A History of the Roman World (61 page)

16
V
ER SACRUM
. See Festus, 150, 424, 519 L; Dion. Hal. i, 16; Livy, xxii, 10, xxxiii, 44, xxxiv, 44. J. Heurgon,
Trois Études sur le Ver Sacrum
(1957).

17
A
UTOCHTHONOUS VILLANOVANS AND LANGUAGE
. M. Pallottino believes that there was no basic ethnic change among the Villanovans: his views are summarized in
The Etruscans
(1975), 80 f. He also believes (op. cit. 49 ff., 58 ff.) that waves of Indo-European dialects reached Italy from the east across the Adriatic and pushed earlier languages (Ligurian and Tyrrhenian) to the north and west. The first proto-Latin wave arrived before
c.
2000
BC
and was later pushed westwards by the subsequent wave of Umbro-Sabellian dialects
which established themselves within ‘Apennine’ southern-central Bronze Age Italy. A third, Illyrian, wave got no further than the east coast.

18
C
ONTINUING GREEK TRADE
? See F. G. Lo Porto,
Bollettino d’ Arte
(1964), 67 ff., on the excavation of the acropolis at Porto Saturo, which may be identified with Satyrion where the Spartan leader of the colony to Tarentum landed in the late eighth century. Iapygian protogeometric and geometric pottery and other evidence suggest continued occupation, while Strabo (vi, 3, 2), based on Antiochus of Syracuse (the fifth-century historian of Sicily and Italy), states that the Spartan leader was welcomed by the barbarians and Cretans living there: this may reflect a memory of Greeks surviving at Tarentum.

19
P
HOENICIAN COLONIZATION
. The general importance of the Phoenicians has been over-rated at some times (e.g. during the last century) and underrated at others. The early dates which tradition assigned to some colonies (e.g.
c.
1100
BC
to Lixus, Gades and Carthage) must be abandoned (though the alternative date of 814 for Carthage, which Timaeus derived from Tyrian documents, may be only one or at most two generations too early). A few Phoenician traders may have ventured into the west between 1100 and 900, but no large
settlements
are likely to have been founded. Archaeology suggests settlements at Motya in western Sicily in the eighth century, Utica possibly in the eighth, Sardinia in the eighth (though a Punic inscription at Nora seems to belong to the ninth), Lixus in the sixth (at Mogador Greek pottery of
c.
650
BC
has been found, indicating the Phoenicians as middlemen, and trade rather than settlement). In Spain the earliest surviving evidence at Gades is late sixth century, but two interesting settlements in the area of Malaga have recently been excavated which are considerably older and go back to the late eighth century: Torre del Mar (probably Maenake) and Almunecar (ancient Sexi). See in general D. Harden,
The Phoenicians
(1962), S. Moscati,
The World of the Phoenicians
(1968), J. Heurgon,
Rise of
R., 57 ff., with bibliographies, 287 ff. In particular, V. Tusa,
Mozia
, 1–vi (1964–72); B. S. J. Isserlin,
Antiquity
, 1971, 178 ff.; A. Jodin,
Mogador
(Rabat, 1966); M. Pellicar,
Madrider Mitteil
, 1963, 9 ff.;
Arch. Anzeiger
, 1964, 476 ff. For possible Phoenician pottery in Italy at the time of the first Greek colonization see M. B. Ingrassia,
Magna Graecia
, xiii, 5–6, 1978, 12 ff.
    There is now evidence of Phoenician residents at Pithecusae (Ischia): a child burial in a local amphora with an Aramaic inscription, and a Phoenician inscription on a local vase: see M. W. Frederiksen,
Arch. Reports
, 1976–7, 44.

20
P
HOENICIANS AT ROME
? See A. Piganiol,
Hommages à A. Grenier
(1962), 1261 ff., D. Van Berchem,
Rendiconti della Pontificia Accad. di Archeologia
, 32 (1959–60), 61 ff. (cf.
Syria
, 1967, 73 ff., 307 ff.), and, for an extreme view, R. Rebuffat,
MEFR
, 1966, 7 ff. J. Heurgon,
JRS
, 1966, 2 f.;
Rise of
R., 73 ff. is somewhat more cautious: ‘all this still remains very obscure’.
    The cult of Hercules (Greek Heracles) spread widely in Italy from the south to Etruria (cf. J. Bayet,
Les origines de l’Hercule romaine
, 1926) though it is impossible to define the precise point from which it reached Rome (so judges K. Latte,
Röm. Relig.
, 214). The cult at the Ara Maxima was traditionally established by Hercules himself or by Evander; it was in private hands (members of the
gentes
Potitii and Pinarii) until taken over by the state in 312
BC
. It is true that Hercules was popular with merchants, and was later equated with Melqart, while the ritual had some oriental features (e.g. a tithe), though the idea that ‘Potitii’ originally meant ‘those possessed by the gold’ (cf. Katochoi) is very doubtful (possession is not a feature of early Roman religion). True also, the recent discovery of the Punic dedication to Astarte at Pyrgi and that of the Greek Sostratus to Hera at Gravisca (pp. 31; 23) makes foreign dedications in Etruria or Rome more probable. But a Phoenician settlement so far inland as Rome is out of character, and even if the cult was established by easterners it might have been the work of Carthaginians
rather than Phoenicians, i.e. at a later date than that originally put at 600
BC
or earlier. However, the theory must remain a pure hypothesis as yet, since no decisive evidence has been found to support it.

21
G
REEK COLONIZATION
. See T. J. Dunbabin,
The Western Greeks
(1948), A. G. Woodhead,
The Greeks in the West
(1962), J. Boardman,
The Greeks Overseas
(1964), 175 ff. The vexed questions of basic causes, priority and chronology belong primarily to Greek rather than to Roman history and so need not be discussed here. On the recent important excavations at Pithecusae see D. Ridgway, ‘The first Western Greeks: Campanian Coasts and Southern Etruria’, in
Greeks, Celts and Romans
, ed. C. F. C. Hawkes (1973), 5 ff., with full bibliography, p. 30 ff. See also G. Buchner,
Arch. Reports for 1970–1
, 63 ff. and Buchner and Ridgway,
Pithekoussai
, I (forthcoming).

22
H
OMERIC REFERENCES
. ‘Nestor’s Cup’: see
Iliad
xi, 632 ff.; for the inscription see R. Meiggs and D. Lewis,
A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions
(1969), n.l. Tataie inscription: see A. G. Woodhead, op.cit., n. 21, p. 36 with illustration. Shipwreck: this shows an upturned ship and the crew in the water with fish; see J. S. Morrison and R. T. Williams,
Greek Oared Ships
(1968), 34 and pl. 60. On the legends of Odysseus in the west see E. D. Phillips,
JHS
, 1953, 53 ff. (cf. for a briefer statement J. B. Bury and R. Meiggs,
A History of Greece
(1975), 74).

23
G
RAVISCA AND SOSTRATUS
. Sostratus: Herodotus, iv, 152. If not actually Herodotus’ man, this Sostratus will have been a member of the same family. Excavations and the inscription: D. Ridgway,
Arch. Reports for 1973–4
, 49 ff., A. W. Johnston,
Par. Pass.
, 1972, 416 ff. and F. D. Harvey, ibid., 1976, 206 ff., who dates the inscription to the latter part of the sixth century and points out that an Aeginetan selling Attic pottery in Etruria thus provides evidence for the existence of an ‘international merchant class’ as early as the sixth century. See also M. Torelli,
Par. Pass.
, xxxii, 1977, 398 ff. The large quantities of Greek pottery include dedications to Hera (12), Aphrodite (2) and Demeter (1), and there is evidence for a cult of the Etruscan deities: Uni (an inscription on a silver bowl) and Turan (four inscribed Etruscan sherds).

24
D
EMARATUS
. Pliny,
NH
, xxxv, 16, 152; Strabo, v, 219. A. Blakeway,
JRS
, 1935, 129 ff. showed the reliability of the archaeological background: Corinthian pottery dominated the Etruscan market in the first three quarters of the seventh century, and there is evidence that Greek artists were producing vases in Etruria. But cf. G. Vallet,
Rhégion et Zancle
(1958), 185.
    Pliny says that Demaratus was accompanied by three workers in clay, who introduced modelling to Italy: one was named Diopus. This name has not been attested elsewhere until the recent discovery at Camerina in Sicily of a mid-sixth-century antefix, inscribed with the name of Diopus. This raises many problems, but at very least strengthens the probability of the historical existence of Demaratus. See M. W. Frederiksen,
Arch. Reports
, 1976–7, 71.

25
C
ELTS
. In general see T. G. E. Powell,
The Celts
(1958); A. Grenier,
La Gaule celtique
(1945),
Les Gaulois
(1945); H. Hubert,
Les Celtes et l’expansion celtique
(1932),
Les Celtes depuis l’époque de la Tène
edn 2, (1950). Cf. J. Heurgon,
Rise of
R., 34 ff., with modern bibliography, 277 ff.

26
T
HE ETRUSCANS
. Two old books are still valuable: K. O. Müller and W. Deecke,
Die Etrusker
, 2 vols (1877, reprinted 1965) for source material, and G. Dennis,
The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria
edn 3, 2 vols (1883) for the geographical background. General surveys include M. Pallottino,
The Etruscans
(1975); D. Strong,
The Early Etruscans
(1969); H. H. Scullard,
The Etruscan Cities and Rome
(1967), =
Le città etrusche e Roma
edn 2 (1977) with updated bibliography); L. Banti,
The Etruscan Cities and their Culture
(1973); J. Heurgon,
Daily Life of the Etruscans
(1964); E. Richardson,
The Etruscans: their Art and Civilization
(1964); J. Heurgon,
Rise of
R., 40 ff., 280 ff.

27 E
TRUSCAN ORIGINS
. P. Ducati,
Le problème étrusque
(1938) surveys various views up to that date. M. Pallottino,
L’Origine degli Etruschi
(1947) examines the evidence in detail. Cf. J. B. Ward-Perkins,
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
, 1959, 1 ff.; A. Toynbee,
Hannibal’s Legacy
(1965), vol. i, 356 ff., L. A. Foresti,
Tesi, ipotesi e considerazioni sull’ origine degli Etruschi
(1974). Also the works cited in n. 26 above.
    The two chief views are expressed by Herodotus, i, 94 (from Lydia) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, i, 26–39 (autochthonous). Another view, that the Etruscans arrived in Italy overland from the North over the Brenner Pass, has now been generally abandoned (it rests on, for example, some similarities between Etruscan and the Raetian language of the Central Alps). A fifth-century historian, Xanthus of Lydia, apparently did not mention any Lydian settlement in Italy or a Lydian ruler named Tyrrhenus, but we know little of his work, and he does not appear to have been very reliable; cf. H. H. Scullard in E. Badian (ed.),
Ancient Society and Institutions
(1966), 225 ff. M. Pallottino is the most weighty exponent of the theory of formation on Italian soil. For some medical approaches to the problem see G. E. W. Wolstenholme and C. M. O’Connor (eds),
Ciba Foundation Symposium on Medical Biology and Etruscan Origins
(1959). It is scarcely possible to discuss details of the problem here.

28
E
TRUSCANS AND NORMANS
. If the Etruscans arrived as a small conquering alien aristocracy, a parallel may be seen (as suggested by J. B. Ward-Perkins and others) with the Norman invasions of southern Italy and England. The parallel of course cannot be pressed in detail (thus the Anglo–Saxon state in pre-conquest England was highly organized, unlike the political structure of the Villanovans in Etruria), but the achievement of the Normans suggests the kind of development that
might
have taken place in Etruria. C. H. Hoskins (
Normans in European History
(1915), 247) wrote that the Normans ‘did their work pre-eminently not as a people apart, but as a group of leaders and energizers, the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. Wherever they went, they show a marvellous power of initiative and assimilation: if the initiative is more evident in England, the assimilation is more manifest in Sicily.’ Again, R. H. C. Davis (
The Normans and their Myth
(1976), 103) writes: ‘At Hastings… apparently as the result of one day’s fighting England received a new royal dynasty, a new aristocracy, a virtually new Church, a new art, a new architecture, and a new language.’ Invasion, followed by intermingling and speedy fusion of two stocks: it happened in England, but had it happened also in Etruria?

29
E
TRUSCAN CITIES AND ARCHITECTURE
. See the books quoted in n. 26 above, especially L. Banti (287–300 for detailed bibliography) and H. H. Scullard; also A. Boethius and J. B. Ward-Perkins,
Etruscan and Roman Architecture
(1970). It is not possible here to give a detailed bibliography of the individual cities, but two sites may be mentioned: for Tarquinii see H. Hencken,
Tarquinia, Villanovans and Early Etruscans
, 2 vols (1968) and a shorter book,
Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins
(1968): for Veii, J. B. Ward-Perkins
PBSR
, 1961.
    The major Etruscan cities controlled large areas of land beyond their city walls: thus the ager Tarquiniensis included several large settlements or towns at Norchia, Musana, Tuscania, Bieda and Visentum. Some of these smaller towns have been revealed only by field work and archaeology, as San Giovenale inland from Tarquinii, or Luni nearby (C. E. Östenberg,
Luni sul Mignone
(1967), Acquarossa near Viterbo, or at Poggio Civitate near Murlo and Siena (Cf. D. Ridgway,
Arch. Reports for 1973–4
, 56 f; this excavation is throwing much light on varied aspects of Etruscan life of the seventh and sixth centuries.)