The Rise of Rome

The Rise of Rome 1000–264 bc KATHRYN LOMAS PROFILE BOOKS Rise of Rome.indd 3 24/08/2017 10:43 First published in Great Britain in 2017 by PROFILE BOOKS LTD 3 Holford Yard Bevin Way London wc1x 9hd www.profilebooks.com Copyright © Kathryn Lomas, 2017 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset in Garamond by MacGuru Ltd Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, St Ives plc The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 846684 11 1 eISBN 978 1 847654 51 9 Rise of Rome.indd 4 24/08/2017 10:43 Contents Preface and acknowledgements vii List of figures and plates xvi Abbreviations xxi Part I: Early Italy and the foundation of Rome 1 Introducing early Rome 3 2 Setting the scene: Iron-Age Italy 10 3 Trojans, Latins, Sabines and rogues: Romulus, Aeneas and the ‘foundation’ of Rome 35 4 The rise of the international aristocracy: Italy and the orientalising revolution 54 5 Orientalising Rome and the early kings 83 Part II: War, politics and society: Rome and Italy, 600–400 6 The urban revolution: city and state in sixth-century Italy 99 7 Tyrants and wicked women: Rome, the Tarquin dynasty and the fall of the monarchy 127 8 The ‘fifth-century crisis’ and the changing face of Italy 154 9 A difficult transition: the early Roman Republic 171 10 Rome on the march: war in Latium and beyond, 500–350 199 Part III: The Roman conquest of Italy 11 The road to power: Italy and Rome, 390–342 217 12 ‘Whether Samnite or Roman shall rule Italy’: the Samnite wars and the conquest of Italy 238 13 Co-operation or conquest? Alliances, citizenship and colonisation 262 Rise of Rome.indd 5 24/08/2017 10:43 Part IV: From city-state to Italian dominance 14 The impact of conquest: Rome, 340–264 291 15 Epilogue: Rome, Italy and the beginnings of empire in 264 322 Appendix: Roman dates and chronology 329 Timeline 331 A note on sources 335 Notes 347 Further reading 267 Guide to sites, museums and online resources 275 Bibliography 381 Index 393 Rise of Rome.indd 6 24/08/2017 10:43 Preface and Acknowledgements he most common image of Rome is one of imperial power – a sprawl- Ting city of gleaming marble buildings ruling a world empire. This image is a long way from Rome’s origins as a village on the banks of the Tiber, but by the end of the period covered by this book it was the most important state in Italy, dominating the entire peninsula and on the brink of becoming a world power. This rise from small village to world power is the theme of this book. The question of why Rome became so dominant is an intriguing one. In its early stages of development it was a significant local settlement, but could not compare with its more powerful neighbours. It was only one of a number of emerging powers in central Italy during the ninth to the sixth century bc, and in many respects it was overshadowed by the Etruscan cities north of the Tiber, which achieved greater cultural and political development at an earlier date than Rome, and by the Campanian and Greek communities of southern Italy. A political pundit of the seventh century would probably not have picked out Rome as a candidate for dom- ination of Italy, and still less could have imagined the empire it acquired during the second century. By examining its history in the context of these other Italian cultures, this book aims to explain Roman development in the light of similar trends elsewhere in Italy and will examine the excep- tional aspects of Rome that allowed it to establish this dominance. Perhaps the most obvious question that comes to mind about the very earliest history of Rome and its neighbours is, how do we know? Our information about this period is a dense thicket of archaeological information, augmented with an equally complex set of myths and narratives vii Rise of Rome.indd 7 24/08/2017 10:43 THE RISE OF ROME transmitted by ancient writers and additional information from inscrip- tions and coins. Sifting through this and creating a coherent picture of early Rome is a complex business, and there are no definite answers to many of the questions we might wish to ask – only a mass of intriguing possibilities. If some aspects of early Rome seem frustratingly vague, it is largely because of these difficulties posed by our evidence, which frequently throws up a mass of contradictions and requires us to read between the lines. Specific problems of interpretation are discussed in the text, but readers unfamiliar with this period of history may find it useful to consult A Note on Sources for a more general discussion of the issues posed by the evidence. A new overview of the early history of Rome is timely for a number of reasons. There are a number of excellent scholarly studies in English, notably Tim Cornell’s The Beginnings of Rome (London, 1995), Gary For- sythe’s A Critical History of Early Rome (Berkeley, 2005) and Francesca Fulminante’s archaeological study The Urbanisation of Rome and Latium Vetu s (Cambridge, 2014), but there are few introductions available that are accessible to a more general readership. With the exception of Ful- minante’s book, much of the most recent archaeological research, and in particular the important and controversial work of Andrea Carandini, is published mainly in Italian. Many previous works also focus principally on Rome itself. The aim of this present volume, in contrast, is to examine the rise of Rome within its broader Italian context, and to explore the similarities and differences between Rome and the rest of Italy, in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist. I would like to thank John Davey and the editorial team at Profile for inviting me to contribute to this series, and for their invaluable comments and support during the writing process. I would also like to thank my colleagues at Durham, Edinburgh, UCL and elsewhere for their comments and encouragement. In particular, I would like to thank Tim Cornell, Guy Bradley, Jeffrey Becker, Hilary Becker and Jamie Sewell, and my partner, Martin Hatfield, for their willingness to listen to discussion of early Rome well beyond the call of duty. Thanks are also due to Ruth Whitehouse and Martin Hatfield for permission to use their photographs, and to the staff of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli, the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo, the Museo Nazionale Romano e l’Area Archeologica di Roma, the Soprint- endenza Archeologia del Lazio e dell’Etruria meridionale, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rome, the Great North Museum, Newcastle viii Rise of Rome.indd 8 24/08/2017 10:43 Preface and Acknowledgements upon Tyne, and the British Museum for assistance in obtaining images. I would particularly like to thank Andrew Parkin, Keeper of Antiquities at the Great North Museum, for permission to reprint images from the Shefton Collection of Greek and Etruscan Antiquities, a collection with which I have a long professional association. ix Rise of Rome.indd 9 24/08/2017 10:43 0 25 50 75 100 miles 0 50 100 150 200 kilometres Po Ateste Atria Spina Felsina Marzabotto Arno Sena Gallica Ancona Tiber Arretium Iguvium A Populonia d r Rusellae Tuder i a Volsinii t Vulci i c COSICA Tarquinia I S Veii e Caere Gabii T a Rome Pietrabbondante Velitrae Lanuvium A Satricum L Arpi Y Brundisium Cales Barium Capua Lupiae Cumae Neapolis Gnathia Pithecusae Rossano di Vaglio Sala Consilina Tarentum Pontecagnano Paestum Heraklea Metapontum SARDINIA Velia Sybaris/Thurii S e a i a n e n r h r Croton T y AEOLIAN Hipponium ISLANDS Locri e a M Messina S e Motya Rhegium n d a i t SICILY i e n r o r Syracuse I a Gela Carthage n e a n S e a Map 1. Ancient Italy: principal sites and settlements. Rise of Rome.indd 10 24/08/2017 10:43 A d Faesulae r i a t i c Arnus S e a Arretium Sentinum Volaterrae Iguvium Cortona Murlo Perusia Clusium Populonia Vetulonia Rusellae ELBA Volsinii Bolsena Bisenzio Vulci Acquarossa Viterbo Tiber Tarquinii Luni sul Mignone Gravisca Falerii Capena Pyrgi Veii T Fidenae y r r h Caere e n Tibur i a Rome n Gabii S e Praeneste Liris a Tusculum 0 10 20 30 40 50 miles 0 20 40 60 80 kilometres Map 2. Etruria: principal ancient sites. Rise of Rome.indd 11 24/08/2017 10:43 Capena Tiber Lucus Feroniae Lake Bracciano Veii Nomentum Crustumerium Ficulea Tibur Fidenae Antemnae Rome Gabii/Osteria dell’Osa Laurentum Labici Praeneste Ficana Tusculum Castel di Decima Mount Albanus Ostia Lake Albanus Anagnia Aricia Lake Nemi Ferentinum Lucus Ferentinae Velitrae Signia Lavinium Lanuvium Cora Ardea Norba Satricum Setia Privernum Antium T y r r Tarracina h e n i a n S e a 0 2 4 6 8 10 miles Circei 0 5 10 15 20 kilometres Map 3.

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