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-The Romans reckoned each year as the . . .th from the founding of the city.
- In accordance with their custom of explaining the origin of the foreign
peoples they encountered by connecting them with the wanderings of one of their own
mythical heroes, such as Jason and the Argonauts, Heracles, or Odysseus, Greek
writers from the 5th century BC onward invented at least 25 different myths to
account for Rome's foundation.
- The Romans welcomed all deities they could appropriate, the more the
merrier, especially during times of war. The main deities were Jupiter, Juno and
Minerva and a large Etruscan style temple was built on the Capitoline Hill in their honor.
The main deities were borrowed from the Etruscans, who borrowed from the
Greeks, who borrowed from the Phoenicians.
- During the first millennium BC while Rome was just a city-state on the Tiber River, the Celts (pronounced Kelts) inhabited many territories from central Europe
to the Iberian Peninsula stretching over 1600 miles.
- The celts and Romans were very different. The Romans were orderly and
disciplined while the Celts were barbarious warriors and for thje most part,
headhunters. These two cultures would clash and become fierce enemies over many
centuries.
- The Celts were loyal to their own tribe and never to any form of government
or state.
- By the seventh century BC the various villages around Latium joined in a religious festival called "Septimontium" which referred to the
seven mountains or hills.
- By 600 BC the villages had grown into a large flourishing city with a
population of maybe 60,000 people.
- Workers and farmers did their trade at the great "forum" which was an
established center market.
- The power neighbors known as the Etruscans were mainly farmers and mining of
metal ores. They traded with Greece, Carthage and other Phoenecians
- By the end of the republic, it was generally accepted that Rome had been
founded in 753 BC and that the republic had begun in 509 BC.
The History of Rome - Part One 743 - 136 B.C. © Bible History Online (http://www.bible-history.com) |