Jan 23

Question 1

Describe the Casa Romuli

Answer 1

• Located on the SW corner of the Palatine hill
  
  • It is supposed to be the hut of the legendary founder of Rome, Romulus
• The hut was regularly maintained by officials and repaired after damage.
• Organic material found in the site has been dated to the early Iron Age (900-700 BC)

Question 2

How did Numa affect Religion

Answer 2

• Roman religion has no belief system
  
  • There was no holly book
  • Is a religion of doing
• Numa’s religion pillars were two:
  
  • Priesthoods - oversee major rituals
    
    • Male
    • Except vestals
  • Calendar - 10 months (12 after Numa).
    
    • Provided a framework for festivals
    • Added January and February to align it with the lunar year

Question 3

What did Numa do with priests

Answer 3

• Numa is attributed to the creation of most Roman priesthoods
  
  • The Vestals (as Roman state cult/college)
  • The Salii
  • The Feitales
• As the Pontifex Maximus, he supervised the priests
  
  • Overseeing both public and private sacrifices to ensure they were conducted in accordance with tradition and the gods themselves

Question 4

Describe the Temple of Janus

Answer 4

• Numa is also credited with the creation of the temple of Janus
  
  • Small temple in the forum, no remains survive
  • Numismatic evidence depicts it as a rectangular building with two arched doors opposite one another
• [Janus] also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war; for it always stands open in time of war but is closed when peace has come. The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about. - Plutarch’s lives, vol 1

Question 5

Describe the temple of Vesta

Answer 5

• Located in the Roman Forum near the Regia
• was believed by the Romans that Numa Pompilius built this temple along with the original Regia and the first House of the Vestal Virgins
• Its most recognizable feature is its circular plan (tholos). The original. 7th C BC shape is unknown
  
  • Primitive round hut?
• There was no statue of Vesta within the shrine; It contained only the fire and the Palladium

Question 6

Describe the house of the vestal virgins

Answer 6

• Was the residence of Vestal Virgins
• Located behind the Temple of Vesta at the eastern edge of the Roman Forum
• Was destroyed by the Fire of Rome in 64 AD
  
  • Was rebuilt several times during the Empire
• Eventually was a three story palace
  
  • 50 rooms
  • built around an elegant elongated atrium or court with a double pool

Question 7

What did Tullus Hostilius do with the Curia

Answer 7

• Curia:
  
  • Originally a temple where the tribes laid down their arms (Romulus)
  • During the Early monarchy, the space was used by senators acting as council to the king
  • Tullus Hostilius (673-642 BC) replaced the original structure (destroyed on a fire).
    
    • Becomes the senate house
    • Seven pavements, earliest 7th C BC

Question 8

What was the Comitium

Answer 8

The area in front of the senate house was called comitium
- Assembly place where judicial actions were also heard

Question 9

What did Ancus Marcius do

Answer 9

• He is associated with pushing Roman power down the Tiber and toward the sea
  
  • Crucial because coastal access meant trade, salt, and strategic growth

Question 10

What is Ostia

Answer 10

• According to Roman tradition, king Ancus Marcius (7th C BC) first established a city near the mouth of the Tiber
  
  • Facilitated the mining of salt beds
• The 1st documented Roman settlement at the mouth of the Tiber dates from the 4th C BC
  
  • It was a rectangular, military fortress (castrum)
  • Guarded the mouth of the river against the “sea raiders”
  • Rectangular enclosed area of 194x125.7m
  • Oldest pottery from the castrum has been dated to the period 380-340 BC

Question 11

Describe the Servian Constitution

Answer 11

• Servius expanded the pomerium and extended voting rights to certain groups
• First census:
  
  • Assembled by tribe (Campus Martius)
  • Register their social rank, property, and income
  • Individual’s tax obligations
    
    • Arms for military service
    • Assignment to a particular voting unit
• Property-based class system and military reform. Defined fiscal and military obligations for Roman citizens.
  
  • Servius “changes” the Comitia Curiata for the Comitia Centuriata

Question 12

describe the Serbian wall

Answer 12

• Roman memory strongly associated early large-scale fortifications 9blue) to King Servius Tullius
  
  • Tullius perhaps built a ring of earthen fortifications
• However, the defensive barrier constructed around the city of Rome cannot be dated prior to early 4th C BC
  
  • The sack of Rome 390 BC
  • Livy statement saying that in 378 BC a tax was collected for building masonry defences

Question 13

What happened with Etruscan kings

Answer 13

“In sum, before the late kings (Etruscans), Rome’s urban topography was defined by hills, dotted with domestic architecture and a cluster of small public buildings overlooking a central, annually flooded basin.” - Hopkins 2007

Around 650-600 BC, the old tradition of building in timber, reed and mud daub, with thatched roofs, were replaced by stone and fired clay technologies.

• 7th C BC - Big development of the Etruscan culture
• Rome becomes a contact point between the Magma Greece and Etruria