Reasons for Studying Early Rome and Its Etymological and Cultural Origins

Books like these attempt to explain early Roman legends, but do they succeed? My opinion is they always lack a comprehensive approach.

I want to propose a Unifying Theory of History, not a Theory of Everything where one force is the cause of all forces, as in the Grand Unified Theory of Physics. 

It is not my desire to propose that India or Persia or Greece is the ultimate source of all the mythologies of the world. A Unifying Theory of History argues that all these different cultures were related, not just in some trivial way, but in a meaningful way which can answer some of the unresolved questions we have about world history. To put it simply, it is a theory where all the nations involved in the so-called Axial Age need to be studied together as a unified whole to reveal historical truths, especially about individual events or people (real or mythical). Unfortunately, the approach that has predominated in historical research is one of provincialism - treating each country’s history as a monolithic entity, with some vague references to foreign influences (e.g. Orientalizing in Greece and Etruria).

Gregory Alles writes about his own approach to world history in his book The Iliad, the Ramayana, and the Work of Religion: Failed Persuasion and Religious Mystification, which compares two major epic works of ancient literature, one Greek and one Indian (pg. 11): "My mode of investigation is not hermeneutics but history - not history as the recovery of the past but as a principled and systematic exploration of events in which religion occurs, including events of meaning." 

The formation of the Persian Empire, the founding and development of early Rome, the pre-Socratic philosophical movements in Greece, and the Orientalization of the Etruscan culture all represented meaningful events in which religious thought spread around the nexus of the ancient world at that time (6th century BCE), the Mediterranean Sea. My methodology is focused on recovery of the historical past through systematic analysis of these "events of meaning", as Gregory Alles called them, though he may have been referring to something slightly different.

Max Mueller, the German Indologist, recognized the importance of the sixth century BCE and the need to study the different cultures of the world that were connected to each other at that time: ‘We seem perfectly within our right when we look upon the numerous coincidences between the (Greek) fables of Aesopus and the fables occurring in Sanskrit and Pali literature as proving the fact that there was a real literary exchange between India, Persia, Asia Minor and Greece beginning with the sixth century BC.’ (pg. 29, The Bible and Asia, by R.S. Sugirtharajah)

One of my main motivations is to draw attention to this crucial period in human history that has nevertheless been neglected, not only with respect to ancient Italy, but many other nations of the ancient world such as Persia. Are there as many popular films or plays on Cyrus the Great like there are for Caesar or Alexander? I remember learning about the empires of Greece and Rome in school before college, but the empires of Persia and India were barely covered, if at all. This Eurocentrism prevents any thorough investigation of early Rome and its etymology from being conducted, because Rome was not independently founded overnight without the input of other civilizations from the East.

If someone comes to America and asks us what Memphis means (as in Memphis, Tennessee), we might tell them it is named after a famous city in ancient Egypt. Many people have never heard of Memphis, Egypt and are more familiar with Memphis, Tennessee, probably thinking incorrectly that the name Memphis is a product of English spoken in the American South. Although the Egyptians never founded any place in America, the American people drew inspiration from their great civilization (North African). Similarly, the ancient Italian people, especially the Etruscans, drew much of their inspiration from civilizations of the East, such as the Syrians, Phoenicians and Ionians. The name Rome has its roots in that same inspiration. Attention needs to be focused on the seventh and sixth centuries BC to properly answer the question of the founding and naming of Rome, a word that certainly did not come out of nowhere, as we can all agree.

For those who are still skeptical of the value of knowing the true etymology of a city's name, they should ask themselves whether people care about the origins of their own family surname. As a personal name is necessary for identifying one's ethnic heritage, the name of a city is necessary for identifying all the contributors and factors involved in its inception. Rome's evolving name also reflects the changes that occurred as Rome developed from a small hilly town to a large "eternal" city. Its etymology and subsequent modification over time reinforce our understanding of the gradual but incredible growth of the Roman world. In the beginning, we have Near Eastern Ramah (hinted at by 'Ramnes' of Indo-Persia and perhaps 'horama' of ancient Greece) from c. 700 - 500 BC; then Etruscan Ruma with its legend seen in the Francois Tomb paintings at Vulci, along with Latinized Roma and its legend of Romulus (c. 500 - 300 BC); and finally, the conversion of oral to written tradition, accompanied by the deification of the city Roma and its leaders, including Romulus himself (c. 300 BC - 200 AD). The Greek word for power, 'rhome', naturally became associated with Rome's evolving meaning in the last phase, especially the golden age or Pax Romana, along with Latin 'aeternum' (eternal), which derives from 'aevum' (age). I may note that Memphis had its own evolution from 'Men-nefer' (c. 1550, New Kingdom) meaning enduring and beautiful, to 'Memfi' in Coptic, which the Greeks adapted as Memphis. The pyramid of Pepi (Men-nefer-Pepi) is probably the ancient Egyptian pronunciation of 'Memphis'.

So as we observe the transfer of a Near Eastern Egyptian name to America via the Greeks, Romans, and the British, we also should observe the transfer of a Near Eastern Aramaic and Indo-Persian name ('Ramah' or 'Ramna') to Rome via the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans.