THE

ETRUSCANS
AND

THE ORIGINS OF
ROME
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 THE ETRUSCANS
AND THE

ORIGINS OF ROME

Study Guide: Terms #13

Reading Assignment:
History, Chapter 9, pp. 225249
Source Readings #2324, pp. 320
342
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 ETRUSCAN ORIGINS

Dionysius of Halicarnassus:
Indigenous Italian origin.
Herodotus: Migrated from the
Aegean area during a time of
famine.
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 GREEK INFLUENCE
Adopted Greek Alphabet.
Emulated Greek art.
Adapted Greek architectural
forms to the Italian environment.
Imported Greek pantheon.

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GREEK TEMPLE

ITALIAN TEMPLE 10
 ETRUSCAN PESSIMISM

Developed a morbid fascination with

death.
Human sacrifice was practiced in the
form of duels to the death at funeral
games.
The Romans developed this into the
gladiatorial combats of the arena.

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 THE FOUNDATION
LEGEND
Rome was founded by descendants of the
Trojan prince Aeneas.
Aeneas was the son of Anchises and
Aphrodite, thus he was a hero.
Aeneas escaped from the burning city of Troy
with his father, his son and the images of his
ancestral gods.
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 THE FOUNDATION
LEGEND (cont.)
Aeneas wandered for many years, until he
came to Carthage, where he had an affair
with Queen Dido.
He was about to marry Dido when his
mother, Venus, appeared and told him to go
to Italy.
Dido committed suicide.
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 THE FOUNDATION
LEGEND (cont.)
Aeneass son, Julus, founded the city of
Alba Longa and his descendants ruled there
for 13 generations.
King Numitor was deposed by his younger
brother, Amulius, who appointed Numitors
daughter, Rhea Silvia a Vestal Virgin.

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 THE FOUNDATION
LEGEND (cont.)
Rhea Silvia gave birth to twin sons, Romulus
and Remus, fathered the god Mars.
The twins were set adrift on the Tiber in a
basket, but they washed ashore and were
nursed by a she-wolf.
Eventually they were discovered by a
shepherd and raised to adulthood.
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 THE FOUNDATION
LEGEND (cont.)
Romulus and Remus founded a new city
on the Palatine Hill, but a dispute arose
over its name.
An augury was won by Romulus and
the city was named after him.
Remus was executed for violating a
sacred law.
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 RAPE OF THE
SABINE WOMEN
Romulus invited the near-by Sabines to a
religious festival and then seized the
unmarried maidens to be the wives of the
Romans.
The Sabine women intervened in the
resulting battle and the two peoples united
into one state.
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The Sabine Women Enforcing Peace, by French
neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David 18
 THE KINGDOM
Rome ruled by 7 kings, each with a
detailed legendary history.
The last king, Tarquinius Surperbus,
was expelled in 509 B.C.E. and a
republic established.

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 ARCHEALOGICAL
EVIDENCE
First habitation appeared on the Palatine Hill
in mid 8th century B.C.E.
By 600 B.C.E. the villages on the 7 hills
united into a city.
The marshy area between the Palatine and
Capitoline was drained to become the
Roman Forum.
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The Roman Forum (late
empire)

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 THE KINGDOM
During most or all of this period Rome
was under Etruscan rule.
The king was a military and religious
leader.
The kings power was not absolute, but
shared with the male head of the Roman
family: the pater familias.
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 THE KINGDOM
The kings power was also diluted by
the institutions of the state:
The senate, an advisory body composed of
the men of highest rank.
The assembly, composed of all free male
citizens.

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