THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME The limestone ridges that border Latium contain numerous remains of stone age settlements, and one has even been found on Monte Mario within 3m. of the Vatican in the old volcanic stra tum that borders the right bank of the Tiber. On the left bank, however, within the area that was in prehistoric times subject to rains of volcanic ash from the Alban craters there are very few traces of human habitation before the iron age.' Perhaps the activity of the volcanoes kept migrants from settling there dur ing the bronze age. The oldest settlements so far discovered within this peculiar region seem to be those of the Alban hills, between Grotta Ferrata and Albano. Here several groups of cremating people belonging apparently to the so-called Villanove (q.v.) branch of the Indo-Europeans came down from Tuscany and set tled, about the end of the 2nd millennium B.c. In the early part of the 1st millennium they spread here and, there over the Latin plain as far at least as Antium on the sea and the Palatine hill on the Tiber. In the primitive cemetery of the Forum 4o graves have so far been excavated. The deepest and earliest were cremation bur ials containing the same kind of pottery and personal ornaments as those of the Alban hills. Later, possibly in the 8th century, the rite of inhumation began to take the place of cremation here as on the Alban hills, at Antium, at Veii and at Falerii north of the Tiber. It is generally assumed that Sabine people from the cen tral mountains were at this time pressing into Latium in large enough groups to become in several towns the dominating ele ment. Whether further excavations will prove that this rite replaced cremation in all the primitive burial places at Rome is very doubtful. The fact that cremation again became the ortho dox rite during the Roman republic would incline us to assume that cremation survived in some cemeteries that have not yet been discovered.
the Palatine, the Capitoline, the Esquiline and the Quirinal hills had compact settlements of "Villanovan" and Sabine farmers and shepherds. These two groups were closely related in culture, lan guage and religion. Philology proves that the bearers of the Latin language (probably the cremating group) and those who spoke the Sabellic dialects had not been separated very many cen turies, and that they had been one people before entering Italy over the Alps. Several of their deities—Jupiter, Mars, Juno,
Minerva and others—were also a common inheritance, and were worshipped by both peoples with rites that knew nothing of anthropomorphism. That it was a religion peculiarly adapted to an agricultural people we learn from the oldest calendar of festi vals, which was drawn up before the Etruscans came to Rome. (W. Warde-Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People [1911], 92.) Their political and social organizations were also of the same kind. The property-owning males constituted the "town-meeting" and the army. They elected the annual leaders (usually two "praetors" or "consuls") who summoned and con ducted the meetings, held the elections and directed the army. The consuls must consult a smaller group of elders (senators), heads of important families, in all matters of public interest. Without the approval of the elders no proposal was put before the commons. For purposes of transacting business the com mons of a town were usually divided into ten wards called curiae. That Rome had 3o instead of ten seems therefore to indicate that Rome was a union of three settlements already organized into regular polities before the city government was formed. In taking possession of the country, these people had settled in village groups, usually upon some hill which could be defended, and which gave access to a good spring of water or a stream. Most of the land near each village was apparently divided into private holdings, though it also seems probable that some land was left undivided for community grazing. Sacred land, used for the support of the cult, was also set apart at a very early period. These villages were independent and autonomous within the tribe. A tribal organization, however, existed, which supported a tribal cult on the Alban mount. This tribal organization was kept alive by an annual religious festival, and it had a presiding officer whose duty it was in time of danger to summon the forces of the different communities to common action. Since both the Villanovan and the Sabine communities shared in these democratic customs they coalesced readily in such a large tribal organization.