The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (12 page)

Just as Rome grew from various cultures, stories about its beginning came from a variety of sources. These traditions came from the different ethnic groups that lived in and around Rome's environs, and they were stitched together by later writers into a (more or less) coherent story.

 
Lend Me Your Ears
“Things that happened before the city's conception or founding are passed on more as poetic embellishments than sound history, and I don't intend to support or refute them. It's a convention of antiquity to make the founding of cities seem more important by adding divine intervention. Besides, if any people deserve to claim gods in their beginnings, the Roman people have won that right by conquest. So when Rome claims that Mars is its patron and father, everyone accepts this claim without question like they accept Rome's rule.”

—Livy, from his preface to
The History of Rome from the Founding of the City,
written about 25
B.C.E.

Almost all places in the ancient world had an eponymous founder—some mythic man or woman for whom the place or city was named. These figures are almost never historical, although in the nebulous mixture of ancient history and myth, it's better never to say never.

Romus (Rome guy) or Romulus (little Rome guy) was Rome's eponymous founder. There was a variety of traditions about him, which came from the different communities that made up the ancient city. All these traditions had their problems, and most of them ended up contributing something to the final version.

 
When in Rome
Vestal virgins
were an ancient line of priestesses of the goddess of the hearth, Vesta. A vestal entered service at about 6 to 10 years old, and served for 30 years. After 30 years, a vestal was free to marry, though few did. Vestals oversaw a number of rituals and objects thought vital to the preservation of the Roman State. Vestals had rights (such as owning property and having wills) and privileges (such as box seats in the Coliseum) that other women didn't have. On the other hand, if vestals were caught being unvirginal, they were buried alive in an underground chamber.

Here are a few of the versions:

• A Latin story:
  A young
  vestal virgin,
  Rhea Silvia, is impregnated by the god Mars and gives birth to twins, Romulus and Remus. The twins are left by the river to die, but they are suckled by a she-wolf until a herdsman, Faustulus, discovers
  and raises them. Later, when Romulus breaks ground for a city on the Palatine hill, Remus does the same on the Aventine hill. The brothers quarrel over the new cities and Romulus kills Remus. The problem with this story is that it fails to take into account popularly held traditions contained in competing versions.
  
• A Greek story:
  Greeks, who also lived in the area, linked their own local heroes to the site of Rome. One obscure tradition claimed that a king, Evander, ruled over the village of Pallantium (a.k.a. Rome's Pallatine hill). Evander's name means “good guy,” which gives you an indication of how historical
  he
  really was. This Greek tradition doesn't really say anything about Rome or explain why it didn't end up being called “Evanderville.”
  
• Another Greek story
  : This one connects the Greek hero Odysseus with the city. In Homer's
  Odyssey,
  Odysseus stops for awhile at the island of the enchantress Circe. The story goes that they had a son, Romus, who traveled to Italy and founded the city of Rome. The problem with this story is that it's, well, lame. Homer never mentions that Odysseus and Circe had any children. The ancients didn't buy it either and it never became popular.
  
• An Etruscan story:
  The Etruscans were unwilling to let the Greek heroes claim responsibility for establishing Rome. Their tradition connected Rome's beginning to the Trojan hero, Aeneas. Aeneas was the son of a Trojan hero, Anchises, and the goddess Venus (Greek Aphrodite). There was already a Greek tradition that Aeneas founded cities around the Mediterranean after he fled Troy's destruction. Under Etruscan and Latin influence, Aeneas eventually reached the site of Rome. There he had a son, Romus, after whom he named his city.
  

  However, by the time this story became popular, the Greco-Roman world had already dated the fall of Troy to about 1184
  B
  .
  C
  .
  E
  ., and the founding of Rome to somewhere around 800
  B
  .
  C
  .
  E
  . This story, then, presented a problem: Aeneas would have been about 370 years old when he founded Rome.
  

 
Roamin' the Romans
Roman literature included traditions from and about cities around Rome and Italy. The result is that you can find many of the places referred to in famous works, such as the
Aeneid
by Virgil, on the map today. Such places include the ancient region of the Latins, Laium (modern Lazio) to which Aeneas comes, and the town of Lavinium (modern Lanuvio), which Aeneas founds.

In any case, these stories were woven together by the first century
B
.
C
.
E
. in the following manner:

• The Trojan hero Aeneas escapes the destruction of Troy and, with a band of Trojan exiles, eventually arrives in Italy. Here he meets opposition from the Latins but finds an ally in a king, Evander, who lived in Pallantium. After winning the right to stay in Italy in battle, Aeneas weds a local royal princess, Lavinia, and founds the city of Lavinium.
  
• Aeneas's son, Ascanius (also known as Iulus), leaves and establishes the city of Alba Longa.
  
• One of Ascanius's descendents, King Numitor, is driven out by his evil younger brother Amulius. Amulius makes Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin in order to make sure that there are no rightful heirs to the throne.
  
• Alas! The god Mars sleeps with Rhea, and the twins Romulus and Remus are born. The evil king orders his servants to take the boys and throw them into the river. But the river is high and mucky, so the attendants leave them in the basket by the side of the reed marsh.
  
• Divine providence intervenes. The basket doesn't sink, but floats as the river rises to another shore. A she-wolf finds the infants there and suckles them until they are found by the shepherd Faustulus. He raises Romulus and Remus until they discover their true identity. The brothers decide to establish their own city on the site of the Palatine hill.
  
• Romulus and Remus (and their respective followers) quarrel over who gets to name and rule the city. Romulus kills Remus and becomes king.
  

 
Veto!
Quarrels between brothers feature prominently in the traditional stories of various cultures (think Cain and Abel) as do twins. The twin brothers Romulus and Remus are not historical but “doublets,” that is, different versions of the same name. The story of their quarrel probably accounts for how one of two ancient names for the city became dominant.

The Romans believed that, in addition to founding the city, Romulus was responsible for several important elements in Rome's development. He established, for example, a group of 100
patres
(fathers or elders) which laid the foundation for the patrician class and the senate.

Romulus added to Rome's manpower by making the Capitoline hill a place of asylum for fugitives, but without women to go with them, Rome's future still was in doubt. The Romans raided a Sabine festival and carried off the young women to Rome. This is known as the
Rape of the Sabines
. As the story goes, the Romans were able to convince the girls to stay of their own volition before their families showed up for an Italic reenactment of the Trojan War. The Sabines captured the city, but the girls persuaded the two groups to merge and rule together. The story as told by Livy is implausible but may reflect the mixed ethnic nature of Rome's early beginnings.

 
Veto!
“Rape” in mythology sometimes means “kidnapping” (from the Latin
raptus
, “snatched up”). Other times (such as the story of Lucretia), “rape” means “rape.”

Roman tradition held that there were a series of kings after Romulus. Each of these introduced traditional “Roman” customs and fought various neighbors to establish Rome as the chief city in the region. Some may—or may not—be historical figures, but as the Roman historian Livy said before beginning his account of the kings, “It is now generally accepted (
Iam primum satis constat
)” that they were as follows:

1. Romulus
   (traditionally 753–715
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). You already know him from our earlier discussions so we don't need to elaborate here.
   
2. Titus Tatius
   (traditionally 753–715
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). A compatriot of Romulus, Titus was the leader of the Sabines. Tradition credits him with enlarging the city and founding several religious cults.
   
3. Numa Pompilius
   (traditionally 715–673
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). Numa was the founder of religious temples and offices, such as the vestal virgins and the
   pontifex maximus
   (the chief priest in Rome). Numa's name, like that of his predecessor Titus Tatius, has also been also connected to the Sabine cultural element in early Rome.
   
4. Tullus Hostilius
   (traditionally 673–642
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). Tullus was thought to have established Rome's senate house, the
   Curia Hostilia,
   and to have conquered the rival city of Alba Longa (the one founded by Aeneas's son Ascanius).
   
5. Ancus Marcius
   (traditionally 642–617
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). Ancus was thought to be responsible for enlarging Rome's territorial control into regions previously controlled by the Etruscans to the north and west to the port city of Ostia.
   
6. Tarquinius Priscus,
   or Tarquin the Elder (traditionally 616–579
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). According to tradition, Tarquin and his wife, Tanaquil, came to Rome from Etruria with ambitions to go to the top. They brought Etruscan customs, culture, and builders with them and worked hard to succeed. Once king, Tarquin undertook many of the earliest public works projects in Rome, such as the temples on the Capitoline and the public sewer, the Cloaca Maxima. He also fought a number of wars against neighboring cities. Tarquin, a successful and arrogant newcomer, made a number of enemies among the other royal clans, including the sons of Ancus Marcius, who conspired to have him killed.
   
7. Servius Tullius
   (traditionally 578–535
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). Servius was said to have been a slave in Tarquin's house, and he became king after Tarquin was murdered. He is traditionally remembered as a mild and kind ruler (in comparison to the aristocratic and cruel Tarquins), and he is believed to have instituted the census and Rome's ancient assembly, the
   Curia Centuriata
   . Rome's ancient fortification wall (still called the Servian Wall) was also attributed to him. Servius's daughter, Tullia, married the son of Tarquin the Elder, Lucius Tarquinius.
   
8. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus,
   or Tarquin the Proud (traditionally 535–509
   B
   .
   C
   .
   E
   .). I-Just-Can't-Wait-to-Be-Queen Tullia urged Lucius to assassinate her father, and his henchmen assassinated
   Servius in the city. They left his body in the street, and in a demonstration of solidarity, Tullia drove her chariot over her father's body, which was now just a royal road bump on the way to ultimate power. Tarquin the Proud was the last king of Rome. He was driven out by Roman aristocrats for his arrogant ways and the actions of his son, Sextus, who raped Lucretia, the wife of Sextus's cousin Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus (see the story of Lucretia in the following section).
   

 
Roamin' the Romans
In Rome, you'll find remains of the Servian Wall, the ancient fortification wall ascribed to Servius Tullius. This wall (which was not built by Servius) was well within Rome's city limits even by the third century
B
.
C
.
E
. (much like Wall Street in New York City).

A section of the Servian Wall in Rome.