| Lapis Satricanus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Material | Stone |
| Created | late 6th or early 5th century BC |
| Discovered | 1977 Lazio, Italy |
| Language | Old Latin |
The Lapis Satricanus ("Stone of Satricum"), is a yellow stone found in the ruins of the ancient town of Satricum, near Borgo Montello ( 41°31′N12°47′E / 41.517°N 12.783°E ), a village of southern Lazio, dated late 6th to early 5th centuries BC. [1] It was found in 1977 during excavations by C.M. Stibbe. [1]
It reads:
("The (?) dedicated this, as companions of Publius Valerius, to Mars")
This inscription has attracted attention for several reasons. Its language has been identified as Old Latin or a closely related dialect. [3] It is important for comparative Indo-European grammar, as it is the only Latin inscription to show the ending -osio for the genitive singular of the thematic noun declension. Latin later has -ī as the ending for this case, but by comparison with Sanskrit, Mycenaean and Homeric Greek and other languages, it becomes clear that -osio is a far earlier form. [4]
Another point of interest is the presence of the word suodales (Classical Latin sodales ). In historic times, this word referred to a member of a sodalitas, a religious fraternity or brotherhood who met for ritual meals or as a burial organization. "Since the suod- element in suodales is cognate with the English word 'swear'", writes Gary Forsythe, "the term suggests that some kind of oath was taken, binding the members of the group together in a common purpose." Forsythe uses this and that this was a dedication to Mars to suggest this indicates the existence of an armed group of sworn followers, similar to "the war bands led by Homeric heroes, the warlike aristocratic companions of the Macedonian kings during the classical period, and the war bands surrounding the Celtic and Germanic chieftains described by Caesar and Tacitus". [5] Forsythe notes this puts a new light on the account of the Battle of the Cremera, an event where the entire gens Fabia fought as a group the armed men of the rival town of Veii only to be tragically defeated. [6]
A third point of interest to historians and archaeologists of early Latium is the name preserved on the inscription. [7] The archaic name of Poplios Valesios is rendered in Classical Latin as "Publius Valerius". That has led to speculation that the inscription refers to Publius Valerius Publicola, the patrician ally of Lucius Junius Brutus who dominates the list of early consuls recorded by the Fasti Capitolini and is credited, in traditional accounts, as one of the primary founders of the Roman Republic. Positive identification is at least somewhat problematic because the town of Satricum was not part of Roman territory when Publius Valerius was consul. However, the "lapis" itself may not have been dedicated in Satricum in the first place since it was found as part of a collection of recycled material used in the construction of a temple in the town, and it could well have been imported from elsewhere.
The year 509 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Republic it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Brutus and Collatinus. The denomination 509 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The founding of Rome was a prehistoric event or process later greatly embellished by Roman historians and poets. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rome developed from the gradual union of several hilltop villages during the Final Bronze Age or early Iron Age. Prehistoric habitation of the Italian Peninsula occurred by 48,000 years ago, with the area of Rome being settled by around 1600 BC. Some evidence on the Capitoline Hill possibly dates as early as c. 1700 BC and the nearby valley that later housed the Roman Forum had a developed necropolis by at least 1000 BC. The combination of the hilltop settlements into a single polity by the later 8th century BC was probably influenced by the trend for city-state formation emerging from ancient Greece.
The gens Petronia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. This gens claimed an ancient lineage, as a Petronius Sabinus is mentioned in the time of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last of the Roman kings, but few Petronii are mentioned in the time of the Republic. They are frequently encountered under the Empire, holding numerous consulships, and eventually obtaining the Empire itself during the brief reign of Petronius Maximus in AD 455.
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe.
Marcus Valerius Corvus, also sometimes known as Corvinus, was a military commander and politician who served in the early-to-middle period of the Roman Republic. During his career he was elected consul six times, beginning at the age of twenty-three. He was appointed dictator twice and led the armies of the Republic in the First Samnite War. He occupied the curule chair twenty-one times throughout his career. According to legend, he lived to the age of one hundred.
The gens Valeria was a patrician family at ancient Rome, prominent from the very beginning of the Republic to the latest period of the Empire. Publius Valerius Poplicola was one of the consuls in 509 BC, the year that saw the overthrow of the Tarquins, and the members of his family were among the most celebrated statesmen and generals at the beginning of the Republic. Over the next ten centuries, few gentes produced as many distinguished men, and at every period the name of Valerius was constantly to be found in the lists of annual magistrates, and held in the highest honour. Several of the emperors claimed descent from the Valerii, whose name they bore as part of their official nomenclature.
The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus, the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy. The praenomen would then be formally conferred a second time when girls married, or when boys assumed the toga virilis upon reaching manhood. Although it was the oldest of the tria nomina commonly used in Roman naming conventions, by the late republic, most praenomina were so common that most people were called by their praenomina only by family or close friends. For this reason, although they continued to be used, praenomina gradually disappeared from public records during imperial times. Although both men and women received praenomina, women's praenomina were frequently ignored, and they were gradually abandoned by many Roman families, though they continued to be used in some families and in the countryside.
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin, was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic language; Latino-Faliscan is likely a separate branch from Osco-Umbrian with possible further relation to other Italic languages and to Celtic; e.g. the Italo-Celtic hypothesis.
Publius Valerius Poplicola or Publicola was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy, and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic.
Satricum, an ancient town of Latium vetus, lay on the right bank of the Astura river some 60 kilometres (37 mi) SE of Rome in a low-lying region south of the Alban Hills, at the NW border of the Pontine Marshes. It was directly accessible from Rome via a road running roughly parallel to the Via Appia.
Quintus Pedius Poplicola or Publicola was a Roman who came from a Roman senatorial family.
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.
Spurius Larcius was one of the leading men of the early Roman Republic, of which he was twice consul. However, his greatest fame was won as one of the defenders of the Sublician bridge against the army of Lars Porsena, the King of Clusium.
Titus Herminius, surnamed Aquilinus, was one of the heroes of the Roman Republic. He participated in two of the most famous conflicts that attended the birth of the Republic, and was elected consul in 506 BC. However, his greatest fame was won as one of the defenders of the Sublician bridge against the army of Lars Porsena, the King of Clusium.
Caeso Fabius Vibulanus was consul of the Roman republic in 484, 481, and 479 BC. He had earlier held the office of quaestor parricidii in 485 BC in connection with the trial and execution of Spurius Cassius Vecellinus.
Old Latium is a region of the Italian peninsula bounded to the north by the river Tiber, to the east by the central Apennine mountains, to the west by the Mediterranean Sea and to the south by Monte Circeo. It was the territory of the Latins, an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome. Later it was also settled by various Italic tribes such as the Rutulians, Volscians, Aequi, and Hernici. The region was referred to as "old" to distinguish it from the expanded region, Latium, that included the region to the south of Old Latium, between Monte Circeo and the river Garigliano – the so-called Latium adiectum. It corresponded to the central part of the modern administrative region of Lazio, Italy, and it covered an area measuring of roughly 50 Roman miles. It was calculated by Mommsen that the region's area was about 1860 square kilometres.
The Roman–Latin wars were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome and the Latins, from the earliest stages of the history of Rome until the final subjugation of the Latins to Rome in the aftermath of the Latin War.
The Roman–Volscian wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Volsci, an ancient Italic people. Volscian migration into southern Latium led to conflict with that region's old inhabitants, the Latins under leadership of Rome, the region's dominant city-state. By the late 5th century BC, the Volsci were increasingly on the defensive and by the end of the Samnite Wars had been incorporated into the Roman Republic. The ancient historians devoted considerable space to Volscian wars in their accounts of the early Roman Republic, but the historical accuracy of much of this material has been questioned by modern historians.
The overthrow of the Roman monarchy was an event in ancient Rome that took place between the 6th and 5th centuries BC where a political revolution replaced the then-existing Roman monarchy under Lucius Tarquinius Superbus with a republic. The details of the event were largely forgotten by the Romans a few centuries later; later Roman historians presented a narrative of the events, traditionally dated to c. 509 BC, but it is largely believed to be fictitious by modern scholars.
The gens Gellia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, where they settled after the Second Punic War. The first of the Gellii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Gellius Poplicola, in 72 BC, but the most famous member of this gens is probably the grammarian Aulus Gellius, who flourished during the second century AD.
