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THE ETRUSCANS, THE GREEKS AND THE PHOENICIANS

                                           

THE ETRUSCANS, THE GREEKS AND THE PHOENICIANS

In the eighth century BC, the Italian peninsula, except for the Southern part, where the Greeks began to found colonies (Cuma in the second half of the eighth century BC, Sybaris at the end of the eighth century BC, as well as a few others), was inhabited by the so-called Italic peoples: Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Piceni, Samnites, Iapigi, Messapi, Equi, Veneti, Liguri, etc., where the economic and cultural influence of the Etruscans was strong. The Italian territory was composed of a network of indigenous villages. (1)

 

For a mere academic schematization, we can outline 3 models of occupation of the  Italian territory, which were applied by the Etruscans, Greeks and Phoenicians.

 

ETRUSCAN MODEL: The Etruscans, with their arrival, favored new forms of urbanization by aggregating small scattered villages. Thus the so-called “Etruscan synoecism” takes place: this term  indicates the process of unification (2). A probable example was Pompeii, where the mythical people of Sarrastri, who previously lived on the banks of the Sarno river in villages of huts, were urged by the Etruscans to “unify” by founding the famous town of Campania.

 

GREEK MODEL: The other model is the one that spread in Southern Italy, “Magna Graecia” [and Sicily ed.], where the urbanization process was the opposite, because it started from a global vision of the urban planning. (3)The Greek settlers considered the “fertile soil” as the most important criteria in the selection of the site, since in most cases, to look for new lands to be cultivated, they had abandoned the motherland, afflicted by the increase in population, by the low quantity of production and quality of its soils (poor, being superficial and stony) and their intensive exploitation, which lasted for centuries. (4)Therefore this will determine the acquisition, sometimes violent, of the land at the expense of the natives. (5) Archaeological research has almost always documented that the Greeks systematically destroyed the indigenous villages in order to establish their settlements in Magna Graecia and Sicily.

PHOENICIAN MODEL:  The Phoenicians tended only to found emporiums for their trade with the local populations, with whom they usually entertained peaceful relations. (6). A notable exception is Carthage, which, in its long history, assumed a hegemonic role in the western Mediterranean. It maintained its great power until the time when, in the III century B.C., it clashed with Rome (Punic Wars).

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

  1. Giuseppe Gisotti, La fondazione delle città, Carocci Editore 2016 – pag. 26
  2. Ibid. p. 26
  3. Ibid.  p. 26
  4. Ibid. p. 22
  5. Gioacchino Francesco La Torre, Sicilia e Magna Grecia, Editori Laterza, 2011, p. 24
  6. Giuseppe Gisotti, op. cit. p. 20

 

 

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THE CONCEPT OF RACE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

 

Ethnicity, as a biological fact, is a product of the nineteenth century that we can not apply to antiquity.(1) In the ancient world, ethnic identity is not particularly important and it is, in any case, a cultural process, always under construction (2). If it is true that from ancient times many populations or social groups tended to shut themselves off from others, excluding or discriminating against those they considered different, their attitude can be defined as “xenophobic” or “ethnocentric” rather than “racist” in the true sense, based on the foundations of presumed linguistic, cultural, and religious superiority. For example, the Greeks and the Romans called people who did not speak their languages “barbarians”. However, this did not favour a feeling of unity within a single race. Among them, the Greeks carried out ruthless wars which often ended with real genocide and with the enslavement of women and children (the so-called “andrapodismos”). (3) During the battle of Traente (A small Calabrian river), in 510 B.C., Crotone, city of “Magna Graecia” (the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy), even diverted the course of the Crati river to destroy another Greek city, Sybaris.
To better understand how the concept of race was unimportant in ancient times, an interesting story may be that of Tarquinius Priscus. At the end of the VII century B.C., the son of a man from Corinth (Greece) settled in Tarquinia, southern Etruria (the area corresponding to current-day Tuscany, Italy), decided to emigrate to Rome, together with his wife Tanaquil, because the aristocracy of Tarquinia did not allow him to pursue a career. In Rome they called him “Tarquinius” because he came from that city, and they elected him their king after the death of the fourth king of Rome, Ancus Marcius. Who was Tarquinius? He was raised in Tarquinia and “culturally” he was Etruscan. Was he therefore Tarquiniese, as he appeared to the Romans? Was he a Roman, considering the fact that he was king of Rome? Or was he rather, Greek, considering that his “biological” origin was Corinthian? Evidently all and none of these answers can be considered true. A coherent hypothesis would see Lucius Tarquinius Priscus as an exponent of the archaic Mediterranean élite, who used various ethnic backgrounds to express his status. (4)

Even in the Roman world, race was not a particularly important issue. The emperor Hadrian was born near Seville, in the “Hispania Baetica”, and nevertheless he became emperor. Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna (Libya) and he managed to become emperor. The Spaniard, Seneca the Younger, born in Cordoba, became a senator of Rome and preceptor to Nero.
In the ancient world – the modern era begins with the discovery of America in 1492 – other categories of identity could have much more of an impact than ethnic identity. Beyond gender (male or female), it was, above all, the social status that determined the identity of a person. (5)
As we said before, the concept of race as a biological fact is a product of the nineteenth century. One of the texts which gave a decisive impulse to the spread of racist ideas was the “Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines” (1853-55) “The Inequality of Human Races” by J.-A. de Gobineau, who supported the biological and spiritual superiority of the Aryan Germanic race. However, the most tragic expression of racism was in Nazi Germany, which sought to achieve the supremacy of the Aryan race by enslaving the Slavs and eliminating the Jews.

Bibliography:
(1) B. Isaac “The invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity” – Princeton 2004
(2) Gabriel Zuchtriegel “I Greci e le popolazioni indigene dell’Italia antica: un problema antico o moderno?” pag 65 da “Pompei e i Greci” Massimo Osanna e Carlo Rescigno – Electa 2017
(3) ibid. p. 63
(4) ibid. p. 65
(5) ibid. p. 63

 

 

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CAMPAIGN OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS OF CUMA (25 June – 20 July 2018)

CAMPAIGN OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS OF CUMA (25 June – 20 July 2018)

 

From the end of June to the first part of July 2018 I had the great pleasure of taking part in the excavation campaign conducted in Cuma by the “Luigi Vanvitelli” University of Archeology of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta, Italy).

The Archaeological Park of Cuma is divided into the so-called “lower city” (the real and original ancient city, first Greek and then Roman) and the “Acropolis”, location of the main sanctuaries, one of which is the so-called Temple of Jupiter. And this ancient Greek sanctuary has been the object of prolific archaeological excavations conducted by the aforementioned University. But why is Cuma so important?

 

IMPORTANCE OF CUMA:

From the island of Pithecusa (Ischia) the Greeks landed on the mainland to stabilize the most ancient polis (town) of the West during the first half of the 8th century. B.C. [All of this] would bring us the alphabet, philosophy, political and legal institutions. (1)

The transmission of the use of writing and the Chalcedon alphabet, used since the eighth century BC in Rome (vase of the necropolis of Osteria dell’Osa di Gabii of the first half of the eighth century BC) and in Etruria (end of the VIII century BC) to write the first, very short written texts, makes the importance of  its role between the Greek world and the indigenous Tyrrhenian world, Pithecusa and Cuma explicit in the first decades of their lives. (2)

This is why the excavations we carried out with the ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ University of Archeology in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta) are of such keen interest.

                                                                   WHAT WE HAVE DISCOVERED:

The excavations, conducted by Professor Carlo Rescigno of the “Luigi Vanvitelli” University of Archeology of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta), have identified in Apollo the tutelary deity of the Upper Temple of the Acropolis of Cumae, subverting the traditional interpretation which called it the Temple to Jupiter. All this has been possible thanks to numerous findings referring to the Apollonian cult, among which the exceptional discovery of a bronze statuette of the Sybil of Cuma, priestess of Apollo, dating back to the 6th century BC. In other words, most likely, these prolific archaeological excavations have confirmed that the temple at the top of the Cumaean acropolis, likely the most important, was dedicated to Apollo.

 

 

Bibliography:

1) Pier Giovanni Guzzo “Pompei, Magna Grecia” pag 56 – da “Pompei e I Greci” a cura di Massimo Osanna e Carlo Rescigno – Electa 2017

2) Gioacchino Francesco La Torre – “Sicilia e Magna Grecia”  – Editori Laterza 2015 pag. 33

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