Chapter 24 Lecture One of Two Legends of Early Rome ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Chapter 24Lecture One of Two

Legends of Early Rome

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Legends of Early Rome

• Venus the mother of Aeneas, the ancestor of the Roman people

• But Mars also was a progenitor– Through Romulus and Remus– Presided over war, a constant companion of Rome


LEGENDS OF THE ROMAN MONARCHY

Romulus and Remus


Romulus and Remus

• Aeneas founds Lavinium (about 1200 BC)• Iulus, his son, founds Alba Longa• There follows a secession of kings

– 450

• Romulus and Remus found Rome (about 750 BC)

• Recounted up by the historian Livy (Ab Urbe Condita)


Romulus and Remus

• King Proca– Sons: Numitor and Amulius

• Numitor, the heir, driven into exile by brother• Amulius kills all Numitor’s sons and forces his

daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal virgin


Romulus and Remus

• Rhea Silva gives birth to twins by Mars, she said

• She’s imprisoned and the boys thrown into the Tiber in a basket

• Ficus Ruminalis– Romular

• The she-wolf• Faustulus


Romulus and Remus

• Original myth or consciously modeled after Greek myths

• Has many Latin words in the story• But like other abandoned heroes and twins in

Greek and other earlier myths– Mother imprisoned like Danaë– Conflicts between brothers etc.


Fig. 24.1 Rumina


Musei Capitolini, Rome; University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

Romulus and Remus

• Twins grow up hunting, as per usual• Remus captured as a bandit and brought to

Numitor• The two unite and kill Amulius• The two found different towns• Later they quarrel and Romulus kills Remus

– Hence the settlement is called “Rome”



Rape of the Sabine Women


Rape of the Sabine Women

• Women of nearby city of the Sabines kidnapped at a festival at Rome

• They are mollified by assurances that they will be treated as respectable wives

• Perhaps a reflection of historical reality of exchange of women?



Titus Tatius, Tarpeia, the Death of Romulus


Titus Tatius, Tarpeia, the Death of Romulus

• King of the Sabines, Titus Tatius, attacks Rome• Rome nearly betrayed by Tarpeia

– Later, the Tarpeian Rock

• The Sabine women stop the final battle• Romulus “disappears” in a storm



Becoming a God at Rome



• Apotheosis of Romulus sets pattern for the cult of Roman emperors later– So also do the myths of Hercules and the Dioscuri

• E.g., Caesar and Augustus, like other heroes, were descended from a god, Venus

• Became “divine” after a vote of the Senate



• Less power than an Olympian• Before he died and was declared divine, his

“cult” was to his genius– numen that dwelled in him

• Became more common and brazen after Caesar and Augustus– Not all were deified


Fig. 24.2 Antoninus Pius


Vatican Museums; Scala/Art Resource, New York


• The imperial cult provided political stability and unity

• Refusal to participate was considered treasonous– Early Christians and some Jews opposed all

aspects of it



Horatii and the Curatii


Horatii and the Curatii

• Rome founded in 753 B.C.• Four Romano-Sabine kings• Three Etruscan kings• The combat between the three Horatii

(Roman) and the three Curatii (Alba Longa)– The surviving Horatius kills his own sister for

grieving the loss of her fiancé Curatius and is acquitted


PERSPECTIVE 24.1David's Oath of the Horatii


End


Chapter 24 Lecture One of Two Legends of Early Rome ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

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