Birth of Rome State of Italy 1000 750 B. C.

Cue (NZERS), 1 June 1944, Page 2

Birth of Rome State of Italy 1000 750 B. C.

The origins of Rome are lost in a haze -of tradition. The ’’Canonical** date for the foundations of the city7s3 B - c °“ * s based on the opinion of . Polybius and Cato and was . curiously enough accepted by Virgil who championed the story of the Trojan foundation by Aeneas who by that time would have been 350 years old. The geography of the area and the archaeological evidence are, however, clear and lend considerable support to the approximate date proposed by the ancients. "About 1000 b.c.; there was a predominantly ’’ltalic” population in the area of modern Rome. This people was organised on a family and clan basis, lived in fortified villages and spoke dialects of a common tongue, that of : the Rome area, however, being Latin, which differed from the Northern or : Umbrian dialects and the

Southern or Oscan tongues which resembled each other?- ■