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Lecture 2 Images
Updated 8/28/08

Lecture 2: THE ETRUSCANS (AND ROME)

I. The Significance of the Etruscans

A. in their own right
B. as transmitters of Greek culture
C. influence on Romans; Aeneas

II. Origins vs. formation

A. oriental affinities; Herodotus (5th cent.): Lydia (Asia Minor), Tyrrhenus (Tyrrhenian Sea)

1. role of women; matronymic
2. revealed religion; augurs
3. near easterners on Ischia (8th cent.)

B. indigenous (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 1st cent. B.C.); archaeological evidence: Villanovans, hut urns, canopic urns (human figures)

C. culture as dynamic process, not static inheritance

III. Cultural Life as seen through the tombs

A.early period; zest of life; Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (520 B.C.); music, dancing, histrionics (Tomb of Lionesses; 6th cent.)
B. Gloom and doom; Tomb of Orcus (3rd cent. B.C.); Geryon, Pluto, Proserpina

IV. Historical sketch

begin c. 750 B.C.
540 B.C.: Etruscan city of Caere and Carthaginians defeat Greeks
474 B.C. : Hiero of Syracuse defeats Etruscan forces at Cumae (near Naples)
c. 520-450: Roman secession, followed by gradual political attrition
by 295 B.C.: final reduction by Rome; political end vs. cultural survival

V. The material culture and the political system; fibula (clasp)

Interlude: clip from Gladiator

VI. Influences on Rome

A. religion; augurs and haruspices; disciplina Etrusca (cf. Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis); ritual; Temple of Capitoline triad (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva)
B. role of women in society
C. gladiatorial games
D. town planning; Hippodamus of Miletus (Asia Minor)
E. realism or verism vs. (Greek) idealism in portrait sculpture
F. Rome as an Etruscan city from c. 625 to 450 B.C.

VII. Some pointers on how to read Plutarch's Romulus

Please pick up the Course Packet from Abel's (715-D West 23rd), read Plutarch, Romulus, and bring the Course Packet to class on Thursday.

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8/28/MMVIII
galinsky@mail.utexas.edu