[FONT=Algerian, fantasy]The Eternal flame dies out[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]Chapter I: The Sons of Tarchon and Aeneas[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]Part I: The Rasna[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]Part I: The Rasna[/FONT]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] The origins of the Rasna have usually raised more questions than answers. According to Rasna mythology, their city states (beginning first with Tarchnal[1])were founded by the legendary Tarchon in the late 3[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]rd[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] century before the first Olympiad[2] (1,000 BCE). The Hellenic historian Herodotos claims they arrived from Lydia shortly after the Trojan War. In this version, when the Lydian Basileos[3] Atys faced a famine, he sent off half his people under his son Tyrrhenus to emigrate to a new land. Both of these foundation myths are contradicted by archaeology however, and the most likely origin for the Rasna is that they developed from the indigenous Villanovan culture in the 1[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]st[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] century AE. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] The Rasna were well positioned in a region rich both in its metals and in fertile land. The amalgamation of their cities was in large part due to the high demand of their metals with Hellenic and Phoenician merchants based at trading centers such as Cumae, Pithecusae, Alalia, and Phoenician outposts on Sardinia. This also facilitated a cultural exchange where the Rasna adapted many eastern elements into their lives and art, creating a unique easternized culture in Italy that nevertheless preserved some native elements. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] The first Rasna city to attain dominance in Tyrrhenia was Tarchnal in the 1[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]st[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] century AE (776-676BCE) through their control of the metal rich Tolfa Mt. and access to good ports. By the 2[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif]nd[/FONT][FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] century AE however, the metal resources of Mount Tolfa seems to have passed into the hands of Cisra[5] which rapidly became the biggest trading center in Tyrrhenia, and one of the most prosperous in the Mediterranean. Cisra possessed access to even better natural harbors than Tarchnal, and became heavily involved in naval affairs. In 241 (535BCE), after feeling their trade threatened by Phokaean Hellenes colonists on Alalia in Corsica and at Massalia, the Cisratans allied with the Carthaginians and encountered the Phokaeans in a naval battle off the coast of Corsica. The result, a tactical loss for the Carthaginian-Cisratan alliance, nevertheless shifted the balance of power in favor of Cisra and Carthage and was a turning point. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] During that century and afterward however, the greatest and wealthiest center of Tyrrhenia lay at Veii in the south. Situated alongside the Valchetta River[6], (a tributary of the Tiber), Veii had no access to metals, but rather relied on agriculture and its convenient location for trade (being the southernmost Etruscan town and thus closer to the southern Hellenic trading centers on the peninsula), along with the productive salt beds at the mouth of the Tiber, to obtain its wealth. The city was in an excellent defensive position being perched on a large plateau that was farmed extensively, consisting of two ridges and an acropolis. It was surrounded on three of four sides by large cliffs reaching out to the Valchetta, making it nearly impregnable. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif] The same location that provided the benefits that lead to Veii’s immense wealth and power also put them in direct conflict with the fearsome Latin state of Rome, nearly 12 miles away on the other bank of the Tiber. Veii also possessed an outpost even closer to Rome, only 5 miles away the Latin city, as well as the important city of Fidenae, which helped keep their land route through Latium into Campania open. Although relations with Veii were cordial for most of Rome’s early history, this changed after the overthrow of the monarchy at around 276 AE (500BCE). With strongly conflicting interests and Rome feeling provoked by Veii’s occupation of land across the Tiber such as Fidenae, a clash between the two was inevitable. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][1] Known to us as Tarquinii, modern day Tarquinia. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][2] I will be using the Olympiad dating system (sometimes referring to it as AE ‘Aion Ellas’ or in Latin “Anno Graecorum”-Year of the Greeks). This makes the first Olympiad in 776 BCE, as year 1. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][3] King [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][4] I cannot figure out what the Rasna would have called Etruria, so I am for the moment at least going to use the Greek name for Etruria. [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][5]Caere-the modern city of Cerveteri[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, serif][6] Modern day Cremera[/FONT]
Last edited: