HI202: September 17

Latin League

· Latini (“Latins”); oppidum (town), pagus (“unified region”), populi (“people”)

· Jupiter Latiaris (“Jupiter god of the Latins”)

· Alba Longa and the Alban Mount; worship of Diana

Etruscan Rome

· Monarchy

o Kings: lucumones (Latin = rex)

o Symbols of authority: sella curulis (“ivory throne”); purple robe, golden crown, scepter, lictores (“retainers”), fasces (“axes and rods”)

· Aristocracy: senatus (“Senate”)

o 100 nobles, increased to 300 by the king

o conscripti (“conscripted men”)

· People

o Divided into 30 curiae (“fellowships”)

o Pedites (“foot soldiers”) modelled on Greek hoplites, marshalled in phalanx

o Assembly: comitia curiata

· Cities

o Autonomous

o League of 12, with center at Voltumnae

o Common cult, athletic competitions, national unity

Greek presence in Italy

· Mycenaean Greece: collapse 1100 BC

· Phoenicians in west ca. 1000 BC (Carthage ca. 850 BC); only direct influence = alphabet

· Greek influence: cohabitation, intermarriage, and colonization:

o Island of Ischia, Cumae in Bay of Naples ca. 760 BC

o Sicily, S. Italy ca. 735 BC

· Commercial exchange: ceramic evidence from Corinth, Athens, from Sicily to Po

· Motivations for colonization: internal strife, civil war, overpopulation, drought, famine, opportunities

· Introduction of vine and olive; adaptation of Phoenician alphabet

· Dissemination of artistic skills: architecture (temple building), sculpture small (bronzes) and large (marble), warfare, fortification, settlement and town planning

· No permanent foothold to exert a longlasting influence over Italy

Early Republican Rome

· Patricians (< pater (“father”), pl. patres)

o consules (“counsellors” or “chief magistrates”) with imperium (“power to command”), lictors, fasces, auspicium (“right to take auspices”), veto (“I forbid”), toga praetexta (“(purple) bordered toga”)

o dictator (“one who issues orders”); assistant = magister equitum (“master of the horse”)

o senatus and patrum auctoritas (“authority of the patres”)

o comitia curiata (“curiate assembly”)

o pontifices (“priests”), p. maximus, augures (“auspice-takers”), rex sacrorum (“king of sacred matters”)

· Plebeians (< plebs (“commons”))

o Non-aristocratic

o Tributum (“tax”)

o Nexum (“debt slavery”)

· Struggle between the orders

o 494 BC: secessio (“secession”)to Aventine Hill; creation of tribuni plebis (“plebeian tribunes”), veto power

o 471 BC: creation of concilium plebis (“assembly of plebs”); legislation = plebiscita (“plebiscites”)

o 451-450 BC: codification of law. Decemviri (“ten men”) composed the XII Tables (LR I.32; handout of excerpts)

o 449 BC: leges (“laws”) of Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius (lex Valeria Horatia): plebeian tribunes have sacrosanctitas

o 447 BC: creation of comitia tributa (“tribal assembly”); elected lower magistrates only

o 445 BC: lex Canuleia (Gaius Canuleius): intermarriage between patricians and plebeians

o 370’s BC: anarchy, leading to 367 BC: lex Licinia Sextia (Gaius Licinius, Lucius Sextius)

§ plebeians eligible for consules

§ within 30 years, for all other offices

o 326 BC: nexum abolished

o 312 BC: Appius Claudius’ failed legislation to break oligarchy

o 300 BC: lex Ogulnia (Quintus and Gnaeus Ogulnius): plebeians eligible for all priesthoods; lex Valeria: right to provocatio (“appeal”)

o 287 BC: last secession, on Janiculum.

§ Plebiscita fully binding

§ Concilium plebis of paramount importance at expense of other assemblies (comitia centuriata, comitia curiata, comitia tributa)