The Pre-Roman Background (to 753 bc)
In the study of any period of history, the limitations of the evidence available are an inescapable fact. For the history of a particular place, whole periods may be shrouded in mystery, and the earliest history of the Romans is one such period.
Archaeology can teach us much about how people lived and died in a particular time and place, but it can only go so far. In the case of the city of Rome itself, there is the added difficulty that what remains of the earliest settlement is covered by the remains of all the later centuries, with the modern city on top.Beyond archaeology, we must look to written accounts. Here, Rome presents us with a further problem. The more prominent a city is, the more likely people are to write about it, and the more likely it is that such writings will survive to be read by us. For centuries after its founding, however, Rome was a place of only local significance. All written accounts of the Romans' early history were composed centuries after the events described. As a result, while these accounts undoubtedly contain fragments of some genuine historical events, there is no agreement about the extent to which that is the case, and in any event the genuÂine history is mixed together with myth and legend. It may be better to think of these stories, not as historical events which can be tied to any specific point in time, but rather as part of the mythological background to the Romans' underÂstanding of themselves, with events happening simply ‘once upon a time'.
With those warnings in place, we can turn to the Romans' own accounts of their earliest history. Even if we cannot rely on these as historically accurate accounts, nonetheless there is value in understanding what the Romans believed of their origins if we wish to understand the Romans themselves.
The Romans told various stories about their origins.
The story of their earliÂest origins, however, reached what we might call its canonical form in the late first century BC, in an epic poem called the Aeneid, written by a poet called Publius Vergilius Maro (‘Virgil' or ‘Vergil' in English). When reading this account, it is important to bear in mind that this is an artistic work rather than a historical account, and it also had political motives.[1] In the story as told by Vergil, the founder of the Roman people was a Trojan prince by the name of Aeneas. The Trojans were the people of Troy, a city in the west of what is now Turkey. In approximately the twelfth century BC, Troy was destroyed by an invading Greek force after a ten-year siege.[2] Aeneas escaped with a band of followers and, on the instructions of the gods, sailed west to Italy.[3] There he founded a city. This was not Rome, which was not established until some centuries later. Instead, the city he founded was called Lavinium.[4]This is as far as Vergil takes the story. The rest is to be found in other writÂers, whose accounts are broadly consistent, though differing on points of detail. Following the death of Aeneas, he was succeeded by his son, Ascanius. Ascanius founded the city of Alba Longa, south-east of the later site of Rome, to settle part of the growing population of Lavinium. The founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were born of the royal line of Alba Longa approximately 400 years after its foundation.[5] Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin,[6] and (reputedly) the god Mars. Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, who had been deposed by his brother, Amulius. Fearing them as potential rivals, Amulius ordered that the twins be killed. They were abandoned to die on the banks of the River Tiber, but were kept alive by a she-wolf, who allowed them to suckle. They were then found by a shepherd called Faustulus, who adopted them. When they grew up and learned their true identity, they returned to Alba Longa and helped to restore their grandfather to the throne.
They themselves, however, decided to found a new city by the Tiber, near where they had been abandoned.The twins, though, were unable to agree on which hill to establish their city. Romulus favoured the Palatine Hill, Remus the nearby Aventine Hill. It was decided that the disagreement would be settled through augury, which is the art of determining the will of the gods by observing the flight of birds. Each went to his preferred hill and awaited a sign. This attempt to resolve the disagreement was unsuccessful, however: while Remus was the first to see the necessary birds, he only saw six while Romulus saw twelve. The two were unable to agree which had had the stronger omen. In the ensuing dispute, Remus was killed.
The city was therefore established by Romulus alone, along with his followÂers. This was the city of Rome. To grow the population of the new city, Romulus established another nearby hill, the Capitoline Hill, as a place of refuge (called an asylum) where individuals from other cities could settle and to whom Roman citiÂzenship could be given. The major problem, though, was a shortage of women. The Romans' approaches to nearby communities to provide them with wives having been rejected, the Romans' next idea was to hold games and, during the festivities, to kidnap the marriageable women among their guests. This act led to war with the neighbouring Sabines, one of the communities from which women had been taken. This war was brought to an end when the women interposed themselves between the two armies and prevailed on their fathers and brothers, on one side, and their husbands, on the other, not to make war on each other. In the ensuing peace, the Romans and the Sabines merged into a single community, under the joint rule of Romulus and Titus Tatius, the king of the Sabines. After the subsequent death of Titus Tatius, Romulus ruled alone.
In reality, it is likely that the establishment of Rome was much less dramatic. Modern historians tend to give little credence to much of the story.
It is likely that, at most, only fragments of the story are founded in any kind of genuine historical event. Indeed, few settlements have any kind of specific, identifiable foundation at all. Instead, they develop gradually as people settle in a particular place, to exploit that place's resources, natural defences or trading potential. The most that can be said is that the traditional date of Rome's foundation, 753 BC, probably lies within the period during which Rome was forming from a group of individual villages.Roman history is traditionally divided into a number of distinct periods, as the form of Roman government changed. The first stage is the Monarchy (753—509 BC), when Rome was ruled by a series of kings. Next comes the Republic (509—27 bc). Finally, there is the Empire (from 27 bc), when a republican form of government was replaced by what was, in effect, a new monarchy, with power ultimately in the hands of an emperor. The Empire can be subdivided into an earlier phase, the Principate, during which republican institutions were formally preserved; and a later phase, the Dominate, during which the monarchical power of the emperor was more openly asserted. The change from Principate to Dominate can be dated to AD 284. We will follow this system of dividing up Roman history, but will add a further subdivision. Below, the period of the Republic will be divided into two. In the earlier Republic (up to 264 bc), Rome was merely a regional power within Italy, though one with growing authority and influence. From 264 BC, Roman power is increasingly felt beyond the Italian peninsula.
C.