Note 703 — Chapter XI · THE STATE (B) STATE AND HISTORY

Ed. Meyer, Gesch. d. Alt. V § 809. If Latin became a literary language, only very late—after Alexander—the only deduction to be made from the fact is that under the Tarquins Greek and Etruscan must have been in general use—which, after all, goes without saying for a city that was of a size and position to have relations with Carthage; that waged war in alliance with Cyme and made use of the Treasury of Massalia at Delphi; whose standard weights and measures were Dorian; whose mode of warfare was Sicilian; and whose walls contained a large foreign colony. Livy (IX, 36), following older statements, observes that about 300 the Roman boy was still brought upon Etruscan culture, as he was later on Greek. The ancient form “Ulixes” for Odysseus shows that the Homeric sagas were not only known, but popularly known here (cf. p. 284). The provisions of the Twelve Tables (c. 450) agree with the more or less contemporary law of Gortyn in Crete (cf. p. 63), not merely as to substance, but even stylistically—so exactly that the Roman patricians who drew them up must have been entirely at home with juristic Greek.