LESSON #21
LECTURE NOTES
I.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BEGINNING OF ROME
1200 beginning of the first iron age. The
Prisci Latini migrate to Italy from the Danube region.
c. 1000 Latins settle in Latium
c.1000 Beginning of Etruscan migrations into
Italy
10th century BC first settlement on the
Palatine Hill on the future site of Rome
c. 753 foundation of the city of Rome
(according to Varro)
c. 750 Beginning of Greek colonization in
Italy: foundation of Ischia, Cumae (754), Naxos in Sicily (735), Syracuse
(c.734)
c. 700 Etruscan civilization begins to
flourish
c. 750-670 Septimonium: union of settlers of
Palatine, Cermalus, Velia, Fagutal, Cuspius, Oppius and Caelius
c. 650 Etruscan expansion into Campania
c. 625 historical founding of Rome
II. HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
The Founding of Rome is very much embroiled
in myth. Traces found by archaeologists of early settlements of the
Palatine Hill date back to ca 750 BC. This ties in very closely to the
established legend that Rome was founded on 21 April 753 BC., which was
traditionally celebrated in Rome with the festival of Parilia.
III.
THE LEGENDS
The founding legends exist - Romulus and
Remus and Aeneas. Rather than contradict each other, the tale of Aeneas
adds to that of Romulus and Remus.
IV.
Romulus and Remus
King Numitor of Alba Longa was ejected by his younger brother Amulius. To do
away with any further possible pretenders to his usurped throne, Amulius
murdered Numitor's sons and forced Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a
vestal virgin. (Vestal virgins were priestesses to the goddess Vesta and were
expected to guard their virginity in the goddess' honour on pain of
death.) However Mars, the god of war became enchanted by her beauty and
has his way with her while she slept. As a result of this Rhea Silvia bore
twins, Romulus and Remus. An enraged Amulius had Rhea Silvia thrown into
the river Tiber where she was caught beneath the waves by the river god who
married her. The twins were set adrift on the river in a reed basket.
They floated downstream until the basket was caught in the branches of a fig
tree. This was where they were found by a she-wolf who suckled them
(wolves are sacred to Mars) until a shepherd found them. Click Here.
Another version of the same story
tells of the shepherd finding them and taking them to his wife, who had just
lost a stillborn child and who breast fed them. The tale says the shepherd's
wife was a former prostitute. The problem is-which one of the two
versions is the original is hard to tell because in Latin lupa means
both 'she-wolf' and 'prostitute'. As the two boys had grown to men in the
care of the couple, they were told of their true origins. Amulius was
subsequently slain in battle and Numitor was restored to his throne. The
twins decided to found a new city close to where they had been washed ashore,
caught by the fig tree. Reading omens of the flight of birds they decided
to build their city on Palatine Hill and that Romulus should be King.
Romulus took to marking the city's boundaries with a plough drawn by a white
bull and a white cow. Remus however leapt over the furrow, either in jest
or derision. Romulus lost his temper and killed his brother. The new
city, little more than a small settlement, had almost no women. So, determined
to solve this problem, Romulus invited the neighbouring tribe of the Sabines to
a harvest festival. Once their guests had arrived the Romans though chose not
to entertain them but far more to abduct at swordpoint 600 Sabine daughters.
If the tale of Romulus and Remus
appears the more popular Roman founding tale today, then the tale of Aeneas,
harking back to yet earlier times, was perhaps the more popular in the days of
the Roman Empire. In fact through Virgil the Aeneid became the national
epic of the Roman empire and the most famous poem of the Roman era.
Aeneas was to have been a hero
fighting the Greeks in the Trojan wars. The son of Venus and a mortal father he
escaped as the great city of Troy was sacked and after quite an odyssey he
landed in Latium through which the river Tiber flows. Aeneas married the
daughter of King Latinus, only to aggrieve King Turnus of Rutuli who himself
had his eye on her. As usual in ancient tales, there ensued a war for the
princess between Turnus and Aeneas, who was by then supported by King Tarchon
of the Etruscans. Naturally Aeneas, son of Venus, was triumphant. The
sack of Troy is dated to around 1220 BC. To fill the years from Aeneas to
Romulus, the Romans therefore were required to produce a string of fictional
Kings to make the tale work.
V.
Historical Background
As such the Latins settled in the wider
area of Rome around 1000 BC. Though those early settlements were not to be
mistaken for anything like a city. They kept pigs, herded sheep, goats, cattle
and lived in primitive huts.
So how could such archaic beginnings
ever lead to a city of power which would rule the world ? The rise of Rome was
certainly not inevitable, but it had many advantages right from the start. Rome
lies only a few miles from the sea with all its possibilities of trade. It lies
central to the Italian peninsula, which in turn lies central to the entire
Mediterranean Sea. Italy is guarded by the Alps to the North and by the sea all
around. Add to this the influence of the Greeks which were settling Italy,
founding cities like Cumea, and hence bringing advanced civilization to the
country and you have a place with lots of potential. From the Greeks, the
Romans learnt fundamental skills such as reading and writing, even their
religion is almost entirely derived from Greek mythology, for example Jupiter
is Zeus, Mars is Ares, and Venus is Aphrodite. If the Greeks
settled to the south of them, then the Roman had the Etruscans to the north.
Etruria was predominantly an urban society, drawing its considerable wealth
from seaborne trade. Were the Etruscans rather extravagant people, they were
generally seen by the more hardy Romans to be decadent and weak. While being
distinctly unique in their right the Etruscans too had very much developed from
the more advanced and civilized cultures of the east, owing much of their
culture to the Greeks. At around 650 to 600 BC, the Etruscans crossed the Tiber
and occupied Latium. It is through this, so one believes, that the settlement
on the Palatine Hill was brought together with the settlements on surrounding
hills, either in an attempt to fend off the invaders, or, once conquered, by
the Etruscan master who sought to rule their kingdom via a structure of city
states. It is at this point that the first known Kings appear.