Roman History: Rape of Lucretia, Romance Languages, and Oracles
The Rape of Lucretia (509 BC)
Etruscans - Etruria
North of Rome
Great builders, skilled in mining, medecine, astronomy
Tarquinius Priscus (5th King)
Sewer System
Reformed the Latins
Servius Tullius (6th King)
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (7th King)
(Tarquin the Proud)
Son = Sextus Tarquinius
Raped Lucretia
Etruria = powerful nation in Northern Italy
476 BC = Captured Janiculum Hill
265 BC = Etruria fell to Rome
Traditions: Gladiator fights, chariot races, aqueduct, augury
Tarquinius Superbus rule
Snake omen in the palace
Decides to send a delegation to the oracle of Delphi, Greece
Sons = Titus and Arruns
Accompanied my their cousin Lucius Junius Brutus
Pretended to be dumb
Actually hated his uncle the king
They ask oracle about the omen of the snake
Asks the oracle also who will rule Rome next?
Whoever kisses mother first
Brutus thinks that oracle means mother earth Gaia
Kisses the ground when they reach Rome
War = Romans vs. Rutulians
Started because the treasury was low
Tarquinius’s hopes
Conquer rich Ardea in order to supplement the treasury
Siege of Ardea
Camp fires surrounded the town
Collatinus (a soldier) says his wife (Lucretia) is the perfect example of the Roman wife
Lucretia is the winner of the contest for most virtuous woman
Sextus is spiteful of Collatinus and returns later to Lucretia’s home
Assaults her
Lucretia sends message to husband (Collatinus) and father (Publius Valerius) to come home
Accompanied by Lucius Junius Brutus (the guy who kissed the earth) and Spurius Lucretius
Lucretia confesses
Men promised her to punish the one who committed the crime
Lucretia commits suicide because she could not live with the shame
Body laid to rest in the Forum
The men vow to remove kings from Rome
Crowd inflamed by the crimes of Tarquinius
Choses Lucius Junius Brutus as leader
Marched to Rome to expel the king
Development of Romance Languages
Half a billion people
Romance languages = romance loqui
To speak in a Roman manner
2nd largest group of languages
Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Romanians
Vulgar = Spoken Latin
Vulgar = the common people
The Vulgate Bible = The Latin New Testament
Oral Latin is very different from written
Written Latin = how it is recorded
Oral Latin = what is spoken, not perfect grammar
Language today = oral and written= not as much of a distinction
This is due to: Television, movies, social media, and texts
Cicero’s Latin = sermo urbanus = city speech
Cicero was a consul and public speaker
Big words, more formal, perfect grammar
Everyday conversation = sermo rusticus = rustic speech
Also used in graffiti
Petronius = 1st century AD = first novelist
Used more common dialogue and broke away from official language
Large scale writing of vulgar latin by 4th century AD
This is when Latin became the official language of the Catholic Church
Rome’s power spread and so did the language
Where Rome controls, LAtin was official language
5th century AD = no centralized speech remained because Rome was less powerful due to political corruption and barbarian wars
Starts to break up into to different local dialects
Emperor Charlemagne = King of Franks (768 - 814 AD)
Decrees in 813 that clergy should use lingua rustica romana (rustic Roman language)
Tried to make classical latin the official language of France
Failed because there were not enough educated people to speak classical latin
First written romance language was French in 842 AD
Spanish = 950 AD
Italian = 960 AD
Places where each language is spoken
French: France, Belgium, Western Switzerland, Canada, Haiti
Spanish: Spain, South America, Central America, Puerto Rico, United States
Portuguese: Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola
Italian: Italy
Romanian: Romania
Oracles
Three meanings
The message from the gods
The priest or priestess giving the message
The temple where the message is delivered
Ancient people believed that the gods had the answers to everything and if they had a question they just had to figure out how to get that information from the gods
Dead Spirits
When a mortal died, their spirit went to Hades
People believed that the spirits of their dead ancestors knew messages from the gods and could tell them what the gods wanted them to know
Entrance to Hades
Ex. Bath, England
Dreams
Could be given messages from dead spirits from the gods in their spirits
Sleep near one of these entrances
Later you might need a priest to interpret the dream for you
Aesculapius = Healer god
If you were sick or had a sick relative, you would seek help from Aesculapius
Go spend the night near his temple
Priests would interpret dream to determine how to cure
Signs
Dodona, Greece had a temple of Zeus
If you had a question for the king of the gods then go to this town
Near the temple is a huge oak tree
The rustling of the leaves would signify Zeus’s answer
Delphi, Greece with temple of Apollo
Most well known for prophecies
Pythia works as the priestess of Apollo one day a year
She would enter a trance from the vapors under the temple where Apollo would answer your question
Interprets the mumblings of her trance and then converted into a riddle
Themistocles is a greek commander
Contacted Oracle of Delphi
She said “trust you citadel of wood”
Athenians interpreted that they needed to build a bigger wall
Themistocles thought it meant that they needed to build up their navy
They win water battle
Cumae, Italy also had a temple of Apollo
Created due to Greek colony in South Italy
Priestess Sibyl
Visit to Tarquinius Superbus hoping to sell books
Sibylline Books = Capitoline
83 BC = Sibylline Books lost in a fire
12 BC - moved to temple of Apollo on Palatine hill
AD 140 = Destroyed by barbarians