Thefounding of Rome was a prehistoric event or process later greatly embellished by Roman historians and poets. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rome developed from the gradual union of severalhilltop villages during theFinal Bronze Age or earlyIron Age.Prehistoric habitation of theItalian Peninsula occurred by 48,000years ago, with the area of Rome being settled by around 1600 BC.[2] Some evidence on theCapitoline Hill possibly dates as early asc. 1700 BC[3] and the nearby valley that later housed theRoman Forum had a developednecropolis by at least 1000 BC.[4] The combination of the hilltop settlements into a single polity by the later 8th century BC was probably influenced by the trend forcity-state formation emerging fromancient Greece.
Roman myth held that their city was founded byRomulus, son of thewar godMars and theVestal virginRhea Silvia, fallen princess ofAlba Longa and descendant ofAeneas of Troy.Exposed on theTiber river, Romulus and his twinRemus weresuckled by ashe-wolf at theLupercal before being raised by the shepherdFaustulus, taking revenge on their usurping great-uncleAmulius, and restoring Alba Longa to their grandfatherNumitor. The brothers then decided to establish a new town but quarrelled over some details, ending with Remus's murder and the establishment of Rome on thePalatine Hill. The year of the supposed founding was variously computed by ancient historians, but the two dates seeming to be officially sanctioned were theVarronian chronology's 753 BC (used byClaudius'sSecular Games andHadrian'sRomaea) and the adjacent year of 752 BC (used by theFasti and the Secular Games ofAntoninus Pius andPhilip I). Despite known errors inVarro's calculations, it is the 753 BC date that continues to form the basis for most modern calculations of theAUCcalendar era.
The legendary account was still much discussed and celebrated in Roman times. TheParilia Festival on 21 April was considered to commemorate theanniversary of the city's founding during thelate Republic and that aspect of the holiday grew in importance under theEmpire until it was fully transformed into the Romaea in AD 121. Most modern historians dismiss these ancient accounts of a single founder descended from a Trojan lineage establishing the city at specific point in time as fiction.
The conventional division of pre-Roman cultures in Italy deals with cultures which spokeIndo-European and non-Indo-European languages.[5] TheItalic languages, which includeLatin, are Indo-European and were spoken, according to inscriptions, in the lowerTiber Valley. It was once thought thatFaliscan – spoken north of Veii on the right bank of the Tiber – was a separate language, but inscriptions discovered in the 1980s indicate that Latin was spoken more generally in the area.Etruscan speakers were concentrated in modernTuscany with a similar language calledRaetic spoken on the upperAdige (the foothills of the easternItalian Alps).[6]
When drawing a connection between peoples and their languages, a reconstruction emerges with Indo-European peoples arriving in various waves of migrations during the first and second millennia BC: first a western Italic group (including Latin), followed by a central Italic group ofOsco-Umbrian dialects, with a late arrival ofGreek andCeltic on the Italian peninsula, from across theAdriatic and Alps, respectively. These migrations are generally believed to have displaced speakers of Etruscan and other pre-Indo-European languages; although it is possible that Etruscan arrived also by migration, almost certainly before 2000 BC.[7]
The start of the Iron age saw a gradual increase in social complexity and population that led to the emergence of proto-urban settlements in central and northern Italy writ large. These proto-urban agglomerations were normally clusters of smaller settlements that were insufficiently distant to be separated communities; over time, they would unify.[8]
There is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the area of modern Rome from at least 5,000years ago, but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures anyPalaeolithic andNeolithic sites.[9] Traces of occupation have been found in the general region – includingLavinium and the coast nearArdea – going back to the 15th century BC.[2] The area was home to theApennine andProto-Villanovan cultures before the advent of the more regionalLatial culture.
Archaeological evidence suggests that Rome developed over a long period, but it was definitely occupied by the middle of theBronze Age. Core samples have shown that the terrain of Bronze-Age Rome differed greatly from what is present now.[10] The area of theForum Boarium north of theAventine Hill was a seasonally dry plain that simultaneously provided a safe inland port for the era's seafaring ships, a wide area for watering horses and cattle,[10] and a safeford of the Tiber[11] with shallow and slow-flowing water even ifTiber Island had not yet formed,[10] one of the river's major fords betweenEtruria andCampania.[2] This advantageous but exposed location was closely flanked by the Capitoline, which at that time rose sharply from the more easterly bank of the Tiber[10] and provided a ready citadel for defense and for control of thesalt production along the river and at its mouth.[2] Theother hills and the marshes between them provided similarly defensible points for settlement.
Accordingly, thick deposits of manure[10] and ancient pottery shards have been discovered in theForum Boarium from the middle of the Bronze Age.[4] Current evidence suggests that there were three separate bronze-using settlements on the Capitoline during the period 1700–1350 BC and in the neighboring valley that later became theRoman Forum from 1350–1120 BC.[3] Some 13th century BC structures indicate that the Capitoline was already being terraced to manage its slope. Evidence in the Final Bronze Age around 1200–975 BC is clearer, showing occupation of the Capitoline, Forum, and adjacent Palatine. Excavations near the modernCapitoline Museums suggest the construction of fortifications and some scholars have speculated that settlements also existed on the other hills, especially theJaniculum,Quirinal, andAventine.[3] The Capitoline currently seems to have been the earliest settled[12] but it is debated whether the settlements on the other hills were independent, colonies of the Capitoline settlement, or formerly separate villages already consolidated into a single polity.[13] By 1000 BC, a necropolis existed in the Forum for cremation graves.[4] By the early Iron Agec. 900 BC, graves started to be placed into the ground. Other cemeteries appear on theEsquiline,Quirinal, andViminal Hills by the 9th century, containing pottery, imported Greek wares, fibulae, and bronze objects.[14] Remains from huts on the Palatine have been found that date to the 9th or 8th centuries BC, with accelerating development by the early to middle 8th century BC.[15]
_(5917668745).jpg)
By this time, four major settlements emerged in Rome. The nuclei appeared on the Palatine, the Capitoline, the Quirinal and Viminal, and the Caelian, Oppian, and Velia.[16] There is, however, no evidence linking any settlement on the Quirinal hill with the Sabines, as is alleged by some ancient accounts.[17]
The area of the Forum also was converted at this time into a public space. Burials there discontinued and portions of it were paved over. Votive offerings appear in thecomitium in the eighth century, indicating a more central religious cult, and other public buildings appear to have been erected around that time. One of those buildings was thedomus publica (the official residence of thepontifex maximus), which is now believed to have been constructed between 750 and 700 BC.[18] Religious activity started also in this period on the Capitoline hill, suggesting a connection to the ancient cult ofJupiter Feretrius. Other offerings discovered indicate Rome's connections outside Latium, with imported Greek pottery fromEuboea andCorinth.[19]
The first evidence of a wall appears in the middle or late eighth century on the Palatine, dated between 730 and 720 BC.[19] It is possible that the circuit of the wall marked out what later Romans believed to be the originalpomerium (sacred boundary) of the city.[20] The discovery of gates and streets connected to the wall, with the remains of various huts, suggest that Rome had by this time:
acquired a defined boundary ... [and] a more sophisticated level of social and political organisation ... the use of the Forum as a public space point[s] to the development of [a] shared civil and ritual space[] for the inhabitants of all communities, demonstrating an increasing level of centralisation.[21]
Like other Villanovan proto-urban centres, this archaic Rome was likely organised around clans that guarded their own areas, but by the later eighth century had confederated.[21] The development of city-states was likely a Greek innovation that spread through the Mediterranean from 850 to 750 BC.[22] The earliest votive deposits are found in the early seventh century on the Capitoline and Quirinal hills, suggesting that by that time a city had formed with monumental architecture and public religious sanctuaries.[23] Certainly, by 600 BC, a process ofsynoikismos was complete and a unified Rome – reflected in the production of a central forum area, public monumental architecture, and civic structures – had by then been formed.[24]
By thelate Republic, the usual Roman origin myth held that their city was founded by aLatin namedRomulus on the day of theParilia Festival (21 April) in some year around 750 BC.[25][26] Important aspects of the myth concerned Romulus's murder of his twinRemus, the brothers' descent from the godMars and the royal family ofAlba Longa, and that dynasty's supposed descent fromAeneas, himself supposedly descended from the goddessAphrodite and the royal family ofTroy.[21] The accounts in the first book ofLivy'sHistory of Rome[27] and inVergil'sAeneid were particularly influential. Some accounts further asserted that there had been aMycenaean Greek settlement on the Palatine (later dubbedPallantium) even earlier than Romulus and Remus, at some time prior to theTrojan War.[28]
Modern scholars disregard most of the traditional accounts as myths.[29] There is no persuasive archaeological evidence for either the Romulan foundation or for the idea of an early Greek settlement.[30] Even the name Romulus is now generally believed to have been retrojected from the city's name – glossed as "Mr Rome" by the classicistMary Beard – rather than reflecting a historical or actual figure.[31] Some scholars, particularlyAndrea Carandini, have argued that it remains possible that these foundation myths reflect actual historical events in some form and that the city andRoman Kingdom were in fact founded by a single actor in some way. This remains a minority viewpoint in present scholarship[32] and highly controversial in the absence of further evidence, with the arguments made by Carandini and others appearing to rest on highly tendentious interpretations of what is currently known with certainty from scientific excavations.[33]
The Romans'origin myths, however, provide evidence of how the Romans conceived of themselves as a mixture of different ethnic groups and foreign influences,[34] The Romans took the foundation of their own new cities seriously, undertaking many rituals and attributing many of them to remote antiquity.[35] They long maintained theHut of Romulus, a primitive dwelling on the Palatine attributed to their founder, although they had no firm basis for associating it with him specifically.[36]
| Ancient historian | Founding year |
|---|---|
| Gnaeus Naevius | c. 1100 BC[37] |
| Ennius | c. 1100 BC[38] or c. 884 BC[39][40] |
| Timaeus | 814–13 BC[41] |
| Asinius Quadratus | 776 BC[42] |
| Calpurnius Piso | 757, 753, or 751 BC[43] |
| Varro andPlutarch | 754–53 BC[44][45] |
| Fasti Capitolini | 753–52 BC[46] |
| Dionysius of Halicarnassus | 752–51 BC[47][48] |
| Polybius | 751–50 BC[49][50] |
| Cato the Elder andDiodorus | 751 BC[51][52][53] |
| Fabius Pictor | 748–47 BC[54][55] |
| Cincius Alimentus | 729–28 BC[56] |
While the Romans believed that their city had been founded by aneponymous founder at a specific time,[57] when that occurred was disputed by the ancient historians. The earliest dates placed itc. 1100 BC out of a belief that Romulus had been Aeneas's grandson. This moved Rome's foundation much closer to thefall ofTroy, dated byEratosthenes to 1184–83 BC;[37] these dates are attested as early as the 4th century BC. Romulus was later chronologically connected to Aeneas and the time of theTrojan War by introducing aline of Alban kings, which scholars consider to be entirely spurious.[58]
Most scholars view the move from a foundation date in the 1100s to one in the 700s to have come from Roman calculations from estimates of the lengths of the republican and regal periods.[59] Their attempts to estimate how long the regal period lasted, however, are largely rejected as synthetic calculations.[60] It may also be that the date of the city's foundation was assigned from Greek historiography,[61] especially influenced byTimaeus of Tauromenium (bornc. 350 BC) who may have been the first to move the founding of the city from the era of the Trojan war to the more historical 814 BC.[62] A later intervention, possibly at the hands ofFabius Pictor (bornc. 270 BC) or his sourceDiocles of Peparethus, then placed the foundation date within theOlympiads (ie within "historical" time), settling eventually onc. 750 BC.[63]Dionysius of Halicarnassus (bornc. 60 BC) placed it in the first year of the7th Olympiad, that is, 752 BC.[47]
FromClaudius'sSecular Games in AD 47 toHadrian'sRomaea in AD 121, the official date seems to have used thechronology established byVarro in the late 1st century BC, placing Rome's founding in 753 BC.Augustus'sFasti running to AD 13 and the Secular Games celebrated at Rome's 900th and 1000th anniversaries underAntoninus Pius andPhilip I, meanwhile, used dates computed from a foundation a year later in 752 BC. Despite known errors in Varro's work,[64] it is the former date that has become the most repeated in modernity and is still used for computing theAUCcalendar era.[65]
In the best known form of the legend, Romulus and Remus are the grandsons ofNumitor, the king of Alba Longa. After Numitor is deposed by his brotherAmulius and his daughterRhea Silvia is forced to become aVestal virgin, she becomes pregnant – allegedlyraped by thewar godMars – and delivers the two illegitimate brothers.[66] Amulius orders that the childrenbe left to die on the slopes of the Palatine or in theTiber River, but they aresuckled by ashe-wolf at theLupercal cave and then discovered by the shepherdFaustulus and taken in by him and his wifeAcca Larentia. (Livy combines Larentia and the she-wolf, considering them most likely to have referred to aprostitute, also known in Latin slang as alupa or she-wolf.)[67] Faustulus eventually reveals the brothers' true origins, and they depose or murder Amulius and restore Numitor to his throne. They then leave or are sent to establish a new city at the location where they had been rescued.[68][69]
The twins then come into conflict during the foundation of the city, leading to the murder of Remus. The dispute is variously said to have been over the naming of the new city, over the interpretation ofauguries,[70] whether to place it on the Palatine or Aventine Hill, or concerned with Remus's disrespect of the new town'sritual furrow or wall. Some accounts say Romulus slays his brother with his own hand, others that Remus and sometimes Faustulus are killed in a general melee.[71]Wiseman and some others attribute the aspects offratricide to the 4th-century BCConflict of the Orders, when Rome's lower-classplebeians began to resist excesses by the upper-classpatricians.[72]
Romulus, afterritualistically ploughing thegenerally square course of the city'sfuture boundary, erectsits first walls and declares the settlement an asylum for exiles, criminals, and runaway slaves. The city becomes larger but also acquires a mostly male population.[73] When Romulus' attempts to secure the women of neighbouring settlements by diplomacy fail, he uses the religious celebration ofConsualia to abduct the women of theSabines. According to Livy, when the Sabines rally an army to take their women back, the women force the two groups to make peace and install the Sabine kingTitus Tatius as comonarch with Romulus.[68][74]
The story has been theorised by some modern scholars to reflect anti-Roman propaganda from the late fourth century BC, but more likely reflects an indigenous Roman tradition, given theCapitoline Wolf which likely dates to the sixth century BC. Regardless, by the third century, it was widely accepted by Romans and put onto some of Rome'sfirst silver coins in 269 BC.[75] In his 1995Beginnings of Rome,Tim Cornell argues that the myths of Romulus and Remus are "popular expressions of some universal human need or experience" rather than borrowings from the Greek east or Mesopotamia, inasmuch as the story of virgin birth, intercession by animals and humble stepparents, with triumphant return expelling an evil leader are common mythological elements across Eurasia and even into the Americas.[76]
The tradition of Romulus was also combined with a legend telling of Aeneas coming from Troy and travelling to Italy. This tradition emerges from theIliad's prophecy that Aeneas's descendants would one day return and rule Troy once more.[77] Greeks by 550 BC had begun to speculate, given the lack of any clear descendants of Aeneas, that the figure had established a dynasty outside the proper Greek world.[78] The first attempts to tie this story to Rome were in the works of two Greek historians at the end of the fifth century BC,Hellanicus of Lesbos andDamastes of Sigeum, likely only mentioning off hand the possibility of a Roman connection; a more assured connection only emerged at the end of the fourth century BC when Rome started having formal dealings with the Greek world.[79]
The ancient Roman annalists, historians, and antiquarians faced an issue tying Aeneas to Romulus, as they believed that Romulus lived centuries after the Trojan War, which was dated at the timec. 1100 BC. For this, they fabricated a story of Aeneas's son founding the city ofAlba Longa and establishing a dynasty there, which eventually produced Romulus.[80][81][82]
In Livy's first book he recounts how Aeneas, a demigod of the Trojan royalAnchises and the goddessVenus, leaves Troy after its destruction during theTrojan War and sailed to the western Mediterranean. He brings his son – Ascanius – and a group of companions. Landing in Italy, he forms an alliance with a local magnate calledLatinus and marries his daughterLavinia, joining the two into a new group called the Latini; they then found a new city, calledLavinium. After a series of wars against theRutuli andCaere, the Latins conquer theAlban Hills and its environs. His son Ascanius then founds the legendary city ofAlba Longa, which became the dominant city in the region.[83] The later descendants of the royal lineage of Alba Longa eventually produce Romulus and Remus, setting up the events of their mythological story.[84]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus similarly attempted to show a Greek connection, giving a similar story for Aeneas, but also a previous series of migrations. He describes migrations ofArcadians into southern Italy some time in the 18th century BC,[85] migrations into Umbria by Greeks from Thessaly, and the foundation of a settlement on thePalatine hill byEvander (originally hailing also from Arcadia) andHercules,[86]whoselabour with thecattle ofGeryon was placed in theForum Boarium by the Romans.[citation needed]
The introduction of Aeneas follows a trend across Italy towardsHellenising their own early mythologies by rationalising myths and legends of theGreek Heroic Age into a pseudo-historical tradition of prehistoric times;[87] this was in part due to Greek historians' eagerness to construct narratives purporting that the Italians were actually descended from Greeks and their heroes.[88][84] These narratives were accepted by non-Greek peoples due Greek historiography's prestige and claims to systematic validity.[89]
Archaeological evidence shows that worship of Aeneas had been established at Lavinium by the sixth century BC.[84] Similarly, a cult to Hercules had been established at theAra Maxima in Rome during the archaic period.[90] By the early fifth century BC, these stories had become entrenched in Roman historical beliefs.[91] These cults, along with the early – in literary terms – account ofCato the Elder, show how Italians and Romans took these Greek histories seriously and as reliable evidence by later annalists, even though they were speculations of little value.[92] Much of the syncretism, however, may simply reflect Roman desires to give themselves a prestigious backstory: claim of Trojan descent proved politically advantageous with the Greeks by justifying both claims of common heritage and ancestral enmity.[93]
There was no single mythic tradition of Rome's founding.[94] By the time of thePyrrhic War (280–275 BC), there were some sixty different myths for Rome's foundation that circulated in the Greek world. Most of them attributed the city to an eponymous founder, usually "Rhomos" or "Rhome" rather than Romulus.[95][96] One story told howRomos, a son ofOdysseus andCirce, was the one who founded Rome.[97]Martin P. Nilsson speculates that this older story was becoming a bit embarrassing as Rome became more powerful and tensions with the Greeks grew. Being descendants of the Greeks was no longer preferable, so the Romans settled on the Trojan foundation myth instead. Nilsson further speculates that the name of Romos was changed by some Romans to the native name Romulus, but the same name Romos (later changed to the native Remus) was never forgotten by many of the people, so both these names were used to represent the founders of the city.[98]
Another story, attributed toHellanicus of Lesbos byDionysius of Halicarnassus, says that Rome was founded by a woman named Rhome, one of the followers of Aeneas, after landing in Italy and burning their ships.[99] That by the middle of the fifth century Aeneas was also allegedly the founder of two or three other cities across Italy was no object.[100] These myths also differed as to whether their eponymous matriarch Roma was born in Troy or Italy – i.e. before or after Aeneas's journey – or otherwise if their Romus was a direct or collateral descendant of Aeneas.[101]
Myths of the early third century also differed greatly in the claimed genealogy of Romulus or the founder, if an intermediate actor was posited. One tale posited that a Romus, son of Zeus, founded the city.[102] Callias posited that Romulus was descended from Latinus and a woman called Roma who was the daughter of Aeneas and a homonymous mother. Other authors depicted Romulus and Romus, as a son of Aeneas, founding not only Rome but also Capua. Authors also wrote their home regions into the story.Polybius, who hailed from Arcadia, for example, gave Rome not a Trojan colonial origin but rather an Arcadian one.[101]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). Momigliano dismisses such beliefs, however, as overly reliant on "doubtful etymologies and ... unorthodox use of the legend of Evander".Quintus Ennius... according to his account, the founding of the city was dated about the year 900.
They [authors of the reviewed books] assume there was a single legendary tradition, but in fact there were dozens. Servius knew eight... Festus knew ten, Plutarch thirteen, Dionysius fourteen.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)| Deities (Dii Consentes) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary figures | ||
| Legendary beings | ||
| Texts | ||
| Concepts and practices | ||
| Philosophy | ||
| Events | ||
| Objects | ||
| Variations | ||
| See also | ||
