The Archaic Community of the Romans (Yale Classical Studies)

341 Pages·1970·5.56 MB·English

by  Robert E. A. Palmer

THE ARCHAIC COMMUNITY
OF THE ROMANS

THE ARCHAIC COMMUNITY
OF THE ROMANS
BY
ROBERT E.A. PALMER
Department of Classical Studies
University of Pennsylvania
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1970
Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London N.W.i
American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 77-92252
I.S.B.N. : o 521 07702 8
Printed in Great Britain
by Alden & Mowbray Ltd at the Alden Press, Oxford
PARENTIBVS OPTIMIS
ROBERT E. A. PALMER
JOSEPHINE SCHREIBER PALMER

CONTENTS
Preface page ix
List of abbreviations xi
1 THE PROBLEM I
2 THREE, THIRTY AND THREE HUNDRED 5
3 VARRO's SQUARED COLONY 26
4 OTHER SYSTEMS 35
The Israelite System 35
Hellenic Systems 37
The Etruscan Systems 38
The Iguvine System 40
German Systems 57
Non-Roman Curias 59
Conclusion 65
5 WHAT WAS A CURIA? 67
Definitions of a Curia 67
Curias' Proper Names 75
6 GURIAL ORIGINS AND RELIGION 8o
Old and New Curias 82
The Twenty-Seven Argei 84
Feasts and Flamens 97
The Seven Hills 122
'Kinds of Romans' 132
Curial Lands 141
The Thirty Curias and Three Tribes 152
Quirites 156
Quirinus 160
Conclusion 172
CONTENTS
7 ROMAN CURIAS AND THE LATIN FESTIVAL 176
8 COMMUNION AND COMMUNITY l8o
Evocation 180
The Communion of Earth 181
The Curiate Law 184
9 THE CURIATE CONSTITUTION l8g
The Curiate Civil System 191
'Patres, Patricii, Plebs' 197
Procedure in the Curiate Assembly 202
The Powers of the Curiate Assembly 213
Some Republican Interregna 226
The Consular Tribunate 232
The Fathers and the Plebs 243
The New Senate 253
The Deterioration of Patrician Domination 269
Conclusion 276
IO A SUMMARY OF THE CURIATE CONSTITUTION 282
APPENDICES
I REVISED FASTI OF YEARS WITH EPONYMOUS
TRIBUNES-CONSUL 288
II IMPERIAL FAMILIES WITHOUT RECORD
BETWEEN 444 AND 366 B.C. 289
III THE PATRICIATE 29O
A. Imperial Families Between 444 and 367 B.c. 297
B. Families not Imperial before 444 B.c. 299
c. Officeholding from 444 to 366 B.C. According to
Status 299
D. Families elected in the Centuriate Assembly 300
E. Participation in Magistracies according to Status 300
F. List of known Interrexes from 509 to 52 B.C. 300
Bibliography 303
MAPS
1 Old Latium 307
2 Old Rome 308
3 Center of Old Rome 309
Index 311
PREFACE
During the academic year 1963-4 I gave a graduate course on the
archaic history of Rome while I continued research into the history
of Roman vici. Since the latter organization supplied a means of
integrating non-Romans into the life of the City, I asked myself how
the Romans had absorbed the outsider before the development of its
urban vici. I suspected that the word vicus implied the 'pre-urban'
communities which later came to be known as Rome. However,
the urban vici have yielded no certain evidence of an organization
that might have served as a vehicle for the formation of historical
Rome. Nevertheless before the year was passed I believed that the
answer to my question lay in the nature of the obscure Roman
curias and their assembly. With a grant from the University of
Pennsylvania I spent a summer of research in Rome and began
writing what I thought would be an article or two on the curias
which could serve to clarify my own ideas on integration in early
Rome and to break a path for my thesis on the nature and origin
of urban vici. Four years later the work in hand was a finished
book.
In the help of my friends I have been singularly fortunate. Some
parts of the book have been read by T. R. S. Broughton, H. M.
Hoenigswald, A. D. Momigliano, J. H. Oliver and J. W. Poultney.
All of them made contributions to its improvement. In personal con
versation I have learned from L. W. Daly, R. M. Ogilvie, M.
Ostwald and L. R. Taylor. None who shared his knowledge with me
is responsible for the conclusions reached in the following essay.
In attempting to elucidate the earliest history of Rome I have not
mastered all that has been written before me. No doubt I have even
overlooked acknowledgement to my predecessors on some points. On
the other hand, I hope that I have omitted no piece of ancient evi
dence having importance for my work. I have tried to take into
consideration contemporary essays on the history and structure of
early Rome. In such work as ours theory easily supplants the missing
facts. I have not wished to gainsay or argue with those who are or
have recently been engaged in this common pursuit. Thus I have not
put before the reader every recent theory on early Rome only to
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