ALRItkwRom101RootMythKing.html

II. Roots / Foundations / Kings

a. Roots and foundations (organic or built?)

Stone age: Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, Homo Sapiens -- the Iron Age/Tiber Island

Etruscans, Latins, and Others

Vast uncertainties

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Arch.Ev.html

(Part of http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Syllabus.html
More parts will follow.)

Myths and lies

Denying/destroying truths
Villanovans and others as predecessors (if not forebears) to Etruscans, Latins, Sabines, etc.

Ancient Peoples of Italy:
http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/It.Peoples.html
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2002fall/clar/050/001/images1.html
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/ancient.html
http://www.societasviaromana.org/Collegium_Historicum/architaly.htm

Etruscan Remains:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Etruscans.html
Grave goods, temple terra cottas, votive offerings, models of houses, sarcophagi, etc.   http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/
http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/art/art.html
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/t/terracotta.html
http://www.antiqueshop.it/pages/catalog.htm (Etruscan reproductions) Villa Giulia Museum in Borghese Gardens

Vatican Etruscan Collections
 

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/vaticano/ET1-Etrusco.html
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/vaticano/ET2-Etrusco.html

b. Roman Founding Myths -- Competing claims: "Primary" sources -- not necessarily contemporary, and even if contemporary, maybe inaccurate Examples -- Julius Caesar's forbears are just as questionable as Lucrezia Borgia's foibles. Foundation: Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro) "Aeneid" http://www.bartleby.com/people/Vergil.html History: Livy's "ab urbe condita" http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa020600a.htm?once=true&http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/livyhist.html c. Kings http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Early.Kings.html
http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_365/Later.Kings.html

Length of Reigns -- "Seven" kings cover 244 years.

Contrary to longevity estimates -- average range would be 35 years.

Also, inconsistencies within their stories -- e.g., Tarquinus Priscus was enthroned in 616 BC, and his "son" Tarquinus Superbus was enthroned in 534, 82 years later.   Kingship not hereditary -- elected by comitia curiata -- no real pattern: Numa was a foreigner, Hostilius was son of a famous warrior, Marcius was grandson of Numa.   The King List:  
Romulus -- 37 years (for a while, putatively, with "Titus Tatius") -- founder (and a Sabine counterpart) -- political institutionalizer : senate, first three tribes, thirty curiae ("gatherings") which met as the comitia curiata (an assembly)   Numa Pompilius -- 43 years -- peaceful religious institutionalizer -- had a Sabine name and was traditionally brought in as a professional "city manager" Tullus Hostilius -- 32 years -- "conquered" Alba Longa -- battle ended with fight of the Horatii (Romans) and Curiatii Alba Longans) (http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/historia/people/heroes/horatii01.htm )

Ancus Marcius -- 44 years -- no notable accomplishments other than the apocryphal founding of Ostia
Lucius (or Lucomo = Etruscan for King) Tarquinius Priscus -- 38 years -- an ethnic Greek from Etruscan Tarquinii -- elected when he tricked the sons of Ancus out of town on Election Day -- supposedly assassinated by those same sons

Servius Tullius -- 44 years -- Servile association unsupported -- according to Claudius, he was an Etruscan -- credited with institution of several republican holdovers: "Servian" walls, Servian census (five classes that had to supply "centuries" for military duties, voting by centuries in the Centuriate Assembly), geographic tribes (one from each quarter of Rome and 20 exurban)

Lucius (maybe another Lucomo?) Tarquinius Superbus (= "the Arrogant") -- 25 years Supposedly killed Servius Tullius, his father-in-law, at his wife's instigation -- said to have drained the Forum by building the Cloaca Maxima -- the last monarch
 

The end of the Monarchy -- the Rape of Lucretia (From Mackay)  
"While the king is off fighting a war, his son Sextus rapes Lucretia, the wife of a relative, L. Tarquinius Collatinus. This Collatinus and another relative, L. Junius Brutus*, lead a revolt against the king. They found the Republic, and when the king returns, they shut the gates against him. Brutus's two sons join a conspiracy to restore the king and are executed by their father when the plans are betrayed. The king enlists the help of Veii and Tarquinii, nearby Etruscan towns. Brutus defeats them in battle but is killed. The king now gets help from Lars Porsenna, king of distant Clusium. According to the main Roman tradition, the king is impressed by various mythical examples on the part of various Romans, then uses their assistance in a campaign against the Latins. But what about restoring Tarquinius? Furthermore, there is indication in some Roman sources that Porsenna did in fact take Rome. The campaign against the Latins was led by his son Arruns, and the Latins called upon Aristodemus the tyrant of Cumae, who had defeated the Etruscans in Campania in 524. The Greeks and Latins then defeated Arruns' army, which withdraws from Latium. What does this have to do with Rome? Were they actually fighting for Porsenna? There is some sort of distortion here. Tarquin enlists the help of the Latins, who are defeated about ten years after the foundation of the Republic.

"The role of Porsenna in this story is by no means clear, nor is the position of the Romans compared to the Latins. Was Porsenna really trying to restore Tarquinius? If he took Rome, why did he not restore the king? Some suggest that so far from wanting to restore the king, Porsenna actually overthrew him. What role did the Greek intervention have in these events? One gets the impression that the fall of the monarchy was in some way involved in resistance to an Etruscan attempt to maintain or establish control of Latium, which was their gateway to their settlements in Campania. The Latins called in Greek help from Campania, and perhaps the story about Porsenna reflects Etruscan control of Rome (which was on one of the main fords over the Tiber, the boundary between Etruria and Latium)."
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*Remember this Brutus -- when Cassius recruits a later Brutus into the plot to kill Julius Caesar, he appealed to Brutus' supposed descent from the Brutus who participated in deposing Superbus.

Archeological remains of the Monarchy

The "hut of Romulus"

http://www.ku.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/.Texts/PLATOP*/Casa_Romuli.html and
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~nemeaucb/175b/week01/image175b-7.jpg

The Regia

http://www.unicaen.fr/rome/geographique/regia.html