By tradition, Rome was found on April 21st, 753 BCE, so for this week I want to make a blog post every single day about something I find interesting about the Romans and their history to celebrate.
One aspect of Roman history that often gets overlooked is just how diverse Italy* was before the Romans conquered it and before the many different tribes assimilated into Roman culture. There is a misconception that even before the Romans conquered Italy that Italy was just populated with Italians or people who had a similar culture to the Romans; however, there was no one unified Italian culture or people before Rome. There definitely were people who were related to the Romans in either language or culture, most notably the other Latin tribes. The other Latin tribes did not make up a majority or even plurality of what would become known as Italy. Just look at this map.
Going roughly from North to South, first you have the Ligures. It is debated who exactly the Ligures were. Some say they were a pre-Indo-European people who eventually adopted an Indo-European language, a Celtic language. Others say they are an Indo-European peoples who through interactions with Celtic tribes became more Celt-like, but still distinct.
Next, we have the numerous Celtic or Gallic tribes who inhabited roughly modern day Lombardy. The Celts were a semi-nomadic people who spoke a tongue descended from Proto-Indo-European. They were distinct from other Italic people due to being semi-nomadic, their language, and having different cultural practices. Due to their semi-nomadic lifestyle, Celtic tribes settled as far as Galatia, modern day Turkey and Iberia. Additionally, the Celts were extremely ferocious warriors, who were hired by many Mediterranean peoples (Egyptians, the Punics, Greeks, Persians and more) as mercenaries and palace gaurds. The design of the stereotypical Roman Legionnaire helmet was inspired by earlier Celtic helmets. Part of northern Italy was originally known as Gallia Cisalpina or "the near side of the Alps Gaul," due to it being settled and dominated by Celtic Peoples.
Then, there are the Veneti and other Italic tribes. The Veneti were an Italic tribe who had different language and customs to their Celtic and Illyrian Neighbors. According to local traditions, after the fall of Troy, a Trojan prince fled to the Veneti and became their leader, thus linking them to Troy similar to how the Romans linked themselves to Troy.
Perhaps the most interesting of the non-Roman peoples who lived in Italy, are the Etruscans. The Etruscans inhabited roughly modern day Tuscany, the name Tuscany itself actually comes from the Latin word, Etruria, which just means "land of the Etruscans." According to many ancient traditions, the Etruscans did not originate in Italy but migrated there from somewhere else. The issue of where the Etruscans were originally from is still being debated, but many modern scholars believe they actually did originate in Italy. Regardless, the Etruscans were somewhat Hellenized due to their trade ties with the Greeks. The Etruscans were armed in and fought in the Greek style, phalanxes. Their pottery was also made in the Greek style Black/Red Figure. The Greek influence was also seen in their architecture. The Etruscans had a profound influence on the Romans due to their wealth, proximity, and due to three of the seven kings of Rome (including the last king of Rome) were said to be of Etruscan origin.
South of Rome, below Campania, and on the Eastern side of Sicily, we have the many different Greek city states. The Greeks had a practice of sending out groups of freemen and citizens to found new cities (Naples, or Napoli, comes from the Greek Neapolis or "new city") at strategic military, trade, and geographical points. In fact the southern region of Italy was so full of Greeks and Greek city-states that in Latin it was originally called Magna Graecia or "Greater Greece." The Greeks both directly and indirectly (through the Etruscans) had a massive influence on the Romans. The Romans derived their Alphabet from the Greeks, originally fought in the phalanx style, modeled their architecture after them, took inspiration from Greek mythology and traditions, learned Philosophy and Rhetoric from the Greeks, and wealthy Romans were even tutored by Greeks to learn the language and culture.
To the East of the Greek colonies we have the Messapians, who were originally from Illyria (roughly modern day Albania and Montenegro.) The Messapians, were undoubtedly not originally Italic peoples.
Lastly, we have the Carthaginians, a Phoenician civilization, who were a Semitic people (related to the ancient Jews) originally from the Levant. The Greek Alphabet was derived and adapted from the Phoenician Alphabet, (ironically Rome indirectly adopted the Alphabet of one of their greatest enemies.) Like the Greeks, the primary political organization of the Phoenicians were city states. Also like the Greeks, the Phoenicians would found colonies in strategic locations. Phoenician cities spread from the Levant, to North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily, and Iberia. Carthage in Punic actually meant "new city," and was originally a minor colony of Tyre. The Carthaginians however, eventually rose to create a mercantile empire that would clash with the Roman Republic over the course of three brutal wars.
This list is not supposed to be exhaustive, I exclude many, many other peoples due to time constraints. The peoples I discussed were just a few examples of the plethora of unique civilizations and cultures that inhabited Italy before they were conquered and assimilated into Roman civilization. Additionally, my descriptions of the peoples I discussed are not supposed to be definitive ethnographies of these peoples. This post is just supposed to showcase some of the diversity of pre-Roman Italy and share some fun facts about those peoples. I hope you enjoyed reading this, but even if you did not, I enjoyed writing this. I will create some more fun posts about Rome and its history all this week. I also may come back to this post and edit it to make it a more definitive list of the peoples who inhabited Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia before the Roman domination of Italy.
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