Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ch.06
CCSS...
I. Context
A. Tiber River, Western coast of Italian peninsula.
B. 8th C. BCE - 5th C. CE
C. Impact on 'Western World'
Ponder: Which traits (of civilized life) would you expect a society to develop under these
environmental conditions? [you will need to review from an earlier lesson the five characteristics
of civilized societies]
Internal Commerce/ Communication
External Commerce/ Communication
Political/ Military expansion (Easy movement of troops)
Agricultural Surplus => Large Population, High pop. Densities
III. Cultural Development & Diffusion1
For a long period the Romans were culturally influenced and even ruled by the Etruscans,
their neighbors across the Tiber River. Before and after that period, however, the people of
Rome were interacting and diffusing with other local peoples (e.g. Latins) as well as foreign
colonizers (e.g. Greeks). Until the late 300s BCE, Rome was largely an agricultural state with
little semblance of what itwould become.
A. Latins (After 1000 BCE): Settlements on the banks of the Tiber River and the area
around the Palatine Hill.
B. Etruscans (1200 - 800 BCE): Civilized society with lasting cultural (religious) impact on
the yet to develop Roman republican society.
C. Greeks (750 - 600 BCE): Magna Graecia, Hellenization of Latins and Etruscans via
Greek colonization of Mediterranean basin and commercial contact.
1 Modern analysis of the history of Rome, based on extensive archaeological research, indicates that the Romans were a local
group of the Latins, one of the many Indo-European tribes who entered Italy shortly after 1000 B.C. These particular tribes are
known collectively as the Italic peoples. The Romans were the inhabitants of a town that had a potentially advantageous location on
the Tiber River at the last point upstream navigable by seagoing vessels. [emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/rome.html
- Written by: Dana Mattson]
AN02b
Ch.06