Routledge Revivals
A History of Earliest Italy
In A History of Earliest Italy, first published in 1984, Professor Pallottino illumines the wide variety of peoples, languages, and traditions of culture and trade that constituted the pre-Roman Italic world.
Since the written sources are fragmentary, archaeology provides the central reservoir for evidence of the societies and institutions of the varied peoples of early Italy. This incisive and immensely readable account unfolds from the Bronze Age to the unification of the Italian peninsula and Sicily by Rome following the flourishing Archaic period. It examines the relationships among the peoples of the peninsula and the influence of Mycenae and Greece in trade and colonisation.
In telling the story of the early stages of the eternal dialogue between national vocation and local diversity in Italy, Professor Pallottino demonstrates that it is no less deserving of our attention than its contemporary Greek and later imperial Roman counterparts.
A History of Earliest Italy
Massimo Pallottino
First published in 1984
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
This edition first published in 2014 by Routledge
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1984 Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
The right of Massimo Pallottino to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.
A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 89035606
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-02020-7 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-77855-6 (ebk)
A HISTORY OF EARLIEST ITALY
MASSIMO PALLOTTINO
Translated by Martin Ryle and Kate Soper
First published in English in the UK by
Routledge 1991
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
Originally published in Italian as Storia della Prima Italia
1984, Rusconi Libri S.p.A. via Livraghi 1/b, 20126 Milano;
English translation 1991 Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Typeset by Speedset, Ellesmere Port
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Biddles Ltd, Guildford
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pallottino, Massimo
The history of earliest Italy.
1. Italian civilisation to A.D. 500
I. Title II. Storia della prima italia. English
937.01
ISBN 0 415 05469 9
Massimo Pallottino was born in Rome in 1909. He received his degree from the University of Rome and began his scientific career as an archaeological officer attached to the Department of Antiquities and Fine Arts. In 1940 he was appointed Professor of archaeology and history of Greek and Roman art at Cagliari University, and in 1945 became Professor of Etruscology and Italian antiquities at Rome University.
Though his interests span the entire field of classical archaeology, and even include some aspects of oriental antiquity, Pallottinos speciality has always been the study of the Etruscan world and more generally the history of Italy prior to its romanisation. He has developed Etruscology into a modern integrated discipline including within its compass such diverse aspects as archaeology, art, history and linguistics. He has directed numerous excavations, in particular at Veio and in the Etruscan sanctuary at Pyrgi (Santa Severa), where he discovered the famous gold plaques with bilingual Etruscan and Phoenician inscriptions.
He has established an international reputation as a scholar and is the author of upwards of a hundred publications, of which the following in particular deserve mention: Elementi di lingua etrusca 1936; Tarquinia, 1937; Etruscologia, which appeared in a lengthy series of editions and translations 19421984; LArco degli Argentari, 1946; Etruscan Painting, 1952; Testimonia linguae Etruscae, 1954 and 1968; Che cos larcheologia?, in three editions from 1964 to 1980; La civilt artistica etrusco-italica, 1970; La langue trusque, 1978; Saggi di antichit, 1979; Genti e culture dellItalia preromana, 1981.
Massimo Pallottino continues to dedicate a considerable part of his activities to the promotion and organisation of studies, to international scientific cooperation, and to the care and preservation of the Italian and European archaeological heritage. A Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei of the German Archaeological Institute, the Archaeological Institute of America and a member of the Institut de France, he has been asked to participate in the work of numerous other Italian and foreign scientific institutes. He has received honorary degrees from the universities of Montpellier, Louvain and Strasbourg. In 1982 he was awarded the Balzan Prize, and in 1984 the Erasmus Prize.
The present work had its origins in the Thomas Spencer Jerome lectures given at Rome and Ann Arbor (Michigan) in 1968. Their publication was delayed, in part through personal circumstances but above all because the years that immediately followed saw a sudden upsurge in archaeological discoveries and critical discussion bearing more or less directly on their subject matter. A considerable updating of the text thus became indispensable. However, this new material did not alter the basic argument, whose outline and development remain faithful to the original plan. The intervening years have, of course, afforded numerous occasions for the author to rehearse the argument and its perspectives: these have included the eighth Convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia
