The History of Rome, Book I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 382 pages of information about The History of Rome, Book I.

The History of Rome, Book I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 382 pages of information about The History of Rome, Book I.
the separation of the stocks, or what progress it thereafter made while Italy remained left to its own resources; it is uncertain how far the Italian fullers, dyers, tanners, and potters received their impulse from Greece or Phoenicia or had their own independent development But certainly the trade of the goldsmiths, which existed in Rome from time immemorial, can only have arisen after transmarine commerce had begun and ornaments of gold had to some extent found sale among the inhabitants of the peninsula.  We find, accordingly, in the oldest sepulchral chambers of Caere and Vulci in Etruria and of Praeneste in Latium, plates of gold with winged lions stamped upon them, and similar ornaments of Babylonian manufacture.  It may be a question in reference to the particular object found, whether it has been introduced from abroad or is a native imitation; but on the whole it admits of no doubt that all the west coast of Italy in early times imported metallic wares from the East.  It will be shown still more clearly in the sequel, when we come to speak of the exercise of art, that architecture and modelling in clay and metal received a powerful stimulus in very early times through Greek influence, or, in other words, that the oldest tools and the oldest models came from Greece.  In the sepulchral chambers just mentioned, besides the gold ornaments, there were deposited vessels of bluish enamel or greenish clay, which, judging from the materials and style as well as from the hieroglyphics impressed upon them, were of Egyptian origin;(18) perfume-vases of Oriental alabaster, several of them in the form of Isis; ostrich-eggs with painted or carved sphinxes and griffins; beads of glass and amber.  These last may have come by the land-route from the north; but the other objects prove the import of perfumes and articles of ornament of all sorts from the East.  Thence came linen and purple, ivory and frankincense, as is proved by the early use of linen fillets, of the purple dress and ivory sceptre for the king, and of frankincense in sacrifice, as well as by the very ancient borrowed names for them (—­linon—­, -linum-; —­porphura—­, -purpura-; —­skeiptron—­, —­skipon—­, -scipio-; perhaps also —­elephas—­, -ebur-; —­thuos—­, -thus-).  Of similar significance is the derivation of a number of words relating to articles used in eating and drinking, particularly the names of oil,(19) of jugs (—­amphoreus—­, -amp(h)ora-, -ampulla-, —­krateir—­, -cratera-), of feasting (—­komazo—­, -comissari-), of a dainty dish (—­opsonion—­, -opsonium-) of dough (—­maza—­, -massa-), and various names of cakes (—­glukons—­, -lucuns-; —­plakons—­, -placenta-; —­turons—­, -turunda-); while conversely the Latin names for dishes (-patina-, —­patanei—­) and for lard (-arvina-, —­arbinei—­) have found admission into Sicilian Greek.  The later custom of placing in the tomb beside the dead Attic, Corcyrean, and Campanian vases proves, what these testimonies from language likewise show, the
Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The History of Rome, Book I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.