Latins (Italic tribe): Difference between revisions

 

The table above shows the tiny size of Latium Vetus - only about two-thirds the size of the English county of [[Kent]]. Rome was by far the largest state, controlling some 35% of the total land area. The next four largest states ranged from just under half the size of Rome down to a fifth of the size; the remaining ten ranged from a tenth of the size down to less than a twentieth.

 

From an early stage, the external relations of the Latin city-states were dominated by their largest and most powerful member, Rome. The vast amount of archaeological evidence uncovered since the 1970s has conclusively discredited A. Alföldi's once-fashionable theory that Rome was an insignificant settlement until about 500 BC, and thus that the Republic was not established before about 450, and possibly as late as 400 BC. There is now no doubt that Rome was a unified city (as opposed to a group of separate hilltop settlements) by c. 625 BC and had become the second-largest city in Italy (after [[History of Taranto|Tarentum]], 510 hectares) by around 550 BC, when it had an area of about 285 hectares (1.1 sq mile) and an estimated population of 35,000. Rome was thus about half the size of contemporary [[Classical Athens|Athens]] (585 hectares, including [[Piraeus]]) and far larger than any other Latin city.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=204-205}}

 

The size of Rome at this time lends credence to the Roman tradition, dismissed by Alföldi, that in the late regal period (550–500 BC), traditionally the rule of the [[Tarquinius|Tarquin]] dynasty, Rome established its political hegemony over the other city-states of Old Latium. According to Livy, king [[Tarquin the Proud]] bound the Latin city-states into a military alliance under Roman leadership.<ref>Livy I.52</ref> Reportedly, Tarquin also annexed [[Suessa Pometia|Pometia]] (later [[Satricum]]) and [[Gabii]]; established control over [[Tusculum]] by a marriage alliance with its leader, Octavus Mamilius; and established Roman colonies at Signia and [[Circeii]]. He was engaged in besieging Ardea when the revolt against his monarchy broke out.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=209}} Rome's political control over Latium Vetus is apparently confirmed by the text of the first recorded Romano-Carthaginian treaty, dated by the ancient Greek historian [[Polybius]] to 507 BC, a date accepted by Cornell (although some scholars argue a much later date). The treaty describes the Latin cities of [[Lavinium]] and Ardea, among others, as "Roman subjects". Although the text acknowledged that not all the Latin cities were subjects of Rome, it clearly placed them under Rome's hegemony, as it provided that if Carthage captured any Latin city, it was obliged to hand it over to Rome's control. Rome's sphere of influence is implied as extending as far as [[Terracina]], 100&nbsp;km to the south.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=210}}