¨ Two legends about the
founding of
¨ Legend 1
¨ Legend 2
¨ Really what is believed to
have happened is that a group of invaders around 1000 BC called the Latins
settled on the Palatine hill.
¨ Area had lots of resources
including good soil and weather and timber.
¨ Mainly were farmers.
Section
2: The Etruscans (ET)
¨ Around 800 BC ET settled in
area north of
¨ ET were
¨ ET were known as people of
the sea and as both pirates and traders.
¨ ET were mainly farmers.
¨ ET had well organized army
and took over northern
Daily
life
¨ Played many game and
recreational sports.
¨ Dancing and music were
important to society.
¨ Women had more rights than
in other places, they could own property and participate in public
celebrations.
¨ ET believed in the
importance of social order and class system.
¨ Upper class included wealthy
landowners, priests, and nobles.
¨ Middle class included
farmers, traders, and city workers.
¨ Lower class included
enslaved people.
Religious
beliefs
¨ Modeled gods after Greeks.
¨ Had temples to worship gods.
¨ Believed universe divided
into sections which gods controlled and humans lived in the center.
¨ Gods had total power over
humans.
¨ Used soothsayers to predict
future through omens which gods affected.
Tombs
of Gold
¨ When noble died there was a
party and then person was buried underground in catacombs.
¨ We know a lot about ET
because they thought life after death lasted a long time so they carved tombs
out of stone to make them last.
¨ Necropolis outside cities
was big cemetery with catacombs.
¨ First ET ruler of
¨ ET were more advanced than
the Latins
¨ The ET helped
¨ Drained swamps in area that
was to become the public square or Forum.
¨ ET borrowed and changed
Greek alphabet, Romans borrowed and changed ET alphabet.
¨ Romans adopted ET tradition
of gladiatorial games and the triumph (hero’s parade) and using the fasces
(bundle of rods bound to an axe) as a symbol of power.
¨ Romans also used soothsayers
and omens.
¨ Romans determined where
their cities should be on the advice of soothsayers and then planned them
carefully.
¨ Where the two most major streets crossed, the Romans believed was a mundus where the world of the living and dead intersected.