The History of Rome - 001- In the Beginning

Episode Date: July 28, 2007

Welcome to The History of Rome, a weekly series tracing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Today we will hear the mythical origin story of Rome and compare it with modern historical and archaeological evidence. How much truth is wrapped up in the legend? We end this week with the death of Remus and the founding of Rome.

Hello and welcome to the history of Rome. The founding of Rome is an event wrapped in myth. Lacking a credible historical record, it is impossible to know exactly what led to the establishment of the Eternal City. But we do know the legend the Romans told themselves, and have some idea of the population migrations that took place in central Italy at the time, so we can piece together a general timeline of events. There may be truth wrapped up in the official legend, and there may not, but it is a good story and an important one to know for students of ancient history.

It is the story of a refugee Trojan prince and how his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandsons would be wet-nurseded by a she-wolf and later found the greatest city of the ancient world. The story of Rome begins with the end of the Trojan War. after Troy was finally sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, chief lieutenant of Hector, managed to escape with a few followers. They boarded ships and set out into the Mediterranean to find a new home. Their odyssey took them from Asia Minor to the north coast of Africa, where Aeneas managed to sow the seeds of the three Punic Wars by seducing the Carthaginian Queen Dido and then abandoning her. Virgil writes that in the final moments before she committed suicide, Dido cursed the descendants of her.

of both to eternal enmity. O my tyrians, the seeds with hate his progeny and all his race to come. Make this your offering to my dust. No love. No pact must be between our peoples. No, but rise up from my bones

avenging spirit. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. After securing an arch enemy for Rome, Ania sailed to the west coast of Italy where he and his followers hoped to make a settlement. Arriving in the territory of Laurentium, the Trojans were immediately met by armed locals who tried to drive them off. But their king, Latinus, decided to make peace rather than war with the foreigners and offered his daughter, Lavinia to Aeneas, solidifying an alliance.

This marriage came as quite a shock to Ternus, Prince of the Routouli, a nearby tribe, because Lavinia had already been pledged to him. Angered by this slap in the face, he led an attack on the combined Trojan. and Latin forces. The Routuli were defeated, but King Latinus was killed in the fighting, leaving Aeneas in control of both the Trojans and the Latins, who were rapidly intermarrying into a single people. Thanquished, Ternus and the Routouli turned north to the rich and powerful Etruscans for help. The Etruscans were more than willing to lend a hand against the growing menace of the Trojan-infused Latins and attacked. But Aeneas, in his final act, led the Latins to victory, establishing the Tiber River as the boundary between the Latins and the Etruscans.

We should pause the legend here before we get too far and give an account of the political landscape of pre-Roman Italy, as historians and archaeologists understand it today. Who were the Latins? Who were the Etruscans? Where did they come from and what sort of lives did they lead? The origin of the Etruscans is debatable. However, DNA evidence points to a migration from Asia Minor, which, if true, offers a context for the legend of Aeneas' arrival from Troy. The Etruscans were the dominant force culturally and politically in the Italian peninsula, and, as we will see, came to dominate Latin territory in the waning years of the Roman kingdom. They had developed cities and a confederal state system long before the Latins,

who remained in traditional tribal affiliations until the foundation of Rome, which was the first major settlement in Latin territory that could be called a sea. city. The Etruscans were artists and craftsmen who had set up extensive trading networks that reached all the way to Greece. The trading roads between Etruria and the Greek cities of Magna Gratia in the south ran right through Rome, offering a clue as to the reason for its location. The Latins, in contrast, were simple pastoral herdsmen. Evidence from ancient burial mounds suggest the Latins were descended from Balkan migrants who crossed the Adriatic in prehistory. Mostly shepherds and farmers, they did not have any sort of advanced arts or crafts.

What culture they display seems to be little more than a blend of a Truskin and Greek elements. Indeed, nothing about later Roman history suggests the Latins were innovative at all in art, religion, or letters. They excelled at warfare and engineering and administrating, but were merely students of philosophy, never instructors. Their gods, to take one obvious example, are little more than an adaption of the Greek pantheon. Zeus becoming Jupiter, Hera becoming Juno, and so forth. What bound the Latins together was a common language, distinct from the Etruscan language to the north, and the imported Greek in the south.

Latin, of course, forms the basis for half the languages in Europe, and its vocabulary still dominates the legal profession. But enough humorless anthropology. After Aeneas died, his young son, Asconius, grew to be king. The town built by the Trojan settlers had become too small for the exploding population, and Asconius led a group east to found a new settlement called Albalonga, which would become the seat of the growing Latin kingdom. Generation upon generation followed, and the Latins became powerful and secure.

The kingship was passed from father to son until finally it rested upon the head of a man named Numitor. Numitor had a brother named Amulius, who coveted the throne and decided to seize power for himself. Numitor was driven from Albalonga. All his sons were killed, and his daughter, Ray Sylvia, was forced to become a vestal virgin to ensure she would bear no children who could threaten Amulius. However, after taking the vows, Ray was the victim of rape and consequently gave birth to twin boys. Ray declared that the god Mars was the father, but to no avail, and, for the crime of allowing herself to be raped, she was thrown in prison. The twins were sent to be drowned in the Tiber. the men entrusted with the task found the river flooded and left the boys in the sluggish water

rather than slogging their way to the river itself and when the waters were seated the babies were left alive and well in the reeds here legend states that a she-wolf coming to the river to quench her thirst found the babies and offered her teats for them to suck along a herdsman came upon the scene and gathered the children up from the wolf who had been gently licking them and took them home with him Even Livy acknowledges that the story of the wolf is a fable and postulates that it may have arisen because the herdsman's wife was a whore named wolf. The herdsman and his wife raised the boys named Romulus and Ramos and Ramos as their own and soon they grew to be men.

Apparently the boys took a liking to fighting the local brigands who raided the countryside and began taking the fight to the robbers, raiding their camps and stealing from them. The criminals, angered by the theft of their booty, set a trap for the country. for the twins. Romulus managed to escape, but Remus was captured. The Briggins took Remus to the local landowner, who turned out to be none other than the exiled Numitor, and claimed Ramis and his brother had been caught stealing Numitor's cattle, and that he should be punished. Numitor was immediately reminded of his twin grandsons, and, realizing that they would be the same age as Remus was now, began to suspect that the boys were his blood. Numitur began making inquiries,

and soon learned the particulars of their upbringing and became convinced that they were his daughter's children. The herdsman, knowing Ramos was in Numerator's custody, and having himself long suspected that his two boys were of royal blood, decided to tell Rambulus the whole story of their discovery by the river. From this, a plan was hatched to return Numerator to the throne. With Romulus leading one group of men and Ramos another, they surprised and killed Amulius and brought Numerator back to Abolanga. Numitour told the story of his brother's treachery and the circumstances of his grandson's birth and the people shouted unanimous consent that Numitur became once again. After Numitur became king, Romulus and Remus decided to found a new settlement

at the spot where they had been left to drown. There are two accounts of what happened next. One states that trouble arose when the question of who would be senior in the new city was raised. They decided to allow the gods to decide and each retired to the top of the time. of the hill, Romulus the Palatine, and Remus the Abantine, to a way to sign. Soon enough, six vultures landed at the feet of Remus, and when his followers made this known to Romulus, 12 vultures immediately landed at Romulus's feet.

A fight broke out, with one side claiming primacy of arrival and the other claiming primacy of number. In this fight, Remus was killed. The other, more famous story is that Remus, mocking his brother, jumped over the partially completed walls and Romulus in a fit of anger killed him, swearing, so perish whoever shall overleap my battlements. Either way, Romulus obtained soul power, the city was named for him, and he became its first king. The legendary date of foundation is April the 21st, 753 BC. Did it happen like this? Almost certainly

not. After the sack of Rome in 386 BC, most of the early historical record was lost and with it the specifics we need for an accurate telling of the story. But archaeological evidence, seems to support the broader strokes of the legend. Settlements have been found on the Palatine Hill that date from the 800s BC, suggesting that the legendary chronology is at least in the ballpark. The general story of a struggle

between the Latin and Etruscan people, ending with ostensible Latin autonomy south of the Tiber, also fits our understanding of the ethnic and cultural landscape of the era. It is doubtful that the site of Rome was chosen because it marked where the twins have been sent to die. More likely an easy river crossing,

coupled with the natural defenses offered by the nearby hills drew settlers to the area. And of course, as already noted, the site lay on the trade road between Etruria and Magna Gratia. Without any real data to draw from, later Roman historians use common mythological elements to construct a conventional founding legend. Indo-European culture produced numerous examples of the divine twin mythem, including Castor and Pollux and Idis and Linzius of Thebes. The motif of infant exposure gone wrong crops up in the biographies of both Perseus and Moses and of course most will recognize the virgin birth element from Christianity but tales of miraculous or virgin births

have surrounded important legendary and historical figures for millennium The addition of Aeneas gives Rome a lofty ancestor and connects their city to the Greek civilizations the Romans so admired However it happened a settlement was established at the bend in the tiber This settlement grew and came to dominate its neighboring communities, then the entire Italian peninsula, then the entire Mediterranean. Next, we will cover Rome's unsavory beginnings, who the first Romans were, whose women they stole to ensure that there would be a second generation of Romans, and whether Romulus, great soldier that he was, died or simply faded away.