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Early Rome and the Etruscans
Bologna, Il Mulino, 1984, 8vo (cm. 20,5 x 12,5) brossura, pp. 222 con alcune cartine nel testo.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 15, 2024
This is a Revisionist history of early Rome. It assumes you have already read one of the more traditional histories, and know all the stories. (Also that you know something of Carthage, Syracuse and Greece.) The author generally discounts the stories: he correctly points out that the Romans constantly rewrote their history to create fictitious precedents for their actions, or simply to pump up their ancestors. If their Italian neighbours ever wrote their own histories, they have not survived. So the author regards the written record as thoroughly corrupt. Events have been fabricated and misdated. Heroes and villains (e.g. Coriolanus) are made up. And sadly, until the sack by Gauls (when this book ends), Rome was not important enough to be mentioned in Greek records, so cross checking is impossible.
The Etruscans are vital to the history of Rome at this period. Rome was an Etruscan city on the frontier of tribal Italy. It was thus a hybrid and an anomaly. It was bigger and better organised than any of its neighbours to the south, and tougher and more aggressive than its neighbours to the north. The Etruscans were the foremost civilisation in Italy, but they were not a unified state nor even an effective federation. When Rome announced its imperial ambitions by the conquest and ethnic cleansing of the Etruscan city of Veii, the defenders stood alone.
The Etruscans are vital to the history of Rome at this period. Rome was an Etruscan city on the frontier of tribal Italy. It was thus a hybrid and an anomaly. It was bigger and better organised than any of its neighbours to the south, and tougher and more aggressive than its neighbours to the north. The Etruscans were the foremost civilisation in Italy, but they were not a unified state nor even an effective federation. When Rome announced its imperial ambitions by the conquest and ethnic cleansing of the Etruscan city of Veii, the defenders stood alone.
November 10, 2025
Ogilvie attempts to identify Etruscan cultural and political influence on the early development of Rome. Very little is said about the Etruscans themselves, and there's really no narrative here at all, but rather a dry picking-through of specific events mentioned in textual and archaeological sources.
It follows closely the events and stories described in the first books of Livy, up to the sack of Rome, and tries to deconstruct fact from fiction, without presenting the original source but jumping straight to the refutation - if you have not recently read Livy's The History of Rome, Books 1-5: The Early History of Rome don't even bother picking this up. This is not a book that can be read by itself as a standalone work.
There are some interesting discussions here and there, but overall I found it an obtuse and dull reading experience.
It follows closely the events and stories described in the first books of Livy, up to the sack of Rome, and tries to deconstruct fact from fiction, without presenting the original source but jumping straight to the refutation - if you have not recently read Livy's The History of Rome, Books 1-5: The Early History of Rome don't even bother picking this up. This is not a book that can be read by itself as a standalone work.
There are some interesting discussions here and there, but overall I found it an obtuse and dull reading experience.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews