Founding of Rome: Encyclopedia II - Founding of Rome - The legend

Founding of Rome - The legend

The legend about the foundation of Rome obviously tends to relate the town to some of the most eminent entities of its age, in order to "demonstrate" that the great success of the town depends also on this special origin, or simply to complete a successful reputation with first-class references. It is, however, a complete story, and the entire Roman tradition is based on it. There are several versions of this legend; the version below is commonly considered the main one.

Founding of Rome - Aeneas and Julus

The defeated army of Troy crossed the Mediterranean Sea on the orders of prince Aeneas, to reach Latium's coasts. Here they landed in an area that is likely between current Anzio and Fiumicino, southwest of Rome. Most commonly it is supposed they landed at Laurentum (or Larentum); other versions say that they landed at Lavinium, a place named for Latinus' daughter Lavinia.

Latinus, the wise king of the Latins, hosted them and let them reorganize their life in Latium. Lavinia had been promised to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Latinus preferred to offer her to Aeneas; Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas, resulting in Turnus' death and the capture of his people. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, also known as Iulus, founded Albalonga and was the first in a long series of kings.

King Procas was the father of Numitor and Amulius. At Procas' death, Numitor became king of Albalonga, but Amulius captured him and sent him to prison; he also forced Rea Silvia (Numitor's daughter) to become a priestess of the Vestan cult. For many years Amulius was then the king.

Founding of Rome - Gods and priestesses

The legend of Rome's origin would have been much less interesting if the gods had had no role in it. Mars (who will always be the most important god for Romans) had two sons with Rea Silvia, a priestess devoted to the sacred cult of Vesta. (The name Rea Silvia (often written Rhea Silvia) suggests a minor deity, a demi-goddess of forests. Silva means woods or forest, and rea may be related to res and regum.)

Founding of Rome - Romulus and Remus

By this birth Rea Silvia had, as a priestess, severely offended both Vesta and the common customs of the time. Therefore Amulius ordered a servant to kill the newborn twins Romulus and Remus. The servant, lacking the stomach for the deed, put them in a bag that he left in the Tiber, to be carried away and drowned. The twin brothers were transported by the river and washed up on the shore in a place that, curiously, the legends don't specify. Here they were saved by a female wolf who nursed them (this wolf, Lupa, is still now one of main symbols of Rome).

Nearby, in a poor dwelling, lived an old shepherd Eldon and his wife Acca Larentia. The shepherd found the babies, brought them home, and adopted them. When they had grown to adulthood, the brothers were informed of their history, so they went back to Albalonga, killed Amulius, and freed their grandfather Numitor.

Romulus and Remus started planning a new town in the same place in which they had been found by Lupa. They decided that one of them would build a town and the other would help. So they went questioning the gods, asking for signs (presumably from the flight patterns of birds) that would tell them who should lead. Another version of the tale says that they had a competition to be won by the brother who saw more birds (or more birds of some species).

Romulus went to the top of Palatine Hill, Remus to the top of Aventine. Romulus became convinced that he had been selected by the gods, or that he had seen more birds, so he casually threw his lance on the hill to find the place; when in the ground, the lance (which was wooden) immediately became the corniolus, a sacred tree in Rome.

With the help of a white cow and a white bull, he then used his plough to trace the square borders of his town, following the traditional Etruscan ceremony. Remus outrageously crossed this line, invading Romulus's area and happily saying, "Can you see how easy it is?" Romulus killed him with one blow of his sword, declaring that everyone who dared to offend Rome would pay with his life.

Romulus was the first ruler of Rome, and reigned until he disappeared during a storm, carried off by his father Mars.

Founding of Rome - Evolution of the legend

While the main body of the legend had remained more or less the same since its creation, some details were changed, mainly in order to put together the (slightly) different versions and correcting several points in terms of time and geography. The local ancient legends, too, were little by little brought into harmony with the main story. The effect of these interventions on the legend is quite evident.

One of the earliest versions (5th century BC) is by the Mitilene Greek Ellanicus, and is usually reported together with the version by Damastes from Sigeo. In this version the founder of the village was Aeneas (in a minor version Ascanius (Iulus)). These versions survived until 509 BC (the year in which it is presumed the Roman republic started), when it was realised that, since there had been seven Roman kings and Romulus was the first of them, there was a gap between the 8th century of the first kings and the 12th century BC (the supposed date of the destruction of Troy). So as Romulus could not be the son of Iulus, he became only a distant descendant. The time between Iulus and Romulus was "filled" with the series of Albalonga's kings. Aeneas would have landed on Latium's coast during the reign of Latinus (king of the Latins), in order to find a compromise with local legends. Mars then had to be added in order to honour him, so Romulus became a descendant of Mars on his father's side, while mother Rea Silvia was connected with Aeneas via the Albalonga dynasty. The condemnation of Rea Silvia's sons is only one among the many recollections of the divine laws, of the religion that so deeply entered Roman life.

Every group of people living in the area had its own similar legends:

• The Italics: among the Italics, like the tale in Hesiod's Theogony, the two brothers Agrius and Latinus were the sons of Telegonus, who was the son of Ulysses and Circe the witch (to whom is dedicated a mountain, Mount Circeo, in southern Latium where her cavern was supposed to be and where a cult was celebrated in her honour).
• The Latins: Saturn had been replaced by his son Jove, so he came down to the Earth and mixed with the Latins. After a while (maybe centuries), Evandrus came to Latium via Arcadia, and then Hercules came to free these lands from the menace of the giant Cacus. Finally Aeneas arrived from Troy, after tremendous risky adventures, and founded Rome. Notably in this version the Latins were not created or otherwise specially assisted by the gods, only the town was founded by Aeneas in the presence of these "authorities".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The legend", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki