Page 54 - Tuscany & Umbria: Rustic Beauty in the Italian Heartland

Historical Overview of Italy

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long and complicated history. Its earliest recorded civilization dates back to around 2000 B.C.,
when the peninsula was settled by the Ligurians, ancestors of the Latins. Sometime near the
9th century B.C., boatloads of Greeks landed on Italian shores, and Italy became the site for
the myth of Ulysses and other famous legends. The Greeks inhabited southern Italy and Sicily
during the 8th century B.C., forming colonies of city-states called Magna Graecia. The Greek
civilization prospered in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., but waned in the 4th century B.C.
While the Greeks were busy settling the south, the Etruscans, a highly artistic populace from
Asia Minor, built strong communities in central Italy.

The Etruscans ruled until the Roman revolt around 510 B.C. By 250 B.C., the Romans had
conquered Italy and established Rome as the seat of their empire. Julius Caesar reigned
throughout the 1st century B.C., and his defeat of France made Rome the ruler of the entire
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B.C. and succeeded by his nephew Octavian, later known as Augustus, who instituted the Pax
Romana, two centuries of peace during which the Roman Empire was as mighty as it would
ever be. At the end of the 2nd century A.D., the Roman bishop was made head of the new
Christian religion—a position that granted him enormous power in the political arena.

Rome’s glory during the 200-year-long Pax Romana began to decline in the 3rd century A.D.,
when a succession of inept and corrupt emperors weakened the city. By the 4th century A.D.,
Rome had become very divided politically, and new administrative capitals were founded in
such cities as Milan and Trier, Germany. In A.D. 395, Constantine moved the Roman capital to
Constantinople (Istanbul), which left the city of Rome very vulnerable. During the 400s, it was
repeatedly attacked by barbarians and in 475 completely fell to a barbarian chief, who soon
after opened regions of Italy to Teutonic settlement.

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Pope Leo III. But over the next century, the country disintegrated into contentious kingdoms
at constant battle for control of provincial lands. Italy’s turmoil continued for an astounding
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Napoleon took over Italy.

Despite this internal dissension and strife, Italian society and culture reached its peak
during the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. The independent city-states formed a
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supported the arts. This golden age of human endeavor and artistic creation spawned some of
the greatest painters, sculptors, and inventors of Western civilization—Leonardo da Vinci, a
genius in many vocations, the epitome of the

Renaissance man (1452-1519); Michelangelo (1475-1564); Raphael (1483-1564); and the
architect Brunelleschi (1377-1466).

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