Romulus, Remus and the founding of Rome
Across all of History there is one particular civilisation which seems to entice us the most, to such an extent that even people that are not remotely interested in understanding our past still have some knowledge of it.
This is, The Roman Empire.
This particular article will explore the myth of Romulus and Remus, the most famous explanation for the founding of Rome itself and thus the first step in its empire’s rapid growth.
The story begins in the ancient land of Alba Longa (modern day western Italy) which was ruled by a wise and fair king named Numitor. Everything was well in Alba Longa, until one day Numitor’s brother Amulius grew envious of his brother’s power and plotted not only to overthrow him, but to ensure there were no more heirs to his rule by imprisoning Numitor’s daughter, the princess Rhea Silvia and forcing her to become a Vestial Virgin (sworn to celibacy).
This was however unsuccessful as the God of war, Mars fell in love with Silvia and raped her, breaking her oath to remain celibate. Silvia bore twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Amulius was of course outraged by this turn of events as there was now an heir to his brother’s throne, so he ordered the twin brothers to be dumped into the River Tiber and left to their fate. However the Gods smiled on the twins and the river gently carried them to a nearby riverbank, where a she-wolf belonging to the God Mars fostered them into care. This is one of the most famous events in Roman mythology and can be seen depicted all around Rome, carved into walls, statues and even on the badge of the city's football team.
As the young twins grew into strong men, their true origins and their royal blood soon became known to them. After hearing about the injustice done to their grandfather Numitor, driven by a need for revenge the two men gathered an army of supporters and faced the backstabbing Amulius in a head on battle. Once they had won, Romulus and Remus restored their grandfather to the throne and in a just trial, found Amulius guilty sentencing him to death.
This victory however caused another problem for the twins as they had always had a shared vision of building a brand new city together from scratch, but they disagreed on where the city should be built. In dire need of help, the men looked the Gods for a divine sign that would instruct them where to build the city. Romulus saw twelve vultures and decided that this omen meant his city should be constructed on the Palatine hill, while Remus saw six vultures and disagreed with his brother believing his sign to be the more significant.
Romulus didn’t care about this dispute and begun to mark out the boundaries atop his chosen hill, however in return Remus jokingly jumped over the walls, mocking his brothers weak defences. In anger Romulus struck his brother with an unintentional fatal blow, and buried him on the spot.
Romulus continued with the construction of his city and named it Rome after himself, as well as becoming the first king of what we call the “Regal Period” consisting of seven kings before the monarchy was abandoned.
This story is of course nothing more than mythology meaning there is no archeological evidence of these events at all, and thus there is huge variations within the story depending on where you read it. However the Romans definitely believed it and therefore the story gives us an idea of how the Roman people perceived themselves. For example, after the monarchy fell Rome was (almost) always ruled by two equal Senates which may have ties to the two equal brothers who initially founded the city. Although the murder of Remus also provides some foreshadowing for the rest of Rome’s existence as internal disputes, assassinations and political revolutions are almost consistent throughout the entire 2000 years that Rome existed.
The much more widely accepted story for the origin of Rome is that multiple latin speaking tribes settled around the Tiber river and eventually the small settlements joined together to form a city sometime in the 8th century BC, which is coincidentally around the same time that the story of Romulus and Remus places the founding of Rome, at 753BC.
But let’s be honest, the story of Romulus and Remus is much more entertaining than the more boring and realistic version of the story. You wouldn’t have sat here and read an article about the latin settlers who set up camp near a river now would you?
