Rome : Early and Regal Period

Was it a coincidence that Rome overthrew its last king, Tarquinius Superbus, in 509, just after Athens had overthrown Hippias, son of tyrant Peisistratos, namely in 510, and thus established "democracy",or was it just a convenient manipulation by historians of antiquity?

Anyway, there are no contemporaneous textual sources; what sources there are, are considerably later, nemely from the early Principate. An overview with translations, may be found in Chicago's Penelope, Lacus Curtius,  Perseus and Fordham University's Ancient History Sourcebook

Besides T. Livius' "Ab Urbe Condita", written between 30 BC and 10 AD  major sources are..

Dionysos of Halikarnassus (60 BC-7 AD) (Romaike archologiae, books I-IV )
Diodorus Siculus (1st c. BC) (Historike bibliotheke books 10, 12, 19, 22-30)
Polybios (c.200  - 118) Historiae (book I pre-history of the Punic wars)
Timaeus of Sicily (c.345-250 BC) Historiae ( of 40 books survive only
Seianus Strabo Geographia (books V-VII) (uses Artemidoros v. Ephesos (c.170-90 BC) (Geographoumena) and Eratosthenes (c.280-200 BC) Geographika

Plinius  (23-79 AD) Naturalis historia (books
and M.T. Varro (116-27 BC) Antiquitates, de rebus urbanis, de gente populi Romani,
and Vergil's Aeneis preserve myths, legends and core ideas of early Roman (and Italian) history..

Archaeology only, however, informs us about the existence of settlements in the Early Iron Age (10th c), when Greek colonization was not yet common. Homer mentions ...
For the Roman archaeology useful reference works are
F. Coarelli, Rome an  Archaeological Guide (online)
Cristofali, La Grande Roma dei Tarquini, Catalogue Rome 1990.
and a recent book by  A. Carandini, Rome: Day One, 2011 , reflecting 20 years excavation between the Vesta Temple and the Palatine.

Location is of utmost importance for the siting and growth of settlements, in particular cities. Rome's topography, geomorphology and geopolitical situation was very important and I give here my interpretation from a viewpoint of environmental archaeology.  The centre of the region and of Ancient Latium was Alba Longa on Monte Corvo (Mons Albanus) and below stretched the Tiber valley until the sea. To the North were the Sabine hills.settled by another ethnic group which stretched to the Tiber along the Aniene river.  On the Western side of the Tiber lay Tuscany with major settlements around the  Sabatine and Tolfa volcanic hills which furnished a light and abundant building material. But immediately across the Tiber lay the Ager Veientianus, the territory of Veii, which extended until the lagoons near the sea. At the mouth of the Tiber Veii had control of the Salinae which were worked by local villages.

As salt was a basic commodity not available in the interior, it was in demand , especially by the shepherds and cattle herders, and salt trade probably began very early along the Tiber. However, if fluvial transport was possible, it ended at the Tiber island, where sand banks obstructed the river and necessitated the unloading and loading on land transport (animals and carts). This took place at the site of Forum Boarium, where the Via Salaria took its origin across the Velabrum and up the Quirinal.

The Anio (Aniene) river, entering the Tiber a few miles upstream of the future city, brought not only annual floods but also rich alluvium which was emptied into the Tiber , Its mouth should have been ideal for a settlement where the Sabines, Tuscans and Latins could have met and traded -  but Tiber island which was built up from the alluvial deposits and blocked navigation from further move upstream making transfer from boats to overland transport necessary, was responsible for the origin of Via Salaria.

The eroded plateau of the Esquiline with the Palatine and Capitoline hills as remaining outcrops formed a preferred settlement area, on one hand distant from the probably insect-infested swampy lowlands, but on the other providing drinking water from creeks and springs between Capitol, Palatine and Aventine and Palatine. Lacus Curtius and Lacus Iuturnae were basins filled by springs emerging from the Palatine, and until the 4th c.BC these constituted Rome's water supply for people and herds.

However, the control of the Tiber island, the river crossing and the salt transshipment point were strategically more important, and hence the site was also an ethnic boundary and point of exchange between Sabines, Latines, and Etruscans. The young men around Romulus and Remus, who were said to have checked bandits committing depredations on herders (cattle thieves) probably disturbed more the salt traders, and protection of trade by a stable settlement directly on the Tiber and safety on the via Salaria might have motivated Latins and Sabines to establish "colonies" there.  The early port of Rome was situated just below the island on the Forum Boarium was oerhaps not only a drinking place for animals but also a cattle market where salt was traded and shipped onwards.  Thus the site was of utmost economic importance for its resources - which were not only salt and animals but  also fish which found its way up into the interior.

The Foundation of Rome: settlements on Palatine, Forum, Capitol

Capitol Hill with first huts 

 The above reconstruction from  http://www.museicapitolini.org/sede/campidoglio_antico indicates a Xth century BC settlement, according to myth founded by Saturn (Kronos) to whom a temple was devoted in the 8th or 7th c. BC. -  and where perhaps ritual offerings connected with the Saturnalia were deposited.

Saturn temple on Capitol Hill (Saturnius mons)

The Saturn temple was later erected at the base of the Capitol hill where a Jupiter temple took its place.

Villa Giulia The Etruscan Gallery

  

Villa Giulia front facade

This Renaissance villa, built 1545-1548 for Cardinal Del  Monte, later elected Pope (Giulio) Julius III (1550-1555), houses the National Museum of Etruscan Art, and is thus suitable to start a visit of Rome's prehistory.          http://www.villagiulia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/1/villa-giulia-sito-istituzionale 

Villa Giulia: Interior Court

Villa Giulia: Gardens

The site orginally covered a narrow valley descending from the Valentine hill (Monte Pincio) down to via Flaminia along the bankof the Tiber. Via Flaminia was the ancient Via Thriumphalis, where generals came down to celebrate their triumph and wait for permission to enter the Forum. It was continued by the Via Sacra.
The Villa Giulia was converted into a museum during the early Republic (end of the 1880's) when Etruria yielded its treasures to the early archaeologists. The National Roman Museum sponsored a first exposition of materials from Falerii - today Civita Castellana. The collection was then expanded with materials from Latium (Gabii,Alatri, Alba, Satricum,and Palestrina), and the great Etruscan centres such as Caere, Veii, Vulci, Tarquinia), before even materials from Umbria were added.

We have here funerary assemblages from the necropoles of Veii, Vulci and Tarquinia whichshow the long  influence of  late Bronze Age culture,  despite the fact that the Etruscans mined and worked iron since the 8th c,BC. Indeed  very few grave goods of iron can be seen.

Below from Osteria Necropolis, Vulci: Urn in form of  Bronze Age hut (early 8th c.BC).  Presumably containing the ashes from incineration - and remembering the house of the defunct in shape of a thatched hut.

Below : Cucumella Necropolis, Vulci: Bronze stamnos from the "Lord of the horses" tomb 3/1988 (570-560 BC)

 Above: Lid of the bronze vase from "Lord of the horses" tomb. Fotos from the Museum Catalogue.

At the end of the ground floor are grave goods from the Banditaccia Necropolis of Caere-for more info

http://etruriameridionale.beniculturali.it/index.php?en/156/necropoli-della-banditaccia-di-cerveteri
This site leads you to the major archaeological sites of Etruria.

From Banditaccia comes the Terracotta Sarcophagus of the Couple

In the basement are reproductions of chamber graves including the wall paintings from Tarquinia. cf.
http://www.villagiulia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/138/Tarquinia.

On november 7, 2014  the Villa Poniatowski, closed during our visit, and which houses grave inventories from the Necropoles of Terni, Todi, Gualdo Tadino and Nocera Umbra (all in Umbria) as well as the famous Colombella tomb from Praeneste , and tombs from Satricum and Alatri (all towns of ancient Latium of Latin I -III)was briefly opened to visitors, South of Villa Giulia: Links below

http://www.villagiulia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/170/villa-poniatowski

http://www.villagiulia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/22/archivio-eventi/142/venerd-al-museo-7-novembre-apertura-straordinaria-di-villa-poniatowski

 Via di Villa Giulia and Villa Poniatowski on the right

a Tour of Rome, Vatican, Etruria Sunday March 30

We were all excited: it was the last sunday of the month, and therefore there was free entrance to the Vatican Museum. So we formed a group and wanted to go there, but unfortunately we decided to start at Piazza di Spagna and Trinita dei Monti and walk from there to the Vatican. We spent time at Augustus's monument, at the Ara Pacis and Hadrian's castle , and by the time we reached the Vatican it was past 12 and the Museum had closed its entrance.  So we stayed a while in Vatican square and then walked along the Corso towards Piazza Venezia, from where I visited the Museum on Capitol Hill. (see special post on Capitol).


For those of you who have missed the Vatican Museum , here is the official site and you may select those collections of interest to you:  http://www.museivaticani.va , Choose your language and this will open

choose Collections Online, and then Virtual Visit -this will allow you to view the most famous pieces.

They also have an Etruscan collection (see photo). Here a few notes on the predecessors of Rome in Italy, namely the Etruscan city "states" in Toscana and elsewhere, before continuing with Rome and Roman cities ( the Vatican evidently being only one of the hills of Rome).

Map of Etrurian cities (apparently there was a league of twelve in Tuscia, and more in the Po river plains)

Veii, Gabii, Tarquinia, Caere were the most important in the immediate neighborhood of Rome (see post on Villa Giulia).

On our last day we visited  Cencelle and passed Sta. Severa, a few km before (/Civitavecchia  built on the Etruscan  town of Cosa), which itself was  built on the ruins of Pyrgi, the ancient port of Caere (Cerveteri).

 (cf.Wikipedia Pyrgi, Caere, Cosa).
The Wikipedia article on Civitavecchia you will tell you the following:

"The harbour was constructed by the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century. The first occurrence of the name Centum Cellae is from a letter by Pliny the Younger (AD 107). The origin of the name is disputed: it has been suggested that it could refer to the centum ("hundred") halls of the villa of the emperor. In the early high Middle Ages, Centumcellae was a Byzantine stronghold. Raided by the Saracens in 828, it was later acquired by the Papal States."    Note here that "high Middle Ages" is a wrong translation of Alto Medievale, which as we all know by now means Early Middle Ages. By that time it had been acquired by Pope Leo IV, before the Arab raids.

I will get back to Cencelle with more fotos on the last post of this Blog, but here are some relevant links:

.http://www.lazionascosto.it/cencelle.html

For those who missed the exposition in the Trajan Forum because they were at the police reporting the theft of their wallets, here is the reference to it

http://www.mercatiditraiano.it/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/forma_e_vita_di_una_citta_medievale_ leopoli _cencelle

A report  (in Italian with an english Version  for some pages except for Cencelle) is found

http://www.storiadellacitta.it/dibattito_scientifico/cencelle.htm .

This page is new but has interesting Information on medieval towns, monasteries and fortresses with bibliog.

muro con torre di Cencelle

Via Salaria,

As our first hotel in Rome was situated at Via Salaria, I checked Via Salaria out on the Internet and here is what I found  (from la Reppublica, Sunday 23 March) . The modern highway on the old via Salaria (salt road) has found some new kind of commodity , Prostitutes, Each day when we travelled back by bus from Rome Tiburtina to our hotel, from the bus station we had to cross a bridge to  our hotel. This was full of condoms (below profilattici) and kleenexes (below fazoletti). Nobody seems to clean up.  In fact, the girls joined the bus at ... and got down at the ramp to Via Salaria where they got into a car - I noticed Bulgarian license plates - which dropped them along the highway.  Our bus in the morning was full of Romas (how appropriate) whe went to the markets or otherwise the metro stations, At Termini at least three of us got their wallets picked.  But take this with a grain of salt. Ancient Rome was probably no different

Below the text of the article

Salaria hard core quartiere ostaggio della pro-stituzione

Tutto come prima, telecamere inutili

di Massimo Lugli

Un quartiere in ostaggio delle prostitute, prigioniero del degrado, traumatizzato dagli incidenti stradali a catena e dalle scene di sesso "en plein air" davanti alla scuola elementare e agli asili nido. Spogliarelli di prostitute sulla Salaria, fugaci incontri a luci rosse nelle macchine parcheggiate fin sotto le case di Castel Giubileo o Fidene, un tappeto di rifiuti, fazzolettini, profilattici che si accumula giorno per giorno, notte dopo notte perfino di fronte ai bar, ai negozi, ai locali pubblici. Una situazione che ha dell´incredibile e che sembra senza via d´uscita.

Late-Roman Early Medieval Italy: First Station Roma

On March 29 our Medieval Archaeology class took a flight from Frankfurt to Rome (see pic.1 waiting for boarding at Frankfurt), where we landed about 9:15 AM at Fiumicino (cf.pic.2). To get us to our hotel, someone had the good idea to rent a bus instead of finding our way by train and subway. Three mini-buses were waiting for us, but it took a while to wait for the drivers and get our luggage and as one guy had'nt shown up for the trip, we only needed two.




Waiting for our plane

Frankfurt

Fiumicino

We drove North on the highway with destination via Salaria, in the far Northeast of Rome, where we had booked into Hotel  Romulus, a good name to begin a visit to Rome (pic.3)

Romulus 

 

Hotel Romulus just lies between the Tiber and Via Salaria, and below the hill of ancient Fidenae. In fact, the Urban Railway Station of Fidene lies just two hundred meters northward, but when I tried to take the train the next day, I found the railway and the Via Salaria barred by fences, so that I had to walk back through the residential area toward the military airport of Ciampino and then up the Via Salaria again. #
Hotel Romulus had a nice garden terrace restaurant, the choice of meals was limited, the rooms a little old fashioned and the nightly noise from the rail & road quite disturbing- as we had to leave the window open as the room was stuffy and it was already quite warm in March.

via Salaria

 watch the video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikhjTcmKPJM)

Fidenae 8km north of Rome on the hill just above the Tiber was supposedly a Latin or Sabine town, and a colony of Alba Longa. During the regal period, still under Romulus, according to Livy and Plutarch, it came into conflict when Rome expanded . A battle with the Fidenati supposedly took place around 746  BC, and Rome made Fidenae a colony and settled some 2500 coloni there. An article on  Fidenae's territory appears in academia.edu (Pietro Barbina, Letizia Ceccarelli et al. Il territorio di Fidenae tra V e II secolo a.C.). It traces the evolution of the territory and shows results of 2001 excavation and parts of votive  statues dated to the VI to IV c. - perhaps offered in a sanctuary of Minerva.
 http://www.academia.edu/266258/Il_territorio_di_Fidenae_tra_V_e_II_secolo_a._C

We were all waiting for our rooms to be made, because we arrived around 11 AM, and they were not ready before 1 PM(pic.5). It took us almost that time - 2 hrs - to sort out our room arrangements (because our travel agency had gotten 3 double rooms, 3 triple rooms and not enough single rooms) and draw up a list of our names and birthdates and check the passports (pic.6). Fortunately Lori (with yellow Rucksack ) had already bought day tickets for bus.and metro so that by the afternoon we were ready to venture into the city.

I had looked up hotel Romulus on the internet before our flight, and discovered  an interesting article on Via Salaria, which follows in post 3.

With Bus 36 from the hotel  to Tiburtina railway station., from where we took the blue metro to Termini (Rome's main station) where we went to the tourist office to get a map of Rome. From then everybody scattered to spend afternoon and evening by himself.
I  went straight to visit the Etruscan Museum at Villa Julia,  took a bus North past the Aurelian city walls - a piece of the so-called Servian wall is preserved outside the station -  towards Monte Pincio.I got out at the park of villa Borghese  to search for Villa Giulia, which has the biggest collection of Etruscan works from Vulci,Veji, Tarquinia, Caere and others. (see map)

  pic. 7  Parco Borghese


                                                 Villa Giulia (front)
                                                     Ville Giulia (court)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Villa Giulia (parkside)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

An extra post on Villa Giulia and Etruscan towns and necropoles might be of interest for those studying the Iron Age culture. In this you'll also find a map of ancient Etruria (Tuscia, later Toscana) Post