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Italy Before the Romans
Studying the history of Italy before the Romans is more the job of an archeaologist than of an historian because there is no written material to study it. We can only go by the material provided by archeaology to discover how civilization developed in ancient Italy. The thesis of David Randall-MacIver's book Italy Before The Romans1 is that Italy was inhabited by civilized people who had developed independent and very valuable cultures long before the Romans did, and Rome became heir to a fully developed estate. The people in ancient Italy were highly civilized and educated. Agriculture was practiced on a large scale, wealthy and important cities had existed for centuries, and an extensive foreign commerce had long been conducted. The houses of Etruscans, Venetians, Capuans, and Cumaeans were full of objects of art and luxury. All this began about 1600 B.C., but the people, as a distinct race, go back 1000 years before this. Essentially the same race inhabits the entire South and most of the East of Italy today. The North and West, on the other hand, have been profoundly affected by a series of immigrations and invasions. Italy was first inhabited by people from the North, the Ibero-Ligurians, who came up from the Iberean Peninsula (modern day Spain) and those who came up the South from North Africa through Sicily. By 2,500 B.C. Italy became quite populated from end to end with a people of Eur-African origin belonging to the Mediterranean Race. Archeaological finds have shown that the Neolithic Italians were quite advanced, as is seen by the housing, pottery, and stone tools that they had. By the beginning of the Bronze Age (about 2000 B.C.) a small group of people resembling the Swiss lake-dwellers, who made their settlements in villages which they built on piles in shallow waters for purposes of defense, emerged from the Northwest corner of Italy. They probably belonged to the type known as "Alpine Man," a short dark round-headed individual very unlike the representatives of the Mediterranean Race. Many of their weapons and implements were still made of stone. A new and more important immigration from beyond the Alps than that of the lake-dwellers began about 1700 B.C. This movement came from the Northeast and may be traced directly to the region of the Danube (river), which had become home of the most advanced European culture of the time. These people were the builders of the famous Terremare in the valley of the Po river in Northeast Italy. The Terremare were pile-dwellings on dry land in a style unknown outside Italy. Their settlements occupied the whole valley of the Po on both sides of the river. The author refers to these people as "Proto-Italici." These people differ in many ways from the Ibero-Ligurians, but most of all in their burial practices. Whereas the aborigines (in the south) always retained the custom of burying their dead in the ground, the Proto-Italici cremated the bodies and deposited the ashes in large jars, known as urns or ossuaries. The Proto-Italici were excellent bronze workers who not only imported but also manufactured many weapons and implements. By about 1500 or 1400 B.C. the manufacturing ability of the Proto-Italici, along with their extensive commercial relations, had produced a uniform level of material culture over all of Italy. At the close of the Bronze Age, then, which may be placed about the 13th century B.C., Italy had become a partner sharing in most of the benefits of European commerce. However, the most notable characteristic of the Bronze Age was the introduction of agriculture. During the time between 1200-1000 B.C. it seems that there were new invasions of Italy by tribes coming from beyond the Alps. These groups are referred to as Villanovans, Atestines, and Comacines. They occupied the Northern area of Italy from Rimini on the East coast (just North of Florence) to just North of Rome on the West coast. The aboriginal groups are known as Picenes, Apulians, and Siculans who occupied the area in the South. A major difference between these two is that the Northern groups cremated and the Southern groups buried their dead. The Villanovans, who peaked in their existence between 1000 and 700 B.C., showed many signs of being highly civilized. These include their houses, jewellery, weapons, and art. They placed various articles for the after-life in the urns of their cremated dead. Between 700-500 B.C. Bologna, a main center of Villanovan culture, stagnates and declines. The Atestines centered around Este, a city farther North of Bologna, are next in importance to the Villanovans as a factor in the development of the Early Iron Age. Este peaked 900-500 B.C. and began to decline in 450 B.C. Their culture was very similar to the Villanovans. The Comacines settled in Lombardy during the Iron Age. They were branches of that same mid-European and Danubian stock which developed into the Villanovan nations. These people cremated their dead and used the urns in the same way. The Etruscans arrived later than any of the others, coming in from Asia Minor at the end of the 9th century B.C. The zenith of Etruscan achievement was between 700-500 B.C. They were the most important factor in the civilization of Italy to this time. The Picenes, who settled along the Adriatic coast, were descendants of the Neolithic people from the West coast. They had a strong military and maintained their independence until the 3rd century B.C. They were heavily influenced in art by the Greeks in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. The Apulians occupied the area South of the Picenes on the Adriatic coast. Archeaological exploration of this region has been so slight that not much is known about them except by their pottery. We do know that Southeastern Italy was highly Greek-influenced. Campanian history centers around Cumae (near Naples), a Greek colony established around 740 B.C. The native Campanians were unrelated to the cremating invaders of North and Central Italy. The inhabitants of Calabria, the area South of Campania which makes up the "foot" of the peninsula, were the Siculans, descendants of Sicilians. On the Southern coast of the "foot" was Canale, a city heavily Greek-influenced, and on the Northwestern side was Torre Galli, which had virtually no Greek influence. Sicily and Italy were always distinct, each worked out its own development on its own particular lines without the slightest dependence on the other. Sicily had more commerce with the Aegean and it was from them that they derived their inspiration. "By the 4th century B.C. Italy was a country civilized end to end and ready for its political unification under the Romans. The independent vigor and energy of its several peoples and provinces made the ultimate strength and coherence of the Roman state" concludes the author. ________________ 1 Randall-MacIver, D. (1946). Italy Before The Romans. London, Oxford Press.
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