Dr Simon Elliott

And from the point that's written, that's what the Romans go with.

Oh, interesting.

That's what the Romans go with.

And it's important for the Romans, right?

Yeah.

This is a very traditional society, a very traditional society, and so they love grounding themselves in the narrative of their history, and this is what they go with.

I'm going to talk to you about the great Roman bake-off.

So it's all about layer cake.

So I'm going to give you a geographical slice through the Italian peninsula.

And we're looking at about 500 BC.

So at the very top, Cisalpine Gaul, north of the Po Valley, you've got the Gauls living, Cisalpine Gaul.

Funnily enough, Transalpine Gaul is the other side of the Alps.

That's where the other Gauls live, but the Roman relevant Gauls are in Cisalpine Gaul.

Below that, you have Etruria, so the Etruscans, who are heavily influenced by Greek culture because they're a mercantile maritime nation.

Then you have Latium, with a variety of different towns and cities,

Rome is only one of them.

So it's astonishing that Rome comes to dominate Latium, let alone everything else.

Then below that, you've got Magna Graecia, sort of where you have the Greek settlements through the Bay of Salerno, through towards Sicily.

But then...

To confuse things, through the spine of Italy, through the Apennine Mountains, you have the Oskan-speaking peoples, which is a very old language, actually, and it's from the Oskans that later you get the likes of the Lucanians, who were the founders of places like Paestum, and also you get the Samnites, who are one of the later Roman major enemies in the Italian peninsula.