Transcript Chapter Twenty-Three Lecture One

Chapter Twenty-Three
Lecture One
Legends of Early Rome
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.
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
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
Becoming a God at Rome
• 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
Becoming a God at Rome
• 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
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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
End