A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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BOOK III
Rome
CHAPTER XXVII]
A. INTRODUCTION TO THE SOURCES
The Romans derived all the elements of their higher The beginculture
from the Greeks. The most valuable of these writing,
acquisitions was the alphabet.
At an unknown time in the
period of the kings some of the Romans learned from the
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Greeks to read and write. Priests wrote prayers and Ancient
rituals; and the pontiffs composed the fasti, or calendar
a list of days of each month setting forth the festivals, the
market-days, and the days which were lucky or unlucky
for doing business. Little however was written that
could be of service to the historians, who lived hundreds
of years afterward.
Because of the lack of such serviceable
material we call the regal period prehistoric.
About the beginning of the Republic the Romans commenced
to keep a list—also called fasti—of their annual treaties,
magistrates, and to record their laws and treaties. Gradually
was formed a considerable body of written material,
consisting of the documents above mentioned and of
funeral orations, family chronicles, and poetry. The
earliest historian was Fabius Pictor, a Roman senator
The fasti,
during the war with Hannibal. He wrote in Greek a Latter part
history of his country from the earliest times to his own tury B.C.
day. As he grouped events by years, his work is called
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