the denseness (in the positive sense) of t.j. cornell's writings and more

Either I've become older and wiser or older and denser:  this time around I have to spend much more time on our current read,  The Beginnings of Rome: Italy From the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (Circa 1,000 to 264 B.C.) by T.J. Cornell than in the past.

Tonight's assignment is Chapters 8, 9, and 10, before we adjourn this discussion and the rest of the book to 2009.  I have the sinking feeling that we won't get to Chapter 10 …

N.S. Gill has posted two items and they are listed further down.

As for myself, as from the start, I am fascinated by Cornell's approach to his subject.  We are almost constantly asked to suspend or jettison our acquired beliefs in the origins of so many aspects of the beginnings of Rome.  I do wish I had more time to research those of his references that are available online, alas …

As to tonight (almost everything is challenged):

Chapter 8, THE POWER OF ROME IN THE SIXTH CENTURY, discusses

1. The walls of Rome
2. The sacred boundary and the 'city of the four regions'
3. Territory and population
4. 'La grande Roma del Tarquinii'
5. The treaty between Rome and Carthage

N.S. Gill on the subject: Cornell Notes: Chapter 8

Chapter 9, THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC:

1. The expulsion of the kings
2. The problem of chronology
3. The 'departure of the Etruscans'
4. The new republic
5. Other Italian republics
6. The separation of political and religious functions
7. Conclusion

       Appendix. - a note on the Regia

        N.S. Gill on the subject: Cornell on the Beginnings of the Roman Republic

Chapter 10, PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS:

1. The nature of the problem
2. The patricians, the Senate, and the cavalry
3. The origin and nature of patrician privilege
4. The 'closing of the patriciate'
5. The rise of the plebs
6. The 'state within the state'
7. Plebeian grievances: debt and food shortages
8. Plebeian grievances: agrarian problems

        N.S. Gill on the subject: Chapter 10 Cornell