Italy Before Rome

Out of all the things that influence the development of the nation, geography and neighbors are some of the most important. To understand the Roman history, its challenges and opportunities, we need to be familiar with the landscape around it and the people who lived there. The first striking feature of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula are its mountain ranges. Italy is bounded to the north by the Alps and is divided in two parts by the Apennines, the spine of the peninsula. The Alps are snow-bound all year round. Their snowy peaks provide plenty of fresh water to the rivers of northern Italy. The biggest of them is the river Po, or Padas as it was called in the Roman era. The river and its tributaries form a basin that supplies water to the entirety of the valley. This plain is the widest expanse of fertile arable land on the peninsula. In the Iron Age, these lands were populated by Proto-Celtic people. Around the time of the foundation of Rome, more Celts, or Gauls as the Romans called them, began crossing the Alps from their native lands in modern-day Austria and settling in the region. The Romans did not consider this valley to be a part of Italy, but called it Gallia Cisalpina, or Cisalpine Gaul, which means Gaul on this side of the Alps. The people living there had no knowledge of refinement of civilization. They lived in unwalled villages without any unnecessary furniture. They slept on straw and leaves, ate meat, and practiced no other pursuits but war and agriculture, so their lives were very simple and they were completely unacquainted with any art or science. Following the Adriatic coast from Cisalpine Gaul to the south, we'd find little fertile land and few good harbors. This is the land of the Oscan-speaking people. The tribes like Umbri, Osci, Sabellians, and Semnites all lived there and shared similar language and lifestyle. The strip of lowland on the Adriatic seacoast is thin, but the eastern side of the Apennines has many high valleys and terraces with decent land for pasture. The hill tribes made their living from herding sheep and goats and selling wool, leather, and cheese. As we pass the dry windy prairies of Apulia further south, we come upon a heavily populated region on the Mediterranean coast. From the hill of Italy all the way to Campania on the western seaboard, the coast is dotted by big Greek-speaking cities, with the population of some numbered in the tens of thousands. This is Magna Graecia, the region settled by the Greeks in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Greek cities like Brundisium, Tarentum, Syracuse, and Neapolis were trade entrepots of the western Mediterranean. The Greeks, or Hellenes as they called themselves, were the most sophisticated people in the region, and their colonists brought with them Hellenic religion and culture, which influenced the people throughout all of Italy. The Strait of Messina separates the toe of Italy and the island of Sicily. Syracuse, the city that became one of the most powerful in all of Mediterranean, is located near the southeastern corner of the island. The region of Brutium is the toe of Italy, and the lands directly to the north are called Locania. Both regions are rough and mountainous. The hill tribes living there were relatives of Semnites and other Oscan-speaking people to their east. The Italic tribes practiced a ritual called Versacrum, or the Sacred Spring. In times of great peril or strife, an entire generation of children, born in the spring of the following year, were dedicated to the god Mars. They had to leave the tribe when they came of age and establish their own community. Through this ritual, the new colonies and tribes have been created. The Semnites were offshoots of Sabines, while Brutians and Locanians were offshoots of Semnites. Going north along the coast, we reach the region of Campania. The Campanian terrain is much more pleasant than the rugged hills of Locania. It has a great natural harbour in the Bay of Naples, and its valleys are lush and fertile, thanks to the volcanic ash of Mount Vesuvius. The wine produced in the slopes of this volcano is still some of the world's finest. Because of its picturesque sights and hot natural springs, Campania would later become a prime vacation spot for rich Roman citizens. But before the Romans had conquered Campania and made it their choice resort, it was under the influence of the Etruscans. The Etruscans were very peculiar people. Their own heartland was to the north of the Tiber, in the region of Etruria, modern-day Tuscany. Ancient Greeks thought that the Etruscans have migrated to Italy, either from Asia Minor or from Greece itself, but most modern anthropologists conclude that the Etruscans are native to Italy. The Etruscan language used a form of Greek script, but it wasn't Indo-European. In fact, it hasn't been decoded to this day. The Etruscans were more socially advanced than their Italic neighbours. By the 8th century, they've organised themselves into urban communities of traders and craftsmen, while the surrounding tribes lived in simple farmland settlements. They were highly cultivated people, who codified complex systems of religious laws and rituals. The practice of ogrery, watching the bird behaviour to determine the will of the gods, came from the Etruscans, and so did divination on the animal entrails. Among the artefacts found in Etruria, is the bronze model of ox liver, with a diagram that divides it into sections for the purposes of performing haruspicy. The haruspex was a person trained to determine the approval of the gods by studying the liver of the sacrificial animal. The Romans have also adopted some civic Etruscan practices. For instance, the fasces, the bundles of wooden rods with an axe in the middle that symbolised the power of Etruscan kings, became the attribute of Roman lictors. The Etruscan land was hospitable and fecund, which contributed to their high standard of living. They had plenty of fresh water from their Tiber to the south, and river Arno to the north. Another advantage of Etruria were its iron mines. In fact, the Etruscans were the ones who introduced ironworking to the rest of Italy. The Etruscans did not have a centralised state, but were rather a federation of city-states, similar to the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia. Each city had its own laws, government and military, and the only time when they combined their forces was when faced with an outside threat. Between Etruria and Campania lies Latium, the birthplace of Rome. Its northern border is the river Tiber, and to its west are the Apennines. The olden hills, which served as the religious centre for the disparate tribes of Latium, are located in the middle of the plain. This region had not been habitable until a few centuries before the foundation of Rome. Up to late 1000 BC, numerous volcanoes have been spewing ash and lava on the and a stone shower in the olden hills is recorded as late as the reign of the third Roman king. The Tiber had also been more turbulent, and the plains were subjected to constant floods. When the volcanic activity ceased, it proved to have been a blessing for the Latins, the new rivals in the region. Volcanic ash, rich with phosphates and nitrates, made the soil exceptionally fertile. Throughout the region, agriculture flourished, with the exception of malarial marshland near Campania. The Latins tilled the fertile lands and herded goats and sheep on the grassland hills. At the time of the foundation of Rome, Latium had around a couple dozen small farming settlements, none of them a match for the large urban centres of Etruria and Magna Graecia. This, however, was about to change. Later Romans attributed the success of their city to its advantageous location. Indeed, the only thing Latium lacked was a good natural harbour. The port of Ostia, built during the reign of kings in the mouth of the Tiber, was a mediocre solution, because the river brought so much mud downstream that the bay was silting up. Lack of good harbours meant that any local power emerging from Latium would have to rely on its armies and resources of the land, rather than naval power and commerce. This was the situation on the Italian peninsula in the early centuries of Roman existence. The newly built city had a lot of natural advantages, but it would have to contend with its immediate neighbours before emerging as the regional power and making a name on the bigger stage.