to enrich our museums, were imitations of Greek vases,
but manufactured by the Etruscans. They represent scenes from Greek
mythology, especially the combats about Troy; the human figures are in
red on a black ground.
=Religion.=--The Etruscans were a sombre people. Their gods were
stern, often malevolent. The two most exalted gods were "the veiled
deities," of whom we know nothing. Below these were the gods who
hurled the lightning and these form a council of twelve gods. Under
the earth, in the abode of the dead, were gods of evil omen. These are
represented on the Etruscan vases. The king of the lower world,
Mantus, a winged genius, sits with crown on his head and torch in his
hand. Other demons armed with sword or club with serpents in their
hands receive the souls of the dead; the principal of these under the
name Charun (the Charon of the Greeks), an old man of hideous form,
bears a heavy mallet to strike his victims. The souls of the dead (the
Manes) issue from the lower world three days in the year, wandering
about the earth, terrifying the living and doing them evil. Human
victims are offered to appease their lust for blood. The famous
gladiatorial combats which the Romans adopted had their origin in
bloody sacrifices in honor of the dead.
=The Augurs.=--The Etruscans used to say that a little evil spirit
named Tages issued one day from a furrow and revealed to the people
assembled the secrets of divination. The Etruscan priests who called
themselves haruspices or augurs had rules for predicting the future.
They observed the entrails of victims, the thunderbolt, but
especially the flight of birds (whence their name "augurs"). The augur
at first with face turned to the north, holding a crooked staff in his
hand, describes a line which cuts the heavens in two sections; the
part to the right is favorable, to the left unfavorable. A second line
cutting the first at right angles, and others parallel to these form
in the heavens a square which was called the Temple. The augur
regarded the birds that flew in this square: some like the eagle have
a lucky significance; others like the owl presage evil.
The Etruscans predicted the future destiny of their own people. They
are the only people of antiquity who did not expect that they were to
persist forever. Etruria, they said, was to endure ten centuries.
These centuries were not of exactly one hundred years each, but
certain signs marked the end of each period. In the year 44, the year
of the death of Caesar, a comet appeared; an Etruscan haruspex stated
to the Romans in an assembly of the people that this comet announced
the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth, the last
of the Etruscan people.
=Influence of the Etruscans.=--The Romans, a semi-barbarous people,
always imitated their more civilized neighbors, the Etruscans. They
drew from them especially the forms of their religion: the costume of
the priests and of the magistrates, the religious rites, and the art
of divining the future from birds (the auspices). When the Romans
found a city, they observe the Etruscan rites: the founder traces a
square enclosure with a plough with share of bronze, drawn by a white
bull and a white heifer. Men follow the founder and carefully cast
the clods of earth from the side of the furrow. The whole ditch left
by the plough is sacred and is not to be crossed. To allow entrance to
the enclosure, it is necessary that the founder break the ditch at
certain points, and he does this by lifting the plough and carrying it
an instant; the interval made in this manner remains profane and it
becomes the gate by which one enters. Rome itself was founded
according to these rites. It was called Roma Quadrata, and it was said
that the founder had killed his brother to punish him for crossing the
sacred furrow. Later the limits of Roman colonies and of camps, and
even the bounds of domains were always traced in conformity with
religious rules and with geometrical lines.
The Roman religion was half Etruscan. The Fathers of the church were
right, therefore, in calling Etruria the "Mother of Superstitions."
THE ITALIAN PEOPLE
=Umbrians and Oscans.=--In the rugged mountains of the Apennines, to
the east and south of the Roman plain, resided numerous tribes. These
peoples did not bear the same name and did not constitute a single
nation. They were Umbrians, Sabines, Volscians, AEquians, Hernicans,
Marsians, and Samnites. But all spoke almost the same language,
worshipped the same gods, and had similar customs. Like the Persians,
Hindoos, and Greeks, they were of Aryan race; secluded in their
mountains, remote from strangers, they remained like the Aryans of the
ancient period; they lived in groups with their herds scattered in the
plains; they had no villages nor cities. Fortresses erected on the
mountains defended them in time of war. They were brave martial
people, of simple and substantial manners. They later constituted the
strength of the Roman armies. A proverb ran: "Who could vanquish the
Marsians without the Marsians?"
=The Sacred Spring.=--In the midst of a pressing danger, the Sabines,
according to a legend, believing their gods to be angry, decided to
appease their displeasure by sacrificing to the god of war and of
death everything that was born during a certain spring. This sacrifice
was called a "Sacred Spring." All the children born in this year
belonged to the god. Arrived at the age of manhood, they left the
country and journeyed abroad. These exiles formed several groups, each
taking for guide one of the sacred animals of Italy, a woodpecker, a
wolf, or a bull, and followed it as a messenger of the god. Where the
animal halted the band settled itself. Many peoples of Italy, it was
said, had originated in these colonies of emigrants and still
preserved the name of the animal which had led their ancestors. Such
were, the Hirpines (people of the wolf), the Picentines (people of the
woodpecker), and the Samnites whose capital was named Bovianum (city
of the ox).
=The Samnites.=--The Samnites were the most powerful of all. Settled
in the Abruzzi, a paradise for brigands, they descended into the
fertile plains of Naples and of Apulia and put Etruscan and Greek
towns to ransom.
The Samnites fought against the Romans for two centuries; although
always beaten because they had no central administration and no
discipline they yet reopened the war. Their last fight was heroic. An
old man brought to the chiefs of the army a sacred book written on
linen. They formed in the interior of the camp a wall of linen, raised
an altar in the midst of it, and around this stood soldiers with
unsheathed swords. One by one the bravest of the warriors entered the
precinct. They swore not to flee before the enemy and to kill the
fugitives. Those who took the oath, to the number of 16,000, donned
linen garments. This was the "linen legion"; it engaged in battle, and
was slaughtered to the last man.
=The Greeks of Italy.=--All south Italy was covered with Greek
colonies, some, like Sybaris, Croton, and Tarentum, very populous and
powerful. But the Greeks did not venture on the Roman coast for fear
of the Etruscans. Except the city of Cumae the Greek colonies down to
the third century had almost no relations with the Romans.
=The Latins.=--The Latins dwelt in the country of hills and ravines to
the south of the Tiber, called today the Roman Campagna. They were a
small people, their territory comprising no more than one hundred
square miles. They were of the same race as the other Italians,
similar to them in language, religion, and manners, but slightly more
advanced in civilization. They cultivated the soil and built strong
cities. They separated themselves into little independent peoples.
Each people had its little territory, its city, and its government.
This miniature state was called a city. Thirty Latin cities had formed
among themselves a religious association analogous to the Greek
amphictyonies. Every year they celebrated a common festival, when
their delegates, assembled at Alba, sacrificed a bull in honor of
their common god, the Latin Jupiter.
=Rome.=--On the frontier of Latium, on the borders of Etruria, in the
marshy plain studded with hills that followed the Tiber, rose the city
of Rome, the centre of the Roman people scattered in the plain. The
land was malarial and dreary; but the situation was good. The Tiber
served as a barrier against the enemy from Etruria, the hills were
fortresses. The sea was but six leagues away, far enough to escape
fear of pirates, and near enough to permit the transportation of
merchandise. The port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber was a suburb
of Rome, as Piraeus was of Athens. The locality was therefore agreeable
to a people of soldiers and merchants.
=Roma Quadrata and the Capitol.=--Of the first centuries of Rome we
know only some legends, and the Romans knew no more than we. Rome,
they said, was a little square town, limited to the Palatine Hill. The
founder whom they called Romulus had according to the Etruscan forms
traced the circuit with the plough. Every year, on the 21st of April,
the Romans celebrated the anniversary of these ceremonies: a
procession marched about the primitive enclosure and a priest fixed a
nail in a temple in commemoration of it. It was calculated that the
founding had occurred in the year 754[108] B.C.
On the other hills facing the Palatine other small cities rose. A band
of Sabine mountaineers established themselves on the Capitoline, a
group of Etruscan adventurers[109] on Mount Coelius; perhaps there
were still other peoples. All these small settlements ended with
uniting with Rome on the Palatine. A new wall was built to include the
seven hills. The Capitol was then for Rome what the Acropolis was for
Athens: here rose the temples of the three protecting deities of the
city--Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and the citadel that contained the
treasure and the archives of the people. In laying the foundations, it
was said there was found a human head recently cleft from the body;
this head was a presage that Rome should become the head of the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[108] Rather 753 B.C.--ED.
[109] There were three tribes in old Rome, the Ramnes on the Palatine,
the Tities or Sabines on the Capitoline, and the Luceres; but whether
the last were Etruscans or Ramnians or neither is uncertain.--ED.