Post by Christopher Martin on Sept 22, 2016 4:31:30 GMT
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S TEXT: STORIES FROM LIVY
ROME'S LEGENDARY BEGINNINGS: 753-509 BC
We'll say that again: LEGENDARY. Why? Well because the first part of this section will deal with pure legend, unverifiable, with parts of the story almost certainly untrue.
According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin princes of Alba Longa, supposedly itself founded four centuries earlier by Aeneas (the Trojan prince). The twins, his distant descendants, were abandoned as babies on the orders of Amulius, who had usurped their kingdom and ordered their deaths. Miraculously, a she-wolf appeared from a wood to suckle them, and they were brought up by Faustinus, a kindly shepherd, on the Palatine Hill. When they grew up, they killed the usurper and together founded a new city: Rome. But they soon quarreled, Romulus killing Remus for jumping over his ploughed boundary line. Romulus then populated Rome by inviting outlaws and homeless men to join him, and by abducting the young women of his neighbors in the famous "Rape of the Sabine Women." When the Sabine men marched back in force to reclaim their women, they had by then become used to being Roman wives, and they intervened to prevent a battle and the two peoples intermarried. Romulus later ascended into heaven in a thunderstorm, becoming divine. (I DID say LEGENDARY, right?)
The early settlements of Rome grew numerous, but did not develop until after the arrival of the Etruscan kings, sometime around 616 B.C., who consolidated power and began to institute some means of order. For example:
-Tarquinus Priscus (ruled 616-579) held the first census, ordering citizens into three tribes, each of which could select 100 patricians to sit on the advisory council, the Senate.
-Servius Tullius (ruled beginning in 679BC) reorganized the state, dividing the Romans into five classes according to their wealth, with all citizens being liable for military service except those in the last and poorest class (who could not afford to arm themselves). Of a Roman legion of military power, 300 cavalry came from the richest class, and were the best equipped, while the middle 3 classes composed 6,000 infantry. In the senate, the newly formed Assembly by Hundreds meant that each class got 100 votes, with the richest class voting first, making them the most influential of the classes. Rome never operated on the principle of "one man one vote."
Around 509 BC, the kings were suddenly and finally expelled, and the word Etruscan, like the word "king," became an insult among Romans. According to legend, the last Etruscan king, Tarquinus Superbus, so angered the Roman nobles that they drove him out and declared a Republic, which they dominated through the senate. From now on, the state was to be run by annually elected officials. A new regime based on puritanical, patriotic virtus, or courage, was established that would serve Rome well through its coming struggles.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LIVY
At the age of 30, Livy (59BC-17AD) began writing his life's work: a detailed history of Rome. Made up of 142 books, running from Aeneas to the death of Drusus (9BC), only 35 books survive intact, with fragments of others.
Essentially a conservative patriot, Livy retained a belief in Rome's grand destiny that won him both Augustus' approval and lasting popularity. He was the historian Rome had been waiting for. His style varied from majestic to the vivid, while his imaginative sympathy for Rome's opponents makes him a humane writer. He, too, believed that history must instruct and elevate as much as inform.
Although not consciously dishonest, at times Livy attributed words and feelings to his characters that he had no way of knowing were true. Due to his own lack of military experience and partly, perhaps, to his imperfect Greek, he also made several military mistakes. For example in describing the battle of Zama between Hannibal and Scipio in 202BC, he misinterpreted the Greek historian Polybius' description of Hannibal's third line as Italians, when they were in fact Hannibal's crack veterans (Carthaginians) from his Italian campaign, held in reserve. But apart from this, and a tendency to accept legends of Rome's beginnings uncritically, he combined epic grandeur of language and lively description with the conscientious research of a true historian.
As always, please feel free to ask questions.
ROME'S LEGENDARY BEGINNINGS: 753-509 BC
We'll say that again: LEGENDARY. Why? Well because the first part of this section will deal with pure legend, unverifiable, with parts of the story almost certainly untrue.
According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin princes of Alba Longa, supposedly itself founded four centuries earlier by Aeneas (the Trojan prince). The twins, his distant descendants, were abandoned as babies on the orders of Amulius, who had usurped their kingdom and ordered their deaths. Miraculously, a she-wolf appeared from a wood to suckle them, and they were brought up by Faustinus, a kindly shepherd, on the Palatine Hill. When they grew up, they killed the usurper and together founded a new city: Rome. But they soon quarreled, Romulus killing Remus for jumping over his ploughed boundary line. Romulus then populated Rome by inviting outlaws and homeless men to join him, and by abducting the young women of his neighbors in the famous "Rape of the Sabine Women." When the Sabine men marched back in force to reclaim their women, they had by then become used to being Roman wives, and they intervened to prevent a battle and the two peoples intermarried. Romulus later ascended into heaven in a thunderstorm, becoming divine. (I DID say LEGENDARY, right?)
The early settlements of Rome grew numerous, but did not develop until after the arrival of the Etruscan kings, sometime around 616 B.C., who consolidated power and began to institute some means of order. For example:
-Tarquinus Priscus (ruled 616-579) held the first census, ordering citizens into three tribes, each of which could select 100 patricians to sit on the advisory council, the Senate.
-Servius Tullius (ruled beginning in 679BC) reorganized the state, dividing the Romans into five classes according to their wealth, with all citizens being liable for military service except those in the last and poorest class (who could not afford to arm themselves). Of a Roman legion of military power, 300 cavalry came from the richest class, and were the best equipped, while the middle 3 classes composed 6,000 infantry. In the senate, the newly formed Assembly by Hundreds meant that each class got 100 votes, with the richest class voting first, making them the most influential of the classes. Rome never operated on the principle of "one man one vote."
Around 509 BC, the kings were suddenly and finally expelled, and the word Etruscan, like the word "king," became an insult among Romans. According to legend, the last Etruscan king, Tarquinus Superbus, so angered the Roman nobles that they drove him out and declared a Republic, which they dominated through the senate. From now on, the state was to be run by annually elected officials. A new regime based on puritanical, patriotic virtus, or courage, was established that would serve Rome well through its coming struggles.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LIVY
At the age of 30, Livy (59BC-17AD) began writing his life's work: a detailed history of Rome. Made up of 142 books, running from Aeneas to the death of Drusus (9BC), only 35 books survive intact, with fragments of others.
Essentially a conservative patriot, Livy retained a belief in Rome's grand destiny that won him both Augustus' approval and lasting popularity. He was the historian Rome had been waiting for. His style varied from majestic to the vivid, while his imaginative sympathy for Rome's opponents makes him a humane writer. He, too, believed that history must instruct and elevate as much as inform.
Although not consciously dishonest, at times Livy attributed words and feelings to his characters that he had no way of knowing were true. Due to his own lack of military experience and partly, perhaps, to his imperfect Greek, he also made several military mistakes. For example in describing the battle of Zama between Hannibal and Scipio in 202BC, he misinterpreted the Greek historian Polybius' description of Hannibal's third line as Italians, when they were in fact Hannibal's crack veterans (Carthaginians) from his Italian campaign, held in reserve. But apart from this, and a tendency to accept legends of Rome's beginnings uncritically, he combined epic grandeur of language and lively description with the conscientious research of a true historian.
As always, please feel free to ask questions.