11.1 The founding of Rome and early Roman history

Rome's founding story blends myth with cultural memory, and understanding it is essential for reading Virgil's Aeneid, which deliberately ties Rome's origins to divine destiny and heroic sacrifice. The legends, geography, and early political structures covered here form the backdrop against which Virgil crafted his epic.

The Founding of Rome

The Legend of Romulus and Remus

Roman mythology traces the city's birth to twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars (god of war) and Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin. Abandoned as infants, they were nursed by a she-wolf and later raised by a shepherd.

The twins decided to found a city on the Tiber River, but they quarreled over which hill to build on and whose name the city would bear. Romulus killed Remus and became Rome's first king, traditionally dated to April 21, 753 BCE. The story matters because it encodes values the Romans saw in themselves: divine parentage through Mars signals a warrior people, and the fratricide suggests that Rome's greatness came at a cost from the very beginning.

The Seven Hills of Rome

Rome was founded on seven hills along the Tiber River: the Palatine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine.

• The Palatine Hill held the earliest settlements and remained the traditional heart of the city. (The word "palace" actually derives from Palatine.)
• The Capitoline Hill became Rome's religious and political center, home to the Temple of Jupiter and the Capitoline Triad: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.
• The hills gave the early settlement natural defensive advantages, making it harder for enemies to attack and easier for inhabitants to spot approaching threats.

The Significance of Rome's Founding Date

The traditional date of 753 BCE was calculated by the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro in the 1st century BCE. Romans used this date as year one of their calendar, and they celebrated it annually during the Parilia festival, a pastoral holiday honoring the goddess Pales. Every Roman king's reign and every major event was dated relative to this founding, giving the city a continuous historical identity stretching back to Romulus.

Early Roman Mythology and Religion

Early Roman religion was polytheistic, with a pantheon heavily adapted from Greek models (Jupiter corresponds to Zeus, Juno to Hera, Minerva to Athena). Two features distinguished Roman religious practice:

• Ritual precision mattered enormously. Romans believed that performing sacrifices and ceremonies exactly right maintained the pax deorum (peace of the gods). A single mistake could void an entire ritual.
• Divine intervention in human affairs was assumed. Omens, augury (reading bird flights), and haruspicy (examining animal entrails) were standard tools for public decision-making.

The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, charged with keeping Rome's sacred fire burning. Their role connects directly to the founding legend, since Rhea Silvia was a Vestal Virgin whose violation of her vow produced Romulus and Remus.

Early Roman Society

The Latin Tribes

The early Roman population drew from several Italic peoples, not just one tribe.

• The Latins were the dominant group and gave Rome its language. Latin would eventually spread across the Mediterranean as Rome expanded.
• The Sabines were a neighboring people who, according to legend, merged with the Romans after the so-called "Rape of the Sabine Women" (better translated as the abduction of the Sabine women). This story explained how Rome's population grew through absorbing surrounding communities.
• Together, the Latins and Sabines formed the core of the patrician class, the aristocratic families who controlled early Roman politics.

Note that the Etruscans, while hugely influential, were a distinct civilization rather than one of the Latin tribes.

Etruscan Influence on Roman Culture

The Etruscans flourished in central Italy (modern Tuscany) before Rome's rise and left a deep imprint on Roman civilization. Their contributions included:

• Symbols of authority: the fasces (a bundle of rods bound around an axe, symbolizing the power to punish) and the purple-bordered toga worn by magistrates
• Engineering and infrastructure: Etruscan techniques shaped Roman building, drainage, and urban planning
• Religious practices: divination methods like haruspicy came from Etruscan tradition
• Direct political rule: several of Rome's kings were Etruscan, and Etruscan artisans helped build the city's early public works

Understanding Etruscan influence helps explain why early Rome was not purely "Latin" in character. It was a cultural crossroads from the start.

Early Roman Government

The Roman Kingdom

The Roman Kingdom (753–509 BCE) was Rome's earliest political phase. During this period:

• Rome was ruled by a succession of seven kings, beginning with Romulus.
• Kings held broad executive, military, and religious authority.
• They were chosen with input from the Senate, a council of patrician elders who served as advisors. The Senate couldn't legislate on its own, but no king could easily govern without its support.
• The institutions developed during the Kingdom, especially the Senate and the citizen assembly, became the foundation for the Republic that followed.

The Tarquin Dynasty

The last three kings of Rome form the Tarquin dynasty, and their reigns illustrate both Rome's growth and the tensions that ended the monarchy.

1. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (the fifth king) launched major public works, including the Cloaca Maxima (Rome's great sewer, parts of which still function today) and the Circus Maximus for chariot racing.
2. Servius Tullius (the sixth king) introduced critical reforms: a census of the population and a new class system that organized citizens by wealth rather than birth alone. These reforms expanded political participation beyond the oldest patrician families.
3. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquin the Proud," the seventh and final king) ruled as a tyrant. In 509 BCE, a rebellion led by Lucius Junius Brutus overthrew him and established the Roman Republic.

The overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus became one of Rome's defining stories. Romans looked back on it as proof that they would never tolerate tyranny, and that conviction shaped their politics for centuries. Virgil, writing under Augustus, had to navigate this anti-monarchical tradition carefully when celebrating one-man rule in the Aeneid.