Ethnicity and Language in the Ancient Mediterranean 27symbol of the magistrate’s authority, the rod bundle (fasces). The rods symbolized light
punishment, flogging, while the ax was the symbol for execution. It is noteworthy that
the fasces are closely associated with another symbol of state organization, with the office
of the priestesses of the goddess Vesta, the patron divinity of the Roman state.
Etruscan–Roman Rivalry in the Light
of the Foundation Myth
Roman culture was permeated by Etruscan influence, yet in the charged area of mythic
origins the Romans looked to the heroic world of the Greeks, and claimed that they were
the descendants of Aeneas, the last Trojan to leave the burning city. According to various
accounts, Aeneas was of divine descent, being the offspring of the goddess Aphrodite and
the mortal Anchises. After the fall of his hometown Troy, Aeneas was entrusted with a
divine mission, as Virgil presents it, to lay the foundations for civilization and statehood
in Italy. The story of Dido emphasized the personal cost to Aeneas of this mandate,
but when set against the local stories of Romulus and Remus, the foundation story cen-
tered on Aeneas demonstrates that, for the Romans, who were increasingly engaged in
a Mediterranean world, heroic descent played a more important role than aboriginality
(Gruen 1992: 28–9). Among the Romans and other Italic tribes, aboriginality assumed
a quality that differed markedly from the role it played for the Athenians’ identity (see
Capuis 1993: 26 ff., on the situation of the Veneti). For the Romans, aboriginality was
equated with a barbarian way of life, not unlike the associations of indigeneity with prim-
itiveness among European colonialists in the age of imperialism. In order to raise the
prestige of their descent, the Romans rejected the idea of aboriginality for themselves
but claimed it for the Etruscans, who were considered less valorous. Out of the context
of sociocultural rivalry with the Etruscans emerged the political ideology of the Roman
myth of origin (Bonfante and Bonfante 1983: 41).
According to Roman myth and literary rhetoric, the legitimation of the Roman state lay
in the fact that Aeneas had followed his destiny and settled down in Latium. Originally,
Latium was under Etruscan supremacy into the fifth centuryBCE. Lavinium (Laurentum)
was the main religious center in Latium. The main mythical symbol of heroic origin, a
landmark, for the Etruscans was a tumulus grave that, according to popular belief going
back to the sixth centuryBCE, had been considered to be Aeneas’ grave. After the Romans
established their power in Latium, they adopted the Trojan myth for themselves, and
Lavinium’s fame continued in Roman disguise. This myth of origin assumed political
significance for the Romans when they were at war with Carthage, and perhaps as early
as their domination of the Latin League in the fourth centuryBC.
The first literary version of the Aeneas myth was created by Gnaeus Naevius toward the
end of the Second Punic War (218–201BCE). In his epic poem, theBellum poenicum,
Naevius told the story of the recent war with Carthage, but appears to have preceded his
description of the war with an account of Aeneas’ travels to North Africa and eventually
to Italy. In the second centuryBCE, Quintus Ennius composed his epic about the history