Rorarii and Accensi

[SigniferOne]

Perhaps we can start with this?

Er. I'm not sure how this discussion got derailed; or who derailed it (I won't point fingers). All I've said is that there is a germ of truth in Livy's early history, corroborated by archeology insofar as that's possible. I've pointed out the obvious fact that there isn't a Roman historical book from the 4th century BC; the Romans could've been armed like hoplites and Etruscans could've looked like Gauls as far as Livy was concerned! Yet the descriptions he provides consistently make references that indicate a shift in the Roman army from phalanx to the maniple -- without a single Roman historical book to corroborate his hypothesis. Not once are Samnites are described as bare-chested and equipped with long unpointed swords; there isn't a single reference to Etruscan single combat. Livy consistently records Etruscan, Gallic, Samnite actions which don't encounter any contradiction from what the archeological evidence says of those people.

How he knew these things, I don't know; but that the germ of truth is there is definitely undeniable. That's all I'm going to say about that.

PS. His means of knowing extend far beyond a written Latin historical work, and include the fasti, pontifical calendar, greek/etruscan histories, and first-hand survivals and monuments from that period. Roman recorded history begins with Naevius, but what a historian had at his fingertips extends far earlier than that. Perplexing as it may be, archeologists have found both the primordial palace on the Palatine and the Lupercal -- that's Romulus' time. How he knew that I really have no idea. There was no reason he should have singled out the Palatine as Romulus' residence in preference to the Aventine, the Capitoline, or the Quirinal hills. Yet he chose the Palatine, and it was exactly on the Palatine that the 8th century palace was found. How he knew things things I have no idea. I think that we've barely even scratched the surface of the transmission of knowledge in Italy at that time.