foundation of early rome

THE LATIN INVADERS

Thus, the stage is set for the founding of the Roman Empire. We've examined the setting - the fertile but vulnerable Italian peninsula - and we've met most of the cast of characters: the Etruscans in the north and the Greeks in the south. Now, let us look at these Latin invaders and their first steps into Italy. Our main source for the history of these early Latins is the Roman historian Livy, whose work 'Ab urbe condita,' From the Founding of Rome, served as a textbook of Roman history for centuries. We're not sure how much to trust Livy. He seems to be fairly rational and tends to look at myths with a great deal of skepticism; however, he's still obviously a big fan of Rome and seeks to paint the empire in the best light possible. Moreover, Livy wrote his history in the last century of the classical era, at least a thousand years after the first Latin-speaking people found their way to Italy. This means even Livy's sources were probably more mythical than historical. And as Livy himself puts it, 'To such legends as these ... I shall attach no great importance.'

Due to these difficulties, no one is quite sure where the Latin invaders came from. The Romans claimed that their Latin ancestors emigrated from Troy, a far-off city on the coast of Asia Minor and scene of the famous Greek epic The Iliad. Historians do not take this claim very seriously. The general assumption is that the Roman link to Troy was an attempt to co-opt some of the glory of Greek civilization. It is much more likely that the Latins weren't civilized people from Asia Minor but rather barbarians from somewhere in Northern Europe. Whatever their source, these people forced their way down into the Italian peninsula sometime between the first and second millennium BCE.

THE MYTH OF ROME'S FOUNDING

The Latins established cities from the Alps all the way down to Central Italy, violently displacing the native Etruscans. According to Livy, these Latin cities banded together for mutual protection, forming the Latin League. At the head of this league was the city of Latium, also known as Alba Longa. Latium was ruled by a series of kings who engaged in all of the normal scheming and political maneuvering one might expect from rulers.

According to Roman myth, one of these rulers, a fellow named Amulius, stole his brother's throne. Fearing his brother's daughter, Rhea Silvia, might produce an heir to challenge him, Amulius forced Rhea to become a vestal virgin. Despite the enforced chastity of her new position, Rhea became pregnant. Some said that Mars, the god of war, did the deed, but even Livy doesn't give this claim much weight. Rhea was cast into prison, and her twin sons, Romulus and Remus, were cast into the river. They were rescued from the banks of the river by a she-wolf, who suckled the babies as if they were her own until they were found by a shepherd. The shepherd raised the babes into young men, and they eventually killed their treacherous uncle, who had so sorely abused their mother and themselves, restoring their grandfather to the throne of Latium. Inspired by their victory, the young men set out to found a city of their own. They found the perfect spot along the river Tiber and marked out its boundaries. All that remained was to give the city a name. Each of the brothers thought the city should be named after himself. Eventually the conflict came to blows, and Romulus slew his brother Remus, giving the city its new name: Rome. Livy gives the date of this founding as 753 BCE, a date that even modern historians seem to agree with.

Romulus then set about establishing his city. He built the walls of Rome, already planning for the city to be larger than any other in Italy. He established the religion of Rome, borrowing some customs from the Greeks, like the worship of Hercules, and some from the Etruscans, like the practice of augury, or predicting the future by the flight of birds. Romulus is also credited with the establishment of Roman law since, as Livy put it, 'Nothing else but law could unite them into a single body politic.' Finally, Romulus is supposed to have established the senatorial class, made up of the founding fathers of Rome. Roman senators centuries later would take pride in tracing their lineage back to these