Real Roman History

Episode 3: The Etruscan Kings


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SOURCE NOTESPrimary Sources
  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Books 1.34–60 — The principal narrative source for the Etruscan kings, written in the Augustan period.
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Books 3–4 — A parallel account, often more detailed than Livy, with a Greek rhetorical perspective.
  • Tabula Claudiana (ILS 212) — The bronze tablet from Lyon preserving Claudius's speech identifying Servius Tullius with Mastarna.
  • Cicero, De Re Publica, Book 2 — A philosophical dialogue that includes a substantial account of the kings and the transition to Republic.
Secondary Sources
  • T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (Routledge, 1995) — The essential scholarly treatment of the regal period and early Republic. Cornell's careful handling of the sources is the standard for the field.
  • Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (University of California Press, 2005) — A more skeptical assessment, particularly useful on the historiographical problems.
  • Larissa Bonfante, ed., Etruscan Life and Afterlife (Wayne State University Press, 1986) — The standard introduction to Etruscan culture and its relationship to Rome.
  • F. Coarelli, Rome and Environs (University of California Press, 2007) — Indispensable for the physical remains, including the François Tomb frescoes and the Capitoline substructure.
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Real Roman HistoryBy Hugo Prudentius