How was Romefounded? Not in a day, and not by twins.FORWARD The mythicalRomulus and Remus may get the credit, but Rome's archaeology reveals localtribes established the ancient kingdom.
By Jane von Mehren,Published 11 Jan 2023, 09:33 GMT Legendary beginnings or opener (A mosaic on thefloor of Vittorio Emanuele Gallery is one of many examples of the art inspiredby the legend of Romulus and Remus.) The highlycivilised Etruscans hada huge impact on Rome’s eventual geography, architecture, government, trade,and agriculture. Theycreated excellent schools to which rich Romans sent their sons, much as theywould later send them to Greek institutes. By the sixth centuryB.C., some of Rome’s most famous institutions, from the Forum to the Senate,were in existence but even the most reputable historians—including Fabius,Livy, and Plutarch—started their accounts of the empire in legend. The story of Rome’s founding begins in Alba Longa, thefirst “city” of Latium, a region in central westernItaly, occupied by Latins. The area had been inhabited since the Bronze Age by farmingcommunities and was known to the ancient Greeks, which is perhaps why Aeneas, aTrojan prince, is said to have established it around 1150 B.C. Legendary beginnings 2 According tohistorian Livy, there was no sexual assault of Sabine women. Here, Hersiliaseparates Romulus and the Sabine king, Tatius. According to legend, in Alba Longa, two ofAeneas’s descendants, the brothers Amulius and Numitor, fought over who would rule. Amulius triumphed,killing Numitor’s sons and exiling his daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become aVestal Virgin. Throughdivine intervention, she gave birth to the twins Romulus and Remus. Threatened by thesepotential claimants to his throne, Amulius beheaded Rhea Silvia and abandoned the babies in the river Tiber.Miraculously, a she-wolf rescued and cared for the boys until a shepherd,Faustulus, adopted them, raising them on the Palatine Hill, located inmodern-day Rome. The legend goes on to say that the brothers Romulus and Remus, established the city of Rome on the banksof the Tiber River, where it was narrow enough for crossing and the hillsprovided a good defensive position. The land betweenthe hills, however, was quite marshy and not all that fertile. The twins soonquarrelled about the city’s exact boundaries and Romulus killed Remus. Romulus, along with the outlaws and criminals herecruited, invited neighbouring tribe the Sabines, who had resistedintermarrying with the Romans, to a fête. During the merriment Romulus raisedhis cloak signalling his men to seize and abduct the young Sabine women. As the origin story goes, being Roman wives suited thewomen and they stopped the Sabine men from battling the Romans when they cameto recapture them. In the end theSabines remained in Rome as part of the new city. Influences in the area Archaeologicalevidence tells us that Rome’s actual origins were less dramatic. The first Romans were Latin farmersand shepherds living in small village huts on the Esquiline and Palatine hills.The Sabines, a tribe living to the north, divided soon after the city’sfounding, and some of them came south and united with Rome’s people. Kingdom of Rome (Ruins of acomitium in Salerno, Italy, are shown, where the assemblies of the Roman courtsgathered to elect the local magistrates and where popular assemblies were held). Romeremained relatively primitive until the 600s B.C., when the Etruscans, whocontrolled a series of city-states to the north, began taking control of thecity. While modernscholars discount some of the accounts of ancient Romanhistorians, they agree that during the first phase of its history—fromapproximately 753 to 509 B.C.—Rome was ruled by kings. According to thesewriters, Romulus was the first, succeeded by Numa Pompilius, a Sabine, and in616 B.C. by an Etruscan named L. Tarquinius Priscus. Kings hadalmost absolute power, serving as administrative, judicial, military, andreligious leaders. A senate acted as an advisorycouncil. The king chose its members, who became known as patricians, from thecity’s leading families. Unlike latermonarchs, Roman kingship was not inherited. After a kingdied, there was a period known as an interregnum, when the Senate chose a new ruler, who was thenelected by the people of Rome. The king-elect needed to obtain approvalof the gods and the imperium, the power to command, before assuming his throne. Etruscan influences (Coin from Pontusin Asia Minor showing a pantheistic god). The Etruscans ruleda loose confederation of city-states that stretched from Bologna to the Bay ofNaples. It remainsunclear where they originated, but they used a version of the Greek alphabetand some ancient sources describe them as coming from Asia Minor. Around 650 B.C.,they were already dominant in the region and took control of Rome, wanting itsstrategic position on the Tiber. Under Etruscan kings, Rome grew from aseries of villages into a proper city. The Etruscansdrained the marshes around the city, constructed underground sewers, laid outroads and bridges. They established the cattle market, Forum Boarium, aswell as Forum Romanum, the central market and meeting place that evolved intothe heart of the empire. Toward the end of this period of Etruscaninfluence, the first temple of Jupiter was built on the Capitoline Hill; thistemple, although rebuilt many times, became the symbol of Rome’s power. Built as amausoleum for Emperor Hadrian on the banks of the Tiber, Castel Sant’Angelo isnow a museum. Founding the Republic The era of Roman kings ended in 509 B.C., when the Romanssupposedly expelled the last Etruscan king, L. Tarquinius Superbus, in anothermythicised event. As recounted byhistorians, including Livy, the son of Tarquinius Superbus, Sextus, raped atknifepoint the noblewoman Lucretia, wife of the king’s great nephew. Lucretia,feeling that her honour and virtue had been lost, committed suicide. Her uncle Brutus swearsto avenge her and commits to revolution and the expulsion of the monarchy.To the Roman people her story represents the tyrannical powers of the monarchon the state, and so the saga of Lucretia is cited as the event that spurredthe Roman Republic into being. In place of themonarchy, Romans established a republic, which lasted until 30 B.C. Over the course of nearly five centuries, Romebecame a dominant Western power, seizing territory throughout theMediterranean, creating an enormousand efficient army, and learning how to administer its vast provinces. Portions of this work havepreviously appeared in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Jane cvonMehren. Copyright © 2014 National Geographic Partners, LLC. To learn more, check out TheRise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Available wherever books and magazines aresold. Note- I found the above interesting article in theopening page of Yahoo today and found interesting and thought of forwarding. Pictures not added. R. Gopalakrishnan 30-5-2023 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/668764982.3040513.1685452592082%40mail.yahoo.com.
