2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
There are many versions of how the "eternal city" was founded, everyone is free to choose according to their taste. Roman historians preferred the version of Romulus and Remus, fed by the Capitoline she-wolf. The Greek epic mentions that Romulus and Remus descended from the Trojan Aeneas, so the honor of founding Rome must be given to him. Archaeologists and historians agree that the first settlements, which eventually became Rome, arose in the 9th century BC. If the disputes about the year (and even the century) remain disputes, then the day itself, both myths and historical sources, are called unambiguously: April 21, the holiday of the deity Pales.
From school times, many remember the legend of Romulus and Remus: two brothers in infancy wanted to drown on the orders of the tyrant Amulius from the city of Alba Longa, who was afraid of the prophecy (in which they grow up and overthrow him from the throne). Despite everything, the brothers survived and even got stronger, fed by the milk of the Capitoline she-wolf. After a couple of decades, they returned to Alba Longa, learned about the prophecy, and nevertheless overthrew Amulius. Numitor, who was the brothers' grandfather, ascended the throne. He gave Romulus and Remus advice to found a new city in the Tiber Valley, since many trade routes intersected there, which promised glory and prosperity to the new settlement.
The story ended sadly: the brothers did not agree on the exact location of the new city, so Romulus killed Remus and laid the city on the Capitol Hill. It happened four years after the overthrow of Amulius. The day the plow drew a circle around the hill, Rome was born, it was April 21st. Roman historians later did not agree on the indication of the year in this version of the legend, so it was 752, 753 or 754 BC, we do not know.
Romulus and Remus by Rubens, circa 1615
