Sabine Chariot Rewrites History

(ANSA) - Rome, May 12 - An ancient king's war chariot found in a tomb near Rome has helped rewrite the history of the Romans and their Sabine rivals .

"It shows that the city of Ereteum remained independent long after the Sixth Century BC." "In other Sabine cities like Custumerium, conquered by the Romans, the custom of putting regal objects in king's tombs had died out by that time".

"We can say that Eretum kept its independence until the Fourth Century BC." Santoro said her team had recovered all the metal parts of the bronze-and-iron decorated chariot and had used echo-soundings to trace the imprints of the long-decayed wooden parts.

The chariot, which accompanied the king on his last journey, was placed at the entrance to the tomb, the largest chamber tomb ever found in Italy.

Santoro's team have also found an Etruscan-style terracotta throne - "a metre high, worthy of the king's stature" - and four large bronze cauldrons with bull-hoof supports.

Less than a dozen of this type of cauldron had been discovered before, Santoro said.

The tomb was found in the main room in the three-room complex, next to a wall recess where a wooden coffin containing the king's ashes would have been placed.

The horses that had drawn the chariot would have been sacrificed at the entrance to this room, Santoro said.

Before the discovery of the Sixth-Century BC tomb, two years ago the Eretum dig uncovered a rare religious symbol used by Sabine high priests.

Some scholars think the holy object, called a lituo, was also used by kings of the Sabine tribe, one of Rome's earliest rivals and one which provided the city with its second king, Numa Pompilio.

Only two other examples of the lituo had been found - although it is seen quite often on funerary vases.

The sacred rod, a sort of curved stick, was believed to be a tool which helped priests trace out an area of the sky for watching birds whose passage would determine important decisions such as where to found a city.

Archaeological evidence of the Sabines has until now been extremely scarce and much of the stories about them have been considered legends - such as the famous Rape of the Sabines, in which Rome's first king Romulus sent an expedition to carry off Sabine women to provide wives for his desperately woman-short settlement on the Tiber.

The discovery of the object, some Italian experts believe, provided evidence of how Sabine religious usages shaped the formation of Roman institutions.

It is plausible to suppose that for some time the kings of Rome, many of them from another semi-mysterious tribe called the Etruscans, used the same religious rites as the Sabines and were in fact priest-kings, archaeologists think.

ADAM
Tell ya 'bout them sobbin' women
Who lived in the Roman days.
It seems that they all went swimmin'
While their men was off to graze.
Well, a Roman troop was ridin' by
And saw them in their "me oh my",
So they took 'em all back home to dry.
Least that's what Plutarch says.
Oh yes!
Them a woman was sobbin', sobbin', sobbin'
Fit to be tied.
Ev'ry muscle was throbbin', throbbin'
From that riotous ride.
Oh they cried and kissed and kissed and cried
All over that Roman countryside
So don't forget that when you're takin' a bride.
Sobbin' fit to be tied
From that riotous ride!
They never did return their plunder
The victor gets all the loot.
They carried them home, by thunder,
To rotundas small but cute.
And you've never seens so,
They tell me, such downright domesticity.
With a Roman baby on each knee
Named "Claudius" and "Brute"

SIX BROTHERS
Oh yes!
Them a women was sobbin', sobbin', passin' them nights.

ADAM
While the Romans was goin' out hobbin', nobbin'
Startin' up fights.
They kept occupied by sewin' lots of little old togas
For them tots and sayin' "someday women folk'll have rights."

GIDEON
Passin' all o' them nights.

ADAM
Just sewin'!
While the Romans had fights.

CALEB
"Hey listen to this"
Now when their men folk went to fetch 'em
Them women would not be fetched.
It seems them Romans ketch 'em
That their lady friends stay ketched.

ADAM
Now let this be because it's true,
A lesson to the likes of you,
Treat 'em rough like them there Romans do
Or else they'll think you're tetched.

SIX BROTHERS
Oh yes!
Them a women was sobbin', sobbin',
Sobbin' buckets of tears
On account o' old dobbin',
Dobbin' really rattled their ears.
Oh they acted angry and annoyed

GIDEON
But secretly they was overjoyed

ADAM
You must recall that when corralin' your streets

BROTHERS
Oh, oh, oh, oh them poe little dears.

SIX BROTHERS ADAM
Oh yes
Them a women was sobbin', sobbin', sobbin' Oh yeah
Weepin' a ton Then sobbin' women
Just remember what Robin, Robin, Robin Oh yeah
Hood woulda done. Them sobbin women.
We'll be just like them three merry men
And make 'em all merry once again.

ADAM
And though they'll be a sobbin' for a while

ALL
Oh yes!
We're gonna make them sobbin' women smile!

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