classics etruscan and roman

Two major ethnic groups in 1st millennium BC

Etruscans (indigenous) and Latins (Indo-European)

Rome's geographical location

On the Tiber River, border between Etruscans and Latins

Roman origin myths reflect what?

Closeness and cultural exchange between ethnic groups

Key takeaway from Rome’s early ethnic mix

Mixing of cultures and cultural exchange

Political shift in 5th–4th century BCE

Etruscans lose power to patricians who form Republic

Republic components

2 consuls and Senate

Internal Roman strife

Class conflict between elites and plebeians

Plebeian political reform

Creation of 2 tribunes

Basis for Roman expansion

Military success

Roman expansion regions

Italian Peninsula, Carthage, Greece, etc.

Rome’s rise coincided with?

Alexander the Great’s conquests

Rome's control by 3rd BCE

Greece and western Anatolia

Rome's control by 1st BCE

All of Egypt, post-Ptolemaic empire

Roman conservative view on expansion

Expansion was harmful, promoted luxury, irreligion

Pliny and Cato on Eastern medicine

Eastern medicine bad, Roman medicine = Italian soil

Greek influence on Roman medicine

Via Etruscans; medical ideas shared across cultures

Roman cause of illness

Illness came from gods

Greek gods in Roman religion

Adopted and adapted into Roman context

Forms of Roman worship

Public (state) and private (household)

Purpose of Roman ritual

Gain power over deities through actions like sacrifice

Meaning of 'do ut des'

'I give so that you may give'

Healing limited to one worship form?

No; happens in both public and private spheres

Deities for healing

Capitoline gods or household gods

Etruscan sky division

16 sections, each with deities

Purpose of Etruscan sky division

Interpret divine messages

Etruscan gods organization

Gods meet in councils, spectrum good to bad (east to west)

Roman sky division

4 sections: left = negative, right = positive

Right side of Roman sky associated with

Male babies

Role of sacrifice in Roman religion

Main way to maintain good relationship with gods

3 basic Roman rituals

1. Burnt offering to celestial gods; 2. Blood to underworld; 3. Libation to ancestors

Blood offering symbolism

Connection to Italian/home soil

Etruscan influence on Roman medicine

Shaped views on blood in physiology and ritual

How sacrifice influenced medicine

Bloodletting seen as valid due to religious parallels

Can all gods heal?

Yes; any god can cause or cure illness

Who is Aesculapius?

Latin Asklepios; temple on Tiber Island; popular with slaves

How did class affect medical access?

Slaves often relied on praying to gods

Who is Aplu?

Etruscan Apollo; healing traits absorbed into Roman Apollo

Who is Diana?

Etruscan Artemis; childbirth + healing; later just general healing

Who is Hercle?

Etruscan Herakles > Roman Hercules; healing via physical strength

Who is Isis?

Egyptian goddess adopted in Late Republic; health and safety

Who is Tinia?

Etruscan Jupiter; gods need his consent to harm; childbirth associations

Who is Menrva?

Etruscan Minerva; goddess of wisdom and healing; patron of physicians

Greek philosophers influencing Roman medicine

Hippocrates, Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle

Three Roman medical schools

Dogmatists (etiology), Empiricists (experience), Methodists (corpuscles/atoms)

Methodist theory of disease

Caused by corpuscles being constricted, relaxed, or mixed

Archaeological sources for Roman medicine

Temples, shrines, recipes, instruments, gardens, kits

Textual sources for Roman medicine

Medical papyri, Vindolanda tablets, letters, Pliny, Galen, etc.

Who was Pliny the Elder?

Roman writer promoting traditional medicine

Pliny’s medical focus

Diet and bathing

Pliny’s view on Greek medicine

Opposed it; saw it as luxurious

Pliny’s cure-all food

Cabbage

Philosophy influencing Pliny

Stoicism

Pliny’s view on life extension

Preferred quality over quantity

Pliny’s major work

Natural History — comprehensive but superficial

Pliny's cough remedy

Eat raw snail flesh in warm water

Roman anatomy influences

Greek and Hellenistic theories

Dominant medical theory in Rome?

No single theory dominated

Two Roman principles of health

Balance and regular flow of substances

Social meaning of thin body

Could mean poverty or discipline

Social meaning of fat body

Affluence and authority (e.g., Nero, Vespasian)