Exploring the Myth of Romulus and Remus in Ancient Rome
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University of Toronto**We aren't endorsed by this school
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CLA 204
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History
Date
Dec 12, 2024
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39
Uploaded by GeneralOysterPerson1260
University of Toronto ScarboroughDepartment of Historical and Cultural StudiesWinter Term 2023CLAA06H3S – Ancient Mythology II: Greece and RomeWhen: Wednesdays 3:00 – 5:00pm (in person)Where:AA112Office Hours: Online (zoom)/in-person by appointmentAppointments can be arranged by email or after the classThe Capitoline She-wolf with Romulus and Remus. The She-Wolf is an Etruscan sculpture (490-480 BCE), the Twins are made by Antonio del Pollaiolo (end of the 15th century)
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The myth of Romulus and Remus:The ancient sources•The most extended versions of the myth of Romulus and Remus are found only in three sources: Titus Livy (59 BCE – 17 BCE), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60 BCE – 7 BCE), Plutarch of Chaeronea (46/48 CE – 125/127 CE);•Other ancient historians narrated the story of Romulus and Remus and of the foundation of Rome, but these are fragmentary or simply disappeared: Diocles of Peparethus (late IV – early III century BCE), Fabius Pictor (ca. 270 BCE – 215 BCE), Quintus Ennius (ca. 239 BCE – 169 BCE), Cato the Elder (ca. 234 BCE – ca. 149 BCE).
Central Italy at the time of Romulus and Remus:The Latium Vetus (the old Latium)
The ancient city of Rome
•Romulus and Remus: the twins;•Amulius: king of the city of Alba and usurper of Numitor’s throne;•Numitor: former king of Alba, grandfather of Romulus and Remus;•Rhea Silvia: Numitor’s daughter and mother of Romulus and Remus;•Faustolus: swineherd living in Alba’s coutryside;•Acca Larentia: Faustolus’ wife.The myth of Romulus and Remus:The characters
•Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities 1.71…Then Amulius, having unjustly possessed himself of the kingdom which belonged to Numitor, his elder brother, reigned forty-two years. But when Amulius had been slain by Romulus and Remus, the sons of the holy maiden, as shall presently be related, Numitor, the maternal grandfather of the youths, after his brother’s death resumed the sovereignty which by law belonged to him. In the next year of Numitor’s reign, which was the four hundred and thirty-second after the taking of Troy, the Albans sent out a colony, under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, and founded Rome, in the beginning of the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Daicles of Messene was victor in the foot race, and at Athens Charops was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon.Rome a colony of Alba Longa: how it all began according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Pieter Paul Rubens, Mars and Rhea Silvia (1617)•Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities 1.77«[…] And they say that the ravisher, to comfort the maiden (by which it became clear that he was a god), commanded her not to grieve at all at what had happened, since she had been united in marriage to the divinity of the place and as a result of her violation should bear two sons who would far excel all men in valour and warlinke achievements.»The divine rape of Rhea Silvia
•Plutarch, Life of Romulus 6.3 Well, the noble size and beauty of their bodies, even when they were infants, betokened their natural disposition; and when they grew up, they were both of them courageous and manly, with spirits which courted apparent danger, and a daring which nothing could terrify. But Romulus seemed to exercise his judgement more, and to have political sagacity, while in his intercourse with their neighbours in matters pertaining to herding and hunting, he gave them the impression that he was born to command rather than to obey.»Romulus and Remus•Plutarch, Life of Romulus 7.5 When Numitor came home, after getting Remus into his hands, he was amazed at the young man’s complete superiority in stature and strength of body, and perceiving by his countenance that the boldness and vigour of his soul were unsubdued and unharmed by his present circumstances, and hearing that his acts and deeds corresponded with his looks, but chiefly, as it would seem, because a divinity was aiding and assisting the inauguration of great events, he grasped the truth by a happy conjecture, and asked him who he was and what were the circumstances of his birth […]»
Romulus’ victory over Acron, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1812). Beaux-Arts, Paris.
•Livy From the founding of Rome 1.7Remus is said to have been the first to receive an augury, from the flight of six vultures. The omen had been already reported when twice that number appeared to Romulus. Thereupon each was saluted king by his own follower, the one party laying claim to the honour from priority, the other from the number of the birds. They then engaged in a battle of words and, angry taunts leading to bloodshed, Remus was struck down in the affray. The commoner story is that Remus leaped over the new walls in mockery of his brother, whereupon Romulus in great anger slew him, and in menacing wise added these words withal, «So perish whoever else shall leap over my walls!» Thus Romulus acquired sole power, and the city, thus founded, was called by its founder’s name.Livy’s version of the myth: the walls of Rome and the contest between Romulus and Remus
•Ancient sources report two different versions of the killing of Remus: 1) he was killed in a fight with Romulus’ gang arisen from a dispute over the criterion that should determine the location of Rome; 2) he was killed because he trespassed the sacred boundaries of the new city drawn by Romulus;•The second version is paralleled by the episode of the wooden-made fence built by Kullervo in the Finnish epic Kalevala (31.302ff.):Kullervo, son of Kalervo, now makes a fence.He places big pines as palings just as they were , whole tall firs he sets up as posts;He pulled withes good and hard from the tallest rowans,Made a fence without a opening, made it quickly without a gate.Then he uttered these words, spoke and said this:«Whoever does not rise aloft like a bird, not fly along with two wings,Let him not get over the fence of Kalervo’s son.»The boundaries of Rome’s wall and Kullervo
The boundaries of Rome’s wall and Kullervo•Livy From the founding of Rome 1.8When Romulus had duly attended to the worship of the gods, he called the people together and gave them the rules of law, since nothing else but law could unite them into a single body politic. But these, he was persuaded, would only appear binding in the eyes of a rustic people in case he should invest his own person with majesty, by adopting emblems of authority. He therefore put on a more august state in every way, and especially by the assumption of the twelve lictors. Some thinks the twelve birds which had given him an augury of kingship led him to choose this number. […] He had now no reason to be dissatisfied with his strenght, and proceeded to add policy to strenght. He appointed a hundred senators, whether because this number seemed to him sufficient, or because there were no more than a hundred who could be designated Fathers. At all events, they received the designation of fathers from their rank, and their descendants were called patricians.
The myth of the foundation of Rome lives on:Here some examples!
“Forza Roma, Forza Lupi!”: the Capitoline she-wolf in Italian soccer•Here the anthem of the A.S. Rome
My view… “Vola, Lazio, vola!”: the rivalry between S.S.Lazio and A.S. Roma
Romulus and Remus in Cinecittà:The peplum movies•1961; directed by Sergio Corbucci (more known for Spaghetti-western movies like Django);•English title: Duel of the titans.Here a clip from the movie: the fight between Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus ‘Romani de Roma’ (Romans from Rome):The ‘romanesca’ comedy •1976; directed by Mario Castellacci and Pier Francesco Pingitore;•Title translated in English: Remus and Romulus – the story of two sons of a she-wolf;•The actors are well-known representatives of the Romanità or cultura romana (romanesca);•The language used is Roman vernacular.Herewith a scene from the movie
•Released in 2019; directed by Mattero Rovere;•The language used is Proto-Latin (NEVER attested inancient documents), reconstructed through modern linguistical methods;•Archaeologists and historians collaborated in the reconstruction of the pre-urban communities and settlements existing before the founding of Rome;•The character of Remus (Alessandro Borghi) is central in the story.Romulus and Remus in the 2000s
Here the clip of the finalsceneOpening sceneThe trailerThe founding of Rome in the XXI century:the First King
•The name ‘Rome’ derives from the Greek word for ‘strenght’ (Gr. rhōmē): it refers to the warlike nature of the Pelasgians (the indigenous inhabitants of Greece) who settled down in Latium;•The name ‘Rome’ derives from that of a Trojan woman, Roma, who convinced the other wives of the Trojan refugees in Latium to burn the ships down, thus forcing their husbands to settle in Latium;•The name ‘Rome’ is variously associated to characters of ancient mythical genealogies: Roma, daughter of Italus and Leucania; Roma, daughter of Telephus and wife of Aeneas; Roma, daughter of Ascanius, son of Aeneas; Romanus, son of Ulixes and Circe; Romi, king of the Latins, originally immigrants from Tessaly (Greece), etc.Rome a Greek foundation?
Vergil and the Aeneid: a poem to celebrate Rome and the empire•Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Roman poet (70 – 19 BCE)•Works: Ecloguae (Bucolic poems), Georgica (Georgics), Aeneis (Aeneid)•The Aeneid is an epic poem which has Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as the major model (but not as the only one)•Themes: Aeneas’ fleeing from Troy and wandering around the Mediterranean and Italy before the foundation of Rome; the fight between Aeneas and the Latins against the Rutulians (led by Turnus)•12 books: the first six focus on Aeneas’ journey (in partic. In Libya, where he meets the Punic queen Dido) and reflect the Odyssey; the second half of the poem is about the war between the Latin peoples and the Rutulians and reflect the Iliad•It is a poem that celebrates Rome and its empire in the figure of the first Roman emperor (princeps) Octavian Augustus; however, it does not directly deal with the foundation of RomeVergil sitting between the muses Clio and Melpomene. Mosaic from Hadrumetum, Tunisia (3rd CE)
Overview of the Aeneid•Book 1: Juno, who hates the Trojans, cause Aeneas and his compains’ ships to wreck on the coasts of North Africa. They find refuge in Carthage, where they are hosted by queen Dido. The queen asks Aeneas to tell her about the destruction of Troy•Book 2: Aeneas tells the story of the destruction of Troy. He escapes with his father Anchises, his son Ascanius, the Trojan gods (the Penates), but he looses his wife Creusa•Book 3: leaving the Troades, Aeneas and his companions realize that a new fatherland awaits them in the West. Death of Aeneas’ father Anchises•Book 4: tragic story of Dido’s love for Aeneas. After Aeneas decides to leave Africa and Dido, the queen curses his former lover, by foretelling the hatred between the Carthaginians and the descendants of the Trojans, and commits suicide•Book 5: The Trojans arrives in Sicily; funerary games for Anchises•Book 6: arrived at Cuma, Aeneas consults the Cuman oracle (the Sibylla) and accesses the Underworld. Here, Aeneas encounters his father and other figures from his Trojan past; he also sees the heroes of the future Rome•Book 7: Aeneas and his companions arrive at the mouth of the river Tevere; here, they are hosted by king Latinus. The marriage between Latinus’ daughter, Lavinia, and Aeneas is planned, but Juno sends a Fury (Aletto) to Latinus’ wife, Amata, and Turnus, former soon-to-be bride to Lavinia and king of the Rutulians. A coalition of Italic states, led by the Rutulians, is put together against Aeneas, with Lavinia playing the part of new Helen of Troy.•Book 8: Aeneas finds the Arcadian king Evander as new ally, with Evander’s son Pallas, and some Etruscans; the god Vulcan prepares an armor for Aeneas; the shield has the future story of Rome engraved on it.•Book 9: Aeneas is absent from the battlefield and the coalition led by the Rutulians is winning; the sacrifice of the two Trojan heroes Euryalus and Nisus is in vain•Book 10: Aeneas returns. Turnus kills Aeneas’ friend Pallas, whereas Aeneas kills Mezentius, king of an Etruscan coalition allied to Turnus•Book 11: after the first Trojan victory, Aeneas mourns the death of Pallas. Turnus refuses a peace treaty and keeps fighting; another hero from the coalition of Turnus dies, the Amazon Camilla•Book 12: final battle between Aeneas and Turnus; Aeneas kills Turnus after seeing him wearing Pallas’ belt. Juno and Zeus find an agreement, that there is no trace of the Trojan name in the new people originating from the union of the Trojans with the Latins.
•Vergil Aeneid 1.1-11Arms and the man I sing, who first from the coasts of Troy, exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavine shores; much buffeted on sea and land by violence from above, through cruel Juno’s unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in war also, till he should build a city and bring his gods to Latium; whence came the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the lofty walls of Rome.Tell me, O Muse, the cause; wherein thwarted in will or wherefore angered, did the Queen of heaven drive a man, of goodness so wondrous, to traverse so many perils, to face so many toils. Can heavenly spirits cherish resentment so dire?Vergil’s Aeneid: the prologue
•Vergil Aeneid 4.586-621Soon as the queen from her watchtower saw the light whiten and the fleet move on with even sails, and knew the shores and harbours were void of oarsmen, thrice and four times she struck her comely breast with her hand, and tearing her golden hair, «O God,» she cries, «shall he go? Shall the intruder have made of our realm a laughingstock? Will pursuers not fetch arms and give chase from all the city, and some of them speed ships from the docks? Go, haste to bring fire, serve arms, ply oars! What say I? Where am I? What madness turns my brain? Unhappy Dido, do only now your sinful deeds come home to you? […]O Sun, whose rays survey all that is done on earth; and Juno, agent and witness of my unhappy love; Hecate, whose name is wailed by night in city streets; and Avenging Furies and gods of dying Elissa: hear me now; turn your anger upon the sins that merit it, and listen to my prayers! If that accursed wretch must needs reach harbour and come to shore, if Jove’s ordinances so demand and this is the outcome fixed; yet even so, harassed in war by the arms of a fearless nation, expelled from his territory and torn from Iulus’ embrace, let him plead for aid and see his friends cruelly slaughtered! Nor yet, wen he has submitted to the terms of an unjust peace, may he enjoy his kingship or the life he longs for, but perish before his time and lie unburied on a lonely strand! This is my prayer; this last utterance I pour out with my blood.Queen Dido, the curse to Aeneas and the origins of the Roman-Punic rivalry
Dido and Aeneas in love. Fresco from Pompeii (Ist CE)Tunisian banknote with Dido (2005)Miniature representing the death of Dido in a manuscript page of Aeneid Book 6. From the Vergilius Vaticanus(c. 400 CE)
Gaius Sallustius Crispus: Biography86 BCE: born in Amiternum in the Italian region of Sabina (today: L’Aquila; same provenance of Cato the Elder) from a well-off family with no career in the Senate (homo novus)55 or 54: perhaps quaestor52: as tribune of the plebs he attacked the murderer of the tribune Clodius (supporter of Caesar), Milo, and against his supporter Cicero50: expelled from the Senate by the aristocratic group with the allegations of moral unworthinessDuring the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, S. supports Caesar and after the war his political career is revived46: praetorAfter Caesar defeats the Pompeian army in Africa along with the Numidian king Jubas, S. is made governor of the newly formed province of Africa Nova35 or 34: S. dies in his lavish residence, with park, between the Quirinale and the Pincio (Horti Sallustiani)
Sallust and his works: the creation of the historical monograph in Rome•Sallust wrote three historical works:•Bellum Catilinae: about Catiline’s conspiracy (63 BCE) and the hatred of the poor classes (non-owners, common people, slaves) for the aristocracy and the Senate•Bellum Iugurthinum: about Rome’s war against the Numidian king Jugurtha (111-105 BCE) and the corruption of the Senate•Historiae: long historical work covering the period between 78 and 67 (from the death of Sulla to the end of Pompey’s war against the pirates) started in 39 BCE but left incomplete to Book 5; we have only fragments (proemium, four speeches and two letters)•[Epistulae ad Caesarem senem de re publica]: spurious work wrongly attributed to S.; advices to Caesar about the use of mercy (clementia) and exhortation to fight against the corruption of the Senate and the discord among factions, as well as to re-establish peace in the state•[Invectiva in Ciceronem]: spurious work wrongly attributed to S.; a violent attack against Cicero, his political career and his ambitions•The historical monograph is a sub-genre of historiography: it deals with a specific period (a specific event or place) and not with a long succession of years•The creator of the historical monograph was the Athenian historian Thucydides, who wrote about the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BCE) because of its political and historical significance, instead of dealing with a longer period like his predecessor Herodotus
•Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 10:But when our country had grown strong through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty peoples subdued by force of arms,when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s dominion, had perished root and branch,and all seas and lands lay open, then Fortune began to be savage and to throw all into confusion. Those who had easily endured toil dangers, uncertain and difficult undertakings, found leisure and wealth, desirable under other circumstances, a burden and a curse. Hence a craving first for money, then for power, increased; these were, as it were, the root of all evils. For avarice subverted trustworthiness, integrity, and other virtuous practices; in place of these, it taught insolence, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to set a price on everything. The desire for advancement drove many mortals to become false; to have one thought locked in their breast, another ready on their tongue; to value friendships and enmities not on their merits but by the standard of self-interest, and to show a good front rather than a good heart. These vices grew little by little at first; from time to time they were punished; later, when the disease had spread ike a deadly plague, the community was changed, and governmental authority, instead of being the most just and best, became cruel and intolerable.The first digression on the corruption of the Roman state
Titus Livy: History in the Augustan Age59 BCE: born in Padua (Cisalpine Gaul). He moved to Rome but he never had a political career, although he got in touch with Augustus27/25 BCE: L. focuses on his historical work, a history of Rome from the foundation to his own times (Ab urbe condita libri, or Historiae)17 CE: L. dies in the native Padua There is news among ancient sources of historical and philosophical dialogues written by Livy during his young age. We know about Livy’s life from Saint Jerome’s Chronicon as well as from Pliny the Younger (Epistulae 2.3.8), Quintilian, Tacitus and other authors.Ab urbe condita libri (Books [about the history of Rome]from the foundation) is the title of Livy’s work given by the most authoritative manuscripts and important ancient sources; Livy himself calls his work Annales (Annals) the historian and encyclopedist Pliny the Elder calls it Historia (History).A history of Rome in 142 booksfrom the mythical origins of the city, starting with Aeneas’ flee from Troy, to probably the death of Augustus’ son, Drusus, in Germany in 9 BCE or to the Roman defeat in the Teutoburg forest in Germany in 9 CE. It is possible that the work should originally have included 150 books, arriving to the death of Augustus in 14 CE
In a preface to only a section of my work I am able to make the claim that most historians have made at the beginning of their entire opus: that I am going to provide an account of the most momentous war ever fought, that which the Carthaginians, led by Hannibal, waged against the Roman people.For no other states or nations have come into conflict with greater resources than these, nor had the combatants themselves ever possessed more strength and power. They each also brought to the struggle strategies that were not unfamiliar to the other but ones that had been put to the test in the First Punic War; and so changeable were the fortunes of the war and so evenly matched the fighting that it was the eventual victors who came closer to ruin. In addition, they fought with a hatred almost greater than their might, the Romans indignant that a conquered people was presuming to attack its conquerors, the Carthaginians because they believed the authority wielded over them in defeat was high-handed and rapacious.There is even a story that, at about the age of nine, Hannibal was (in boyish fashion) trying to coax his fatherHamilcar to take him to Spain. Hamilcar, who had finished off the war in Africa, was offering sacrifice when about to take his army across to Spain, and he brought Hannibal to the altar and there made him touch the sacred objects and swear to make himself an enemy of Roman people at the earliest possible opportunity.Hamilcar, a man of great pride, was greatly vexed by the loss of Sicily and Sardinia. He thought that Sicily had been ceded only because the Carthaginians had too quickly abandoned hope, and also that Sardinia had been dishonestly filched from them by the Romans6—who had, in addition, even imposed an indemnity on them—during the upheavals in Africa.The preface to Book XXI: The Second Punic War as watershed moment in Rome’s history
The resonance of Second Punic War in Rome’s history during the Ist century BCE(Sallust, Catiline’s War 10) But when our country had grown strong through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty peoples subdued by force of arms,when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s dominion, had perished root and branch,and all seas and lands lay open, then Fortune began to be savage and to throw all into confusion. Those who had easily endured toil dangers, uncertain and difficult undertakings, found leisure and wealth, desirable under other circumstances, a burden and a curse. Hence a craving first for money, then for power, increased; these were, as it were, the root of all evils. For avarice subverted trustworthiness, integrity, and other virtuous practices; in place of these, it taught insolence, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to set a price on everything. The desire for advancement drove many mortals to become false; to have one thought locked in their breast, another ready on their tongue; to value friendships and enmities not on their merits but by the standard of self-interest, and to show a good front rather than a good heart. These vices grew little by little at first; from time to time they were punished; later, when the disease had spreadlike a deadly plague, the community was changed, and governmental authority, instead of being the most just and best, became cruel and intolerable.(Vergil, Aeneid 4.621-9) “… This is my prayer; this last utterance I pour out with my blood. Then do you, Tyrians, persecute with hate his stock and all the race to come, and to my dust offer this tribute! Let no love or treaty unite the nations! Arise from my ashes, unknown avenger, to harass the Trojan settlers with fire and sword—today, hereafter,
•Vergil Aeneid 6.756-797«Now then, the glory henceforth to attend the Trojan race, what children of Italian stock are held in store by fate, glorious souls waiting to inherit our nam, this shall I reveal in speech and inform you of your destiny. […] Further, a son of Mars shall keep his grandsire company, Romulus, whom his mother Ilia shall bear of Assaracus’ stock. Do you see how twin plumes stand upright on his head and how the Father of the gods stamps him with divine majesty? Lo, under his auspices, my son, shall that glorious Rome extend her empire to earth’s ends, her ambitions to the skies, and shall embrace seven hills with a single city’s wall, blessed in a brood of heroes. […] Turn hither now your two-eyed gaze, and behold this nation, the Romans that are yours. Here is Caesar and all the seed of Iulus destined to pass under heaven’s spacious sphere. And this in truth is he whom you so often hear promised you, Augustus Caesar, son of a god, who will again establish a golden age in Latium amind fields ruled by Saturn; he will advance his empire beyond the Garamants and Indians to a land which lies beyond our stars, beyond the path of the sun, where sky-bearing Atlas wheels on his shoulders the blazing star-studded sphere.»Aeneid Book 6 and Aeneas’ descent to the Underworld:The glorious future of Rome
•Vergil Aeneid 6.847-853«Others, I doubt not, shall with softer mould beat out the breathing bronze, coax from the marble features to the life, plead cases with greater eloquence and with a pointer trace heaven’s motions and predit the risings of the stars; you, Roman, be sure to rule the world (be these your arts), to crown peace with justice, to spare the vanquished and to crush the proud [Lat. tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento (hea tibi sunt artes), pacique imponere morem, parcere subiectis et debellare superbos].»The ‘manifest destiny’ of the Romans
•Vergil Aeneid 12.586-621[Turnus, the Ruturial hero and enemy of Aeneas, speaks] «I have have earned it,» he cried, «and I ask no mercy; use your chance. If any thought of a parent’s grief can touch you, I beg you—you too had such a father in Anchises—pity Daunus’ old age, and give me—or, if you prefer, my lifeless body---back to my kin. You are the victor; and the Ausonians have seen me stretch forth my hands as the vanquished: Lavinia is your wife; do not press your hatred further.» […] these words began to sway him more and more, when high on the shoulder the luckless baldric met his gaze, and the belt flashed with its well-known studs—the belt of young Pallas, whom Turnus had wounded and stretched vanquished on the earth, and now he wore on his shoulders his foeman’s fatal emblem. Aeneas, as soon as his eyes drank in the trophy, that memorial of cruel grief, ablaze with fury and terrible in his wrath: «Clad in the spoils of one of mine, are you to be snatched from my hands? Pallas it is, Pallas who sacrifices you with this stroke, and takes retribution from your guilty blood!» So saying, in burning rage he buries his sword full in Turnus’ breast. His limbs grew slack and chill and with a moan his life fled resentfully to the Shades below.[The ending of the Aeneid:The duel between Aeneas and Turnus
Aeneas defeats Turnus, Luca Giordano (1634-1705). Palazzo Corsini, Rome