The City of RomeThe Mythical Origins of the Eternal City

The Mythical Foundations of Rome

• Foundations of cities are dignified by their antiquity, wherein mortal and divine affairs are allowed to mingle. If any people are entitled to consecrate their beginnings and trace them back to divine founders, these are the Roman people, so great is the glory of their military achievement that, when they lay claim to Romulus as city-founder and to his father Mars as parent, all humanity ought to endure it with the equanimity by which they endure our imperium.

•- Livy, History of Rome (1.1)

The Mythical Foundations of Rome

•390 BCE - Rome Sacked by the Gauls

• All history is lost

•Aeneas

•Romulus & Remus

•Early Kings of Rome

Aeneas: The Peripatetic Trojan

Aeneas

Aeneas & Dido

Aeneas & Italy

• Aeneas settles in Latium

•Marries Lavinia

• Ascanius founds Alba Longa

Rhea Silvia - Romulus & Remus

•Mother of Romulus & Remus

Romulus & Remus

• Twins condemned

• Sent in a basket down the river Tiber

• Suckled by a “Lupa”

•Raised by a shepherd and his wife

Rome - Founded on Fratricide

The Rape of the Sabine Women

•Rapio - The take or to Seize

•Original occupants of Rome - runaway slaves, convicts, ne’er-do-wells

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

• Traditional Date: 753 BCE

• Archaeological evidence: 9th century BCE

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

•Hut-urns

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

The Early City: Pre-Urban Rome

The Kings of Rome• Romulus

• Numa Pompilius

• Tullus Hostilius

• Ancus Marcius

• Tarquinius Priscus “Tarquin the Elder”

• Servius Tullius

• Lucius Tarquinius Superbus “Tarquin the Proud”

The Early City: Urbanization of Rome

• During the 7th century (“Time of Kings”) Rome significantly transformed

• Marshy regions drained

• construction of the Cloaca Maxima

• Rise in population density

• Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus constructed

• Borders of the city (pomerium) defined

• Further expansion of Roman power

The Unification of Italy

The Early City: Urbanization of Rome

•Rise of population density

•Housing explosion

The Kings of Rome

• The Death of Romulus

• Ascends to the heavens?

• Murdered by the Senate?

The Kings of Rome

•Tarquinius Priscus “Tarquin the Elder” 616-579 BCE

• First Etruscan King of Rome

• Circus Maximus

• Cloaca Maxima

• Assassinated

Circus Maximus

The Kings of Rome

•Tarquinius Superbus

“Tarquin the Proud” 534 -

509 BCE

•Extended Roman territory

•Completed the Cloaca Maxima

•Built the Temple of Jupiter

Capitolinus

•Acquired the Sibylline Books

Cloaca Maxima

• First Sewer System of Ancient Rome

Rape of Lucretia

The Birth of the Republic 509

BCELucius Brutus