Italy PDF
Preview Italy
ITALIA, ITALY And yet — in fact you need only draw a single thread at any point you choose out of the fabric of life and the run will make a pathway across the whole, and down that wider pathway each of the other threads will become successively visible, one by one. — Heimito von Doderer, DIE DÂIMONEN “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Italy HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALY ITALIA 2,000 BCE Before this point in time, Peach (Prunus persica) and apricot (Prunus armeniaca) had been mentioned in Chinese literature. It is supposed that Prunus armeniaca was transported to Greece by Alexander the Great. We have evidence that the Greeks would be eating Prunus persica by 332 BCE. Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) would note the persica fruit in Rome circa 50 BCE and by 1571 the Spanish would have introduced three types of it into Mexico. PLANTS DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Italy HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALIA ITALY 790 BCE Small villages of primitive thatched huts began to appear on the Palatine and neighboring hills overlooking the Roman countryside. The founding of Rome was still some two generations of human life in the future — and already the latest big burp of the Vesuvius volcano was almost an entire millennium into the forgotten past. During this century Pompeii and Herculaneum and nearby towns populated by Oscan-speaking descendants of the Neolithic inhabitants of Campania would be coming within the sphere of influence of Greeks who were settling across the bay. HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALY ITALIA NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Italy HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALIA ITALY 753 BCE April 21: The founding of Rome (which is to say, this is the year which would later be regarded as Year 1 in the 10- month solar calendar of Rome, known as AUC or Anno Urbis Conditae — the explanation was that in this year Romulus the son of Mars, brother of Remus, had founded the city — and April 21st was the perhaps arbitrary date that would at some point be selected, purportedly the 18th birthday of wolf-suckled eponymous founding daddy Romulus, on which this would be celebrated). 1 From this year until 510 BCE, the Laws of the Seven Kings of Rome. READ THE FULL TEXT In central Italy were the Italic peoples, embracing Latins, Umbrians and Oscans (Samnites), and Etruscans. To the south of them were Lucanians, Bruttii, Siculi, and Greeks. To the north of them were Ligurians, Gauls, and Venetians. 1. The average reign length of these seven legendary kings, 34 years, is surely ahistorical. Even the British monarchy has achieved an average reign length of but 21 years and there aren’t any historical records of a track record better than that. Historians therefore guesstimate this “kings” period of Roman history as about 625 to 500 BCE, for an average reign length of a more realistic 18 years. HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALY ITALIA 750 BCE Settlement in the Sudan of the Kushites, who would develop a sophisticated civilization, with pyramids and palaces, major ironworks at Meroe, use of elephants, and trade with cultures as far away as Rome and India — until their royalty would lose power with the death of their last king in 320CE. The men of Rome made the women of the Sabines an offer they couldn’t refuse. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Italy HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALIA ITALY 747 BCE The Sabines captured Rome. The two cultures would merge. HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALY ITALIA 735 BCE The 1st of Rome’s sewers was in existence by this date (it may have been constructed as early as 800 BCE). HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALIA ITALY 650 BCE The development of Etruscan writing. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Italy HDT WHAT? INDEX ITALY ITALIA 616 BCE The Etruscans of northern Italy invaded Rome, and for more than a century would rule as the Tarquin kings. 2 The 1st of these three Tarquin kings, replacing the previous Ancus Marcius, was Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT 2. The average reign length of these seven legendary kings, 34 years, is as we have pointed out surely ahistorical. Even the British monarchy has achieved an average reign length of but 21 years and there aren’t any historical records of a track record better than that. Historians therefore guesstimate this “kings” period of Roman history as about 625 to 500 BCE, for an average reign length of a more realistic 18 years.
The list of books you might like
