I. Class Business:
A. Calm them about the Midterms,
B. No quiz (today!), "Synch" the Readings,
C. Emphasis from now on--Greek world shading into the Roman Empire, whatever that was.
II. Meanwhile--Back in Rome
A. "Legend" bit--there were official records, possibly even written histories, most obviously, the fasti, council lists.
1. Greeks that knew of Rome considered it civilized: Aristotle's sole reference to Rome as a "Greek city" on the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea.
2. BUT--records destroyed in 390 by Gauls when they burned Rome
3. Things got a lot less certain, and the Romans, like everybody else, had their preferred version of the past--Livy.
B. By 509--removal of the kings
1. Roman version: son of Tarquin the Proud raped the noble Lucretia, avenged by "camouflaged" Brutus, also first consul and the republic (=no king, nothing else) established.
2. Legend of Romulus vs. the Senate--the king protected the common people against the powerful families, and so Romulus was cut up as an obstacle.
3. Tarquin had all the characteristics of the Greek tyrants--e.g.
a) Origin outside of the established structure--acclamation of Tarquinius Priscus from Caere
b) Massive public works(=modern "jobs bills")
(1) Forum drained with Cloca Maxima
(2) Street grid, other sewers
(3) Great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the Capitol, dedicated in the first year of the Roman republic, burned on Sulla's arrival into Rome in 82.
4. Did something akin to the Greek tyrannicides happen here?
5. Modern theory: Collapse of Etruscan regime in North under pressure of advancing Gauls, Greeks (Cumae, 474), hence expulsion of Tarquin (Starr, p. 463)
6. Do these theories contradict? Is it easier or harder to accept one, three, or none?
C. The Monster that Ate Italy!
1. Roman advantages:
a) Federated government, Constitution (Mos Maiorum)
(1) Roman reverence for the past made them historically aware
(2) The Romans even made holidays out of national disasters (dies nefasti) and (ideally) never forgot what worked and what didn't.
(3) Religious practices, again--the gods really WERE on their side--the fetiales (Starr, p. 467)
b) Division of power among the assorted families allowed the "Grandfather school" approach.
(1) Grandpa might have told his descendant how HE beat the Sabines, etc.
(2) Patronage system--to the extent that one family, the Fabii, tried to fight the entire war against Veii on their own, disaster though it was (Cremera, 471)
(3) "The Hydra"--Comment of Pyrrhus's hired political scientist, Cineas. Killing one Roman just meant that the familes would send out another one (Plutarch, 1. 534)
c) The Three-fold line: Hastati, Principes, Triarii
(1) The Roman military ALWAYS fought in a system designed fo frustrate the traditional way in which battles were lost (turn, slaughter, etc.)
(2) The maniples (Starr, p. 467), Centuries, contubernia, modern small unit dynamics.
(3) Divided command system: TOC
(a) Consuls and Legati in appointed/elected command
(b) Military Tribunes, noble youths getting their seasoning in the field.
(c) Centurions, decurions--seasoned non-coms, valued at their worth
(d) The Legionary
(i) Standard Equipment--scutum, gladius, pilum, armor
(ii) Personal stake--elections in the Centuriate Assembly
(iii) Oath of allegiance
(e) I mentioned the Camps--I don't know where Starr (p. 467) got the idea that they got that from Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus got beaten by a defended Roman camp at Beneventum (Plutarch, 1.541)
d) Physical means:
(1) The colony system--converting land hunger into strategic advantage
(a) Roman citizens (soldiers) who wanted land could get it for free, in territory routinely taken from conquered enemies (ager publicus), kept them down and also occupied territory considered important for the next war .
(b) Coloniae started out as just another fortified camp--you can STILL see the old cardo/decumanus system in some Italian towns
(c) Land evenly divided by trained and competent officals--note the name: centuriation, another thing you can still see from the air in Italy
(2) In later years (post 312) the road system--Via Appia, Via Flaminia
(a) Solid rock bedding, flagstones, grading
(b) All-weather surface, with mansiones "pony express" system for rapid communication
(c) Incredibly useful for movement of men, messages, supplies--Last such use, to my knowledge, by U.S. Army in WWII Italian campaign. (cf. Hitler's autobahns, Eisenhower's interstates)
2. The Opposition: Plainsmen vs. Hillmen, Plainsmen vs. Plainsmen when the Hillmen were busy.
a) First, the worst: The Latins
(1) Fought the same way, as hard, and with the same equipment
(2) Federated and fought harder--the Latin League, independence after horrible Lake Regillus battle in 496
(3) How the Romans "won"--alliances, and the most generous policy of citizenship in the ancient world.(Starr, p. 467)
(a) Fate of the defeated--Socii, not servi (usually)
(b) "The Latin Name": Commercium, connubium, local self-government, the municipia, full citizenship if physically present in Rome to vote
(c) Other peoples got civitas sine suffragio, full protection under Roman law but no vote (cf. Puerto Rico!)
(4) Eventual dissolution of the Latin League (338) after preliminary weakening and Roman conquest of Campania.
b) The Etruscans
(1) Legend of Lars Porsenna--suspicion that the Etruscans had actually conquered Rome, hence the Tarquins
(2) The evil twin--Veii until Camillus destroyed it in 396, ten year siege, teacher and schoolboys, legend (fact!) of the lake and the sewers.
(3) Etruscan League--Twelve cities linked by ethno-religious bonds for mutual support
(4) Wealthy, advanced, alien? civilization--Herodotus's legend of the Lydians (590 again), arguments.
(5) Etruscans eventually go down between the Romans to the South and
c) The Gauls in the North
(1) Entire migrating nation of fierce warriors--Gauls, from the area they ended up inhabiting, Celts from the distinctive axeheads that mark where they lived
(2) Also had strong religious motivation for war and priesthood
(3) Advanced metallurgy--they INVENTED chainmail, huge bronze swords
(4) Sudden descent south of the fertile Po river valley caught the Romans off-guard at the Allia
(a) Roman legend that a Roman ambassador had provoked the Gauls by fightinRg with the Etruscans, in other words (and this is a Roman leitmotif), it was really OUR fault
(b) Huge Gauls came charging down on the 5'5" Romans, who freaked, broke, and got slaughtered and Rome itself got burned.
(c) Interesting note--for their entire history, the Romans were always bemoaning how degenerate they were from their ancestors. How could they go downhill from this?
(i) The patricians, capital, Juno's Geese
(ii) Legend of Camillus (Plutarch), out of power, restored, army, victory (Brennus, vae victis)
(iii) Refounding of Rome--Livy's explanation for the twisted streets, etc. Something there?
(d) The Roman treasury in the basement of the temple of Ops (Saturn) was originally an emergency ransome fund in case the Gauls came back.
(e) Eventually, the Romans learned that the Gauls wore themselves out with these charges and didn't always wear the chainmail
(f) Julius Caesar would eventually take an exaggerated vengeance.
(5) Campania: Invited in, at first (Starr, p. 465)
(a) Civilized Greeks on the Coast, (Magna Graecia) (Naples/Neopolis/Pithecusae), not much trouble
(b) Capua--wealthy in grain and metallurgical resources
(c) Good deal, except that the Samnites thought they had dibs
(6) The Samnites: The Horrible Hillmen
(a) Migratory--Ver Sacrum, dedicated generation
(b) Incredibly fierce and determined--Caudine Forks disaster, 321, once again, our fault
(c) Roman roads, colonies, armies, but not quite...(Speaking of Sulla in 72)
D. And FINALLY the Man with No Teeth: Pyrrhus!
III. But first--Alexander.
A. Payback to the Persians:
1. The Greeks COULD outfight the Persians. What they needed to do was to find a way to fight the Persians without ending up fighting each other.
2. Philip gave them that--conquest and the League of Corinth.
3. Alexander used the Iliad as his personal bible and played the Trojan War thing for all it was worth
4. Also, once again, the gods were on their side: Xerxes had burned the Athenian temples and angered the (Greek) gods
IV. End as of 3/13/95