ANCIENT HISTORY II
Summary
PART III – ROME
Chapter 12 – Early Roman History (753-265BC)
The Western Mediterranean
The history of the civilisation of the western Mediterranean differs greatly from that of the ancient world
further east: it was much later on the same level no highly civilized centres: western Mediterranean
remained shrouded in the veils of prehistory. Only between 800 and 500BC did civilisations (comparable with
those of the east) emerge:
Etruscans in central Italy
Carthaginians in North Africa
Greeks in Greek colonies (southern Italy, Sicily and southern Gaul)
The Etruscans
The Etruscans lived in city states associated in a loose federal organization. It was an urban civilization. The
cities became wealthy because of their metalwork and pottery. The Etruscans were probably a class of
aristocrats. There are 2 possibilities for their origins:
1. In Italy itself
2. In Asia Minor (Etruscans’ art of divination was also practiced in Asia Minor and a few Etruscan words
are reminiscent of languages spoken in Asia Minor. One thing for sure: the language was not Indo-
European [like almost all other languages in Italy])
The civilisation was a blend of Near Eastern, Italian and Greek elements. It reached its height in the 7 th and 6th
centuries: control over central Italy, the Po Valley and Campania. After 500 BC, the Greeks and Celts (Gauls)
imposed threats and sometime after 400BC the Celts conquered the Po Valley and raided central Italy.
Carthage
Carthage was founded in the 9th or 8th century BC by colonists from the Phoenician city of Tyre: it was a military
basis and trading post founded by the Phoenicians along their shipping routes. When Tyre’s power started to
decline, Carthage assumed control over the Phoenician network of trading posts and bases and founded new
colonies (in North Africa: agricultural settlements).
Carthage was prosperous, based on her maritime trade, the import of gold and tin, and on her highly
developed agricultural activities in the African hinterland. The city’s population was not large, so Carthage’s
wars were fought with hired mercenaries ( always prepared for war constant wars between Greeks and
Carthaginians in Sicily and Rome). Carthage held a near monopoly in the south-western Mediterranean and on
the Atlantic Ocean established a network of fortified bases to defend their position.
Carthage was governed by large landowners and rich merchants (included few families which provided
the army and navy commanders).
The origins of Rome
The first people to settle in Rome belonged to a tribe known as the Latins. They probably arrived in the
last centuries of the second millennium BC. From the 10 th to 6th century, Latium (which contained
Rome) was characterized by a homogenous culture that had a lot in common with the Etruscans.
Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus, who became the first king of Rome. Before this, there had
been settlements on the Palatine Hill and a few other hills along the Tiber. They were occupied by
farmers. It is often assumed that they were organized in family groups headed by ‘aristocratic leaders’
– the patres (‘fathers’) of those groups.
The earliest roman population was probably a mixture of Latins, Etruscans and Sabines.
Rome was first ruled by 7 kings (753-509BC). The first four are largely legendary figures. The last 3
kings: Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus, ruled in the 6 th century BC. They
probably came from Etruria.
The influence of Greeks and Etruscans increased in the 7 th and 6th centuries. Rome grew into a true city and was
favourably situated.
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,State and society in Early Rome
Archaeological finds (objects found at graves etc.) and the works of Roman authors suggest that the population
of Rome was already characterized by some degree of social differentiation:
Upper layer: aristocratic families.
o Owned large proportion of the available land
Well-to-do peasants
Poorer peasants
Many peasants (even prosperous ones) were dependent on or protected by the aristocrats. Those peasants
were called clientes and their aristocratic protectors patroni.
Kings commanded the army, administered justice and led the ceremonies for the state deities. The kings
enjoyed a general authority:
Right to lead Roman armies
Kings assisted and advised by the Senate
o Council consisting of the heads of aristocratic families
Could summon a public assembly
o Comitia Curiata
Here we find the same 3 kinds of state organs as in the archaic Greek poleis: an executive authority, an
aristocratic council and a popular assembly.
Comitia Curiata:
Consisted of 30 curiae which each had a vote
o A curia consisted of a number of gentes (clans, groups of families)
A gens was a group of several familiae
A familia was comparable with a Greek household (husband, wife, children,
grandchildren, slaves, clientes)
Within the family, the paterfamilias, the male head of the family, enjoyed absolute authority. This authority has
been compared to that of the king. The king enjoyed unrestricted authority in the res publica, the Roman state
and the paterfamilias had absolute control over his res private, the private household.
The army and the Comitia Centuriata
First, the gentes were not only united by strong religious and cultural traditions, but also military units. In the
6th century did the Etruscans and Romans start to fight in the same was as the contemporary Greeks: phalanx
surrounded by cavalrymen and lightly armed soldiers.
King Servius Tullius (c. 578-535) divided the civilians into property classes (see Solon).
The army was organized like this:
Wealthiest citizens served in the cavalry.
o Horses were provided by the state
o They were called equites (‘knight’, ‘horseman’)
o Almost all patricians and a few wealthy plebeians belonged in this group (and thus in the
cavalry)
Wealthy peasants served as infantrymen (heavily armed)
Members of lower classes served as lightly armed soldiers
Propertyless citizens did not serve in the army (could not afford arms)
This classification based on property was also employed in imposing property taxes (tributum) and in organising
a new public assembly: the Comitia Centuriata (had same organisation as the army):
Below the cavalry were 5 property classes, which were each subdivided into centuriae (centuria is a
unit of 100 men)
o Each centuria had one vote
The first class plus the cavalry would (almost always) obtain a majority they pulled the strings at the
Comitia Centuriata
Citizens without property (proletarians) sat on this assembly in one added centuria they collectively
had 1 vote
The Comitia Centuriata superseded the Comitia Curiata.
The Early Republic (509-265BC)
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,State and society
In 509BC the era of kings came to an end. It is likely that the reason of this is the Roman’s desire to break away
from the Etruscan sphere of influence and rebellion of the aristocrats (patricians) against an increasingly
powerful kingship the last kings had focused more on the state and the citizenry as a whole undermined
the power of the family groups and their leaders.
The Roman aristocrats directed their look away from Etruria and towards their tribal relatives: the
Latins. Rome became an important member of the Latin League. They shared a form of communal citizen
rights, the ‘Latin rights’:
Right to conduct trade with one another
Right to marry partners from all the member states
Moves towards a Republic:
Executive power was transferred to 2 annually elected magistrates, later to be called ‘consuls’
o Power was restricted: they could check each other with the right of veto and their term of
office was limited to 1 year
o Any dissatisfied citizen could file complaints against them if they desired so after their year of
service
o The 2 magistrates were assisted by 2 treasurers or ‘quaestors’
o The 2 magistrates turned to the Senate for advice in administrative affairs
The Senate had a powerful say in political affairs
o The decisions made by the popular assembly only acquired force of law once they had been
approved by the Senate
Religious authority was passed to the rex (king) sacrorum and the Pontifex Maximus (president of
college of pontifices [main college of priests])
In an emergency, the autocratic authority of the former kings would be temporarily restored appoint a
dictator who had absolute power for 6 months.
The patricians dominated the scene:
They furnished the magistrates and senators: Comitia Centuriata elected magistrates only from the
patriciate and new senators were almost always former magistrates
Patricians provided the pontifices and the members of other important priesthoods
They controlled social and economic life: large numbers of peasants were their clientes or were
reduced to debt bondage
However, the patricians’ powerful position was challenged by groups of dissatisfied plebeians.
Roman expansion in Italy (509-265BC)
The history of the Roman Republic up to the 3 rd century BC is dominated by 2 historical processes:
1. The so-called struggle of the orders between the patricians and the plebeians
2. The expansion of the Roman empire in peninsular Italy
Period 509-338BC:
Endless struggles in central Italy between Rome, the Latins, the tribes and the southern Etruscan cities
(constantly changing coalitions). Main issues of contention:
o Fertile land in the valleys and coastal plains
o Control of the land trade routes between Etruria and Campania
Struggles dragged on for many years because the contending parties were one another’s equals in
military terms
Next 50 years:
Rome had to defend herself against the hill tribes, Latin cities and Celtic gangs
o These Celtic gangs raided Italy (especially Etruria), this weakening of Etruscan cities could
have helped to pave way for Rome’s expansion in Italy
After 350BC:
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, In 338: Rome subjected the Latin cities and concluded treaties with the most important city states in
Campania
o Brought most fertile and densely populated regions within Rome’s sphere of influence and
expanded her military resources
Rome dominated the Latin League’s member states.
After 326BC:
Local and regional conflicts merged into coalition wars (326-290)
o Romans decisively defeated king Phyrrhus of Epirus (who helped the Greeks in southern Italy
fight the Romans) at Beneventum
Rome entered a series of individual alliances with the city states and tribes: they were made
subordinate allies (socii)
o These allies were obliged to supply troops for Rome’s wars and to support Rome’s foreign
political
They did not have to pay any tributes
o They retained their autonomy in internal affairs and their own citizen rights
Colonisation
Rome founded colonies all over Italy and turned it into Roman public land (ager publicus), owned by the Roman
state. Here peasants with military experience and propertyless Romans and Latins were settled. These colonies
were called Latin colonies (coloniae Latinae). Another type of colony were the military bases throughout
Rome’s territory (coloniae civium Romanorum / coloniae Romanae).
They were not independent city states: they had local autonomy but were subjected to Rome. The
colonists were granted Latin rights (if they were to return to Rome they would get full Roman citizenship). The
colonists of the coloniae Romanae retained full Roman citizenship. The colonists were granted plots of land,
could rent part of the land (that had not been divided by colonists yet) and rent public land. This became an
extra source of income for the Roman treasury + the property taxes.
The public land became a source of competition: the wealthy occupied a lot of this land. In 367BC
Rome passed a law limiting the amount of public land that any one individual could hold, so as to reassure the
poor Roman citizens.
The colonisation policy was of great benefit to Rome:
She acquired a network of strategically based fortifications all over Italy
A means of solving internal conflicts in Rome and Latium by helping poor Roman and Latin citizens to
start a new life elsewhere (in colonies for example)
Leasing of public land (colonies) was a source of extra income
Growth of Rome’s military resources
o Citizens who had somewhere been excluded from the army (because they had no property)
could now belong to the property classes from which troops were recruited if they came to
possess sufficient land in a colony
Municipia
Roman cities outside Rome that already existed and had not been founded as coloniae were called municipia.
These municipia could be granted the status of a Roman city with local autonomy, as a reward for some service
or for having voluntarily submitted to Rome’s protection (culture and language alike). These citizens would be
granted Roman citizen rights without the right to vote, but some also got full Roman citizen rights.
Rome’s colonisation policy encouraged the adaptation of the Italian peoples to the organisation,
language and culture of the Romans Romanisation.
By around 265BC Italy had become a patchwork of states and regions that stood in different relations to Rome
and were bound to Rome in a different way:
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