Founding of Rome

The founding of Rome is reported by many legends, which in recent times are beginning to be supplemented by more scientific reconstructions.

Virgil's Aeneid is an important source for information about those early times or, at least, the versions of myth-historical events current in the Augustan period.

Between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, the main population of central Italy consisted of two main groups of Italic peoples, the Osco-Umbri and Latins. Latium Vetus was the ancient territory of the Latins (now southern Lazio). Nearby were the Volscians, Sabines, Aequi, Rutuli, and Ausonians. North of Rome were the non-Indo-European Etruscans.

The Latins developed an organized society, which was the main source of the people who settled Rome. The Latins originally stayed in Colli Albani (the Alban hills, modern Castelli – 20-50 miles (30-80 km) southeast of the Capitoline hill); later, they moved down towards the valleys, which provided better land for animal breeding and agriculture.

The area around the Tiber river was particularly advantageous and also offered notable strategic resources, as the river was a natural border on one side, while the hills could provide a safe defensive position on the other side. This position would also have enabled the Latins to control the river (and commercial or military traffic on it), from the natural observation point at Isola Tiberina (the island facing modern Trastevere). Moreover, road traffic could also be controlled, since Rome was at the intersection of the principal roads to the sea coming from Sabinum (in the northeast) and Etruria (to the northwest).

The development of the town is presumed to have started from the development of separate small villages, located on top of hills, which joined together to form Rome.

Although recent studies suggest that the Quirinal hill was very important in ancient times, the first hill to be inhabited seems to have been the Palatine (therefore confirming the legend), which is also at the center of ancient Rome. Its three peaks, minor hills (Palatium, Cermalus or Germalus, and Velia) united with the three peaks of the Esquiline (Oppius, Cispius and Fagutal), and then villages on the Caelian hill and Suburra (between modern Rione Monti and the Oppius hill) joined them.

These hills had expressive names: Caelian was called Querquetulanus, from oaks (quercus), while Fagutal points to beech-woods. Recent discoveries reveal that the Germalus, on the northern part of the Palatine, was the site of a village (dated to the 9th century BC) with circular or elliptic dwellings. It was protected by a clay wall (perhaps reinforced with wood), and it is likely that this is where Rome was really founded.

The territory of this federation was surrounded by a sacred border called the pomerium, which enclosed the so-called Roma Quadrata (Square Rome). This would have been extended with the inclusion of the Capitoline hill and Tiber island at the time Rome became an oppidum or fortified town. The Esquiline still was a satellite village that would be included at the time of the Servian expansion of Rome.

Festivals for the Septimontium (literally "of the seven hills"), on December 11, were in the past considered related to the foundation. However, as April 21 is the only datum for foundation upon which all the legends agree, it has been recently argued that Septimontium was likely to have actually celebrated the first federations among Roman hills: a similar federation was, in fact, celebrated by the Latins at Cave (a village southeast of Rome) or at Monte Cavo (in Castelli).

The legend

Aeneas and Julus

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

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.

Gods and priestesses

According to myth Mars 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. Rhea was also the mother of Zeus, later renamed Jupiter by the Romans.)

Romulus and Remus

See Romulus and Remus.

Evolution of the legend

One of the earliest versions (5th century BC) is by the Mitylene Greek Hellanicus of Lesbos, and is usually reported together with the version by Damastes from Sigeum. In this version the founder of the village was Aeneas (in a lesser version Ascanius (Iulus)). At some point 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 came to be regarded as a distant descendant. The gap was "filled" with a series of kings of Alba Longa. 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. Romulus' 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. From this, modern Romans get their tradition of eating 7 donuts on Sunday, one each for the 7 hills of Rome and the 7 days in a week.

Every group of people living in the area had 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".

The date of the founding of Rome

During the Roman republic, several dates were given for the founding of the city, all in the interval between 758 BC and 728 BC. Finally, under the Roman empire the date suggested by Marcus Terentius Varro (753 BC) was agreed upon, but in the Fasti Capitolini the year given was 752. While the years varied, all versions agreed that the city was founded on April 21, day of the festival sacred to Pales, goddess of shepherds; in her honour, Rome celebrated the Parilia (or Palilia). (It is to be noted, however, that the Roman Ab Urbe Condita (or a.u.c.) calendar begins with Varro's dating of 753 BC.)

According to legend, the foundation of Rome took place 437 years after the capture of Troy (1182 BC), according to Velleius Paterculus (VIII, 5). It took place shortly before an eclipse of the sun; some have identified this eclipse as one observed at Rome on June 25, 745 BC, which had a magnitude of 50.3%. Varro may have used the consular list with its mistakes, calling the year of the first consuls "245 ab urbe condita" (a.u.c.).

According to Lucius Tarrutius of Firmum, Romulus was conceived on the 23rd day of the Egyptian month Choiac, at the time of a total eclipse of the sun. This eclipse occurred on June 15, 763 BC, with a magnitude of 62.5% at Rome. Its beginning took place at 6:49, its middle at 7:47 and its end at 8:51. He was born on the 21st day of the month of Thoth. The first day of Thoth fell on 2 March in that year (Prof. E. J. Bickerman, 1980: 115). That implies that Rhea Silvia's pregnancy lasted for 281 days. Rome was founded on the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, which was April 21, as universally agreed. The Romans add that, about the time Romulus started to build the city, an eclipse of the Sun was observed by Antimachus, the Teian poet, on the 30th day of the lunar month. This eclipse (see above) had a magnitude of 54.6% at Teos, Asia Minor. Romulus vanished in the 54th year of his life, on the Nones of Quintilis (July), on a day when the Sun was darkened. The day turned into night, which sudden darkness was believed to be an eclipse of the Sun. It occurred on July 17, 709 BC, with a magnitude of 93.7%. (All these eclipse data have been calculated by Prof. Aurél Ponori-Thewrewk, retired director of the Planetarium of Budapest.) Plutarch placed it in the 37th year from the foundation of Rome, on the fifth of our month July, then called Quintilis, on "Caprotine Nones". Livy (I, 21) also states that Romulus ruled for 37 years. He was slain by the Senate or disappeared in the 38th year of his reign. Most of these have been recorded by Plutarch (Lives of Romulus, Numa Pompilius and Camillus), Florus (Book I, I), Cicero (The Republic VI, 22: Scipio's Dream), Dio (Dion) Cassius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (L. 2). Dio in his Roman History (Book I) confirms these data by telling that Romulus was in his 18th year of age when he founded Rome. Therefore, three eclipse records indicate that Romulus reigned from 746 BC to 709 BC. Surprisingly this is very close to the calculation of the founding given by Rome's first native historical writer Quintus Fabius Pictor, who wrote that Rome was founded in the first year of the eighth Olympiad, 747 BC (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Book 1, ch. 74,2).

In the modern period debate has raged over the validity of the stories of Rome's foundation. Scholars have supported both extremes—those who want to believe nothing of the legend, and those who want to believe the legend wholeheartedly without skepticism. Archaeology offers the best chance of sorting out the debate, and indeed recent discoveries on the Palatine Hill in Rome have offered some tantalizing pieces of evidence. Chief among these is a series of fortification walls on the north slope of the Palatine Hill that can be dated to the middle of the 8th century B.C., precisely the time when legend says Romulus plowed a furrow (sulcus) around the Palatine in order to mark the boundary of his new city. The remains of the wall, and other evidence, has been discovered by the excavations of Andrea Carandini.

The name of Rome

The name of the town is generally considered to refer to Romulus, but there are other hypotheses. Some have suggested an Etruscan word, "rhome", meaning "hard". Another one of them refers it to Roma, who should have been the daughter of Aeneas or Evander. Current studies seem to prefer a provenance from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "river"; Rome would then mean "the town on the river". The Basque scholar Manuel de Larramendi thought that the origin was the Basque word orma (modern Basque horma), "wall".

Rome is also the Urbs, and this name (that in later Latin generically meant any town) comes from urvus, the furrow cut by a plough – in this case, by that of Romulus.

On the Capitoline hill, at noon on April 21 every year, a special bell called Patarina rings from the Campidoglio to commemorate the founding of Rome. On that occasion, the famous cannon of Gianicolo remains silent, the only day in the year on which it does not sound.

External links

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