Chapter 4: Early Rome and the Roman Republic, 800-146 B.C.E.

• Western Mediterranean received civilization through ships of Greeks and Phoenicians
• The west was rich in metals
• An indigenous Bronze Age culture developed between 1500 and 1000 B.C.E.
• Phoenicians arrived in the west
• Initially as traders and then as colonists
• Greek colonists ventured out in all directions due to commerce, overpopulation, and civic tension near the end of the Dark Age
• Commercial rivalry and open warfare were key characteristics in the relationship between the Greeks and the Phoenicians
• The first great civilization to emerge in Italy was that of the Etruscans
• Etruscans have been regarded as a people whose origins, customs, and language are shrouded in mystery
• The earliest materials from Etruscan sites showed signs of no break with civilization of pre-Italic Villanovan Italy
• Etruscans worshiped a variety of gods personifying the sun, the moon, dawn, Venus, and Mars
• Etruscans developed sophisticated means of divination
• Established maritime power while consolidating hegemony in western Italy
• The center of Latin population was in the Alban hills south of the Tiber
• 40 Latin villages formed a loose confederation, Alban League for religious and military purposes
• Early Roman society was made up of households and village councils
• Villages themselves grouped together for military and voting purposes into ethnic tribes
• Kings served as religious leaders and were the primary means of communication between gods and men
• Primitive Rome was made up of seven villages, all which developed independently of their Etruscan and Greek neighbors until the middle of the 7th century B.C.E.
• Etruscans overwhelmed Latium and absorbed it into their civilization
• Etruscans introduced to Latium and Rome their political, religious, and economic traditions
• Rome’s size and importance grew
• An upper stratum of wealthy nobles was formed during the monarchy
• The establishment of the Roman republic roughly coincided with the start of the Etruscan decline
• Allowed the city of Rome to assert itself and develop its Etruscan and Latin traditions in its own unique way
• Characteristics of republican institutions included that at every level, power was shared by two or more equals that had been elected for fixed term
• During the early republic, wealthy patricians monopolized the Senate and the magistracies
• Plebs started to organize in response to patrician control
• Roman preeminence in Latium came to an end with the expulsion of the last king
• Rome suffered a setback (temporary) due to the Gaul's (or Celts) of northern Italy
• Patricians and plebeians alike were benefited by Roman conquest
• Roman’s success was contributed to by the manner in which they treated the populations they conquered (they were generous in victory_
• Romans extended citizenship to conquered neighbors and offered the same possibilities to their their allies
• Rome had allied itself with Carthage against the Greek cities of Italy since its earliest days
• The First Punic war lasted from 265 to 241 B.C.E.
• Roman armies destroyed Corinth in the same year that Carthage was destroyed with Corinth being a great center of Mediterranean commerce
• This victory marked the culmination of Roman imperialist expansion east into the Greek and Hellenistic world
• Ideal Roman farmer was a dirt farmer of central Italy with the typical farm being as few as 10 acres, worked by the owner and his family
• Such farms produced grain and beans and raised hogs for family consumption
• Roman farmers cultivated vineyards and olive groves as these wee cash crops
• Earlier Roman civilization was overwhelmed due to territorial conquest, the influx of unprecedented riches, and exposure to the sophisticated Hellenistic civilization
• Paternal authority over children was absolute
• Roman women theoretically were never able to exercise independent power in the male-dominated world
• Before marriage, a Roman girl was subject to her father’s authority
• The family house was the center of everyday life for the Roman family
• Some women, in wake of imperial conquests, started to take a more active role in public life, with some married women even escaping the authority of their husbands
• Romans worshipped many gods
• The divine Roman world expanded alongside the Roman mortal world
• Rome absorbed foreign gods alongside foreign letters
• Alphabet, etc.
• Greek authors began to pay attention to the expanding Roman Empire in the early 3rd century B.C.E.
• Romans became interested in the Greeks around the same time Greeks gained interest in the Romans
• Every aspect of republican life was affected by Rome’s rise to world power within less than a century

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