28 Harald Haarmann
of Rome (theAnnales). The heroic ancestry and Aeneas’ founding of kingship in Italy
are the themes of the first three books. Ennius was called the Roman Homer, because he
deliberately tried to follow the Greek epic tradition. Ennius’ work remained influential
for 150 years before it was surpassed by Virgil’sAeneid, on which the poet worked for 12
years until his death in 19BCE. In each of these works, Rome’s foundation is inextricably
tied to the aftermath of the Trojan War, and thus connects Rome to the heroic cycle of
stories, known as theNostoi, that dealt with the return of the heroes from Troy. However,
while most other heroes were Achaeans (Greeks) who returned to betrayal and death,
Aeneas survives the threat of Carthage to found a new dynasty in Italy. In terms of origin
myths, then, the Romans elected to adopt a story that set them apart from the Latins,
the Etruscans, and especially the Carthaginians.
Virgil’s version, in particular, would establish the story of Aeneas at the heart of Roman
imperial ideology. Julius Caesar, who declared himself a descendant of Aeneas, established
the cult of Venus Genetrix, giving a Roman face to the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, the
mother of Aeneas. His adopted son Augustus expanded this into a cult of the so-called
“Julio-Claudian gens,” which in time merged both ancestor worship and imperial cult
into a single entity. The idea of divine ancestry stemming from Aeneas was attractive
enough to last well beyond the Julian gens. Indeed, with passing of the Julio-Claudians,
at the time of Nero’s death inAD69, the following dynasty of the Flavians picked up
the same theme of Trojan ancestry. In fact, whatever the dynasty, the genealogy of each
subsequent ruling family included this Trojan component. As Tanner (1993) observes,
“Whatever form the genealogies took in the following centuries—and they were updated
to accommodate Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne, and each subsequent emperor
of Rome—one factor remained constant to the genre: the Trojan descent” (69).
What we find then, in an examination of Roman relations with the other communities
of Italy and the central Mediterranean, is that a study of language often reveals connec-
tions and relationships that are markedly at odds with the official discourse on ethnicity.
Claims made through literature, by genealogy, and in cult will reflect shifting contem-
porary political conditions, and will often be deployed to define the uniqueness claimed
by an ethnic group, but language tells another story entirely, of borrowings, of inter-
connectedness. Ethnicity, which so often asserts distinctness, equally as often betrays the
fictions on which it relies.
Trade Relations and Issues of Ethnicity
and Language
If our investigation so far has revealed some of the complexity of ethnicity and its expres-
sions, another sphere of activity will allow us to see ethnicity as a continuum negotiated by
different actors. Although it may seem curious to claim trade as an aspect of ethnic iden-
tity, in many socioeconomic settings, trade networks, which rely as much on trust as on
supply and demand, are organized by members of certain ethnic groups, and this ethnic
component may show in the ways trade is conducted. A particularly revealing example
of the nexus of trade and ethnicity is to be found in the amber trade across Europe.