From the many, many photos I have taken in Rome on 2 holidays, I thought this one best summarised the entire Ancient Roman experience. A constant fight for survival, a tangled mess, conflict and confusion everywhere.
One day, my wife and I were walking a few laps of the Circus Maximus - as you do - and she made the mistake of asking me what she probably thought was the fairly innocent question "Why did Octavian change his name to Augustus?"
Oh don't worry, I answered her. It took us all the way from the Circus to the Baths of Diocletian, from memory. I got a little carried away with the surroundings.
Anyway that gave me the idea for this topic. Namely my self-proclaimed ability to crap on quite knowledgeably about Rome. What I have to try and do is edit myself. To date in this blog, I have used 4MB of my 1024's worth - I think I could give the other 1020 a shake if I really lost the plot. So here goes with my brief history of Rome. There will be a test at the end, so pay attention and no passing notes.
1. Where and when?
Well you probably know where Rome is. But for those who don't know exactly where in Italy it is, it's to the left, about half way up the boot. A short sail up the Tiber from the coast.
753BC is the traditional Roman date for the founding of the city. Excavations on the Palatine Hill have revealed traces of a community living there around that time, so even if it is not quite spot on, it is in the ballpark. Bear in mind that any surviving accounts written in Roman times date from quite a few centuries after that, which would be like us writing about people and events in Elizabethan England. So that's the starting point, and we'll take it through to around 470AD - over 11 centuries. But I promise to skimp on the boring bits.
2. Wolves or Trojans?
There are two more-or-less mythological accounts of the founding of Rome, although only one is really well known these days. The other was probably an essential part of every Western education until they started letting the poor folk in and Latin started to fade from the curriculums.
Most people who have read anything about Rome will have heard of Romulus and Remus, twin boys fathered by a God upon a Vestal Virgin. They were abandoned, perhaps to die from exposure, as the Romans continued to do with unwanted babies for many centuries. However they were suckled by a she-wolf and fed by a woodpecker, until a shepherd and his family took them in. Cut to the chase, they grew up big and strong. There are a few versions of what happened.
They decided to found a city but couldn't agree where to put it. Romulus wanted the Palatine Hill, Remus the Aventine - about half a kilometre away across the swamp that would eventually become the Forum. So, in true brotherly fashion they took one hill each and set out to prove themselves right.
In similarly brotherly fashion, Remus wandered over to sledge his brother. He laughed at the tiny earth wall Romulus had put up to mark his boundaries, then hopped over it. I should point out that in an augury competition prior to the city founding contest, Remus had claimed to see six vultures flying above his hill, a most favourable omen. Romulus thought "thanks mate" and promptly saw twelve above his. Ka-ching.
Remus had hardly hit the ground when Romulus promptly killed him, mid-laugh perhaps. Murdering one's own brother is not how most statesmen start their careers these days, but Romulus promptly opened his 'city' to all comers, no questions asked. Not surprisingly he ended up with a bunch of bandits, thieves, exiles, and outcasts plus the occasional solid farmer. Miraculously this bunch of misfits not only survived but thrived. And the wolf (sometimes depicted with twins) became the symbol of Rome ever after. Just think, it could have been Reme.
That's the well known myth.
The less well known one now is that of Aeneas. According to Virgil in The Aeneid, he sailed across the Mediterranean from the sack of Troy with a few survivors, stopping off in Carthage to romance and ultimately dump Queen Dido, breaking her heart and sowing the seed for centuries of rivalry and ultimately savage war, before landing on the Italian coast. After various adventures, including a trip to the Underworld to look at the glories and disasters that were to come - giving Virgil a great opportunity to give his patron Augustus's image a polish - he wins a battle and a girl and founds Rome.
Somehow Romans balanced both of these contradictory mythologies, and of course historians and archaeologists have proven and disproven either or both.
3. A few quick bits of trivia
The Rape of the Sabine Women.
Depicted by countless Renaissance and Romantic artists as a bunch of plump young naked girls being heaved over the muscular shoulders of Roman he-men, with nary a protest and many a faked look of 'oh no' among them. The word 'rape' had a somewhat different connotation in days of yore and included sacking or pillaging a town, taking their nicest things and generally doing as you pleased. The Romans didn't have enough women to breed their next generation - and the Sabines were nearby, respected rivals - so they killed two birds with one stone. The two peoples ultimately united as Rome expanded.
What happened to Romulus?
Allegedly he disappeared one day on the Campus Martius - the Fields of Mars - an area outside the original city walls which remained open fields for about seven centuries afterwards, and became the home of military camps and the location for training and exercise for soldiers and civilians alike. He vanished into the mist. "Taken by the Gods" said his supporters. "Bumped off by his rivals", wonder some historians. Who knows.
Kings.
They had seven kings who did various things - hey that's quite poetic - building and lawmaking and leading them into mostly successful battles and generally improving the place. At the expense of the poor folk, as usual. The Kings were Etruscan in the end - a neighbouring but older and richer civilisation who moved in on Rome once it was worth moving in on. The last one, Tarquinius Superbus or Tarquin the Proud to you and I, was an all round despot and after raping a young maiden in every sense of the word, causing the virtuous lass to commit suicide in front of her brother after confessing the story, he was deposed and then killed in battle trying to regain the throne. One of the aristocrats who moved against him was a chap called Brutus. Many centuries later a descendant by the same name did something along the same lines.
This is supposed to be the first Brutus. He now lives in the Capitoline Museum.
Think I might post this now, it is getting late, and do the Republic next. Yes, then I can do the Empire as a third and that makes them all not too long.
Ave.
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