Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World by Philip Matyszak

Author:Philip Matyszak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

An eighteenth-century engraving schematically showing the ancient city of Rome. The Romans were on the Palatine (A) and the Capitoline (B), and the Sabines on the Viminal (H) and Esquiline (L).

With success came expansion, and with expansion the Sabine settlers on the Viminal were gradually folded into the new city. By the time the historical record becomes trustworthy, Latins and Sabines were a single people – the Romans.

This is pure poppycock, says the second traditional school of thought. The idea that cities in the ancient world grew organically is a myth, perpetuated by western historians who base their theory on the manner in which towns grew in Britain and the United States. The archaic world around the Mediterranean was a different and more violent place. Cities there were founded by groups of well-armed settlers who imposed themselves on the landscape, whether the locals liked it or not. Any hamlet growing organically would have lasted precisely up to the point at which its size made it profitable to be raided. The Etruscan inhabitants of the city of Veii nearby, for example, would have cheerfully sacked Rome for pleasure and profit.

In this view, Rome survived because it had strong walls from the beginning, which is exactly why, in legend, when Romulus founded the city his very first act was to build a wall. This is what the founders of Tarentum did, too, as did the founders of Syracuse, Naples and every other contemporary Italian city worth mentioning. It is how ancient cities were established. Rome was no different.

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