Myths

Livy wrote the first five books of his history at the beginning of Augustus’ principate (c.29-27). He was the last of a long series of historians who, in dealing with the same issues, had established a firm pattern. Livy thus began with Rome’s origins, covering in the first book the period of the kings to the expulsion of Tarquin ‘‘the Proud’’ in 507. From the second book, he described the history of the Republic in annual segments (hence ‘‘annalist,’’ writer of annals [annales]). His work, impressive in length, dramatic elaboration, and stylistic brilliance, quickly became the vulgate, never repeated and unsurpassed, even if knowledge of alternative traditions and variations remained alive for a long time.

Livy tells the following story (1.1-7). After his flight from burning Troy, Aeneas eventually landed in Italy. The local king, Latinus, offered him his daughter Lavinia in marriage. Hence Aeneas’ first city was called Lavinium. His son Ascanius (also called lulus, claimed as their ancestor by the Julian family) founded Alba Longa, where his descendants, the dynasty of the Silvii, ruled for many generations. Centuries later Amulius usurped the kingship from his older brother, killed his sons, and made his daughter one of the Vestal virgins (who tended the communal hearth, symbol of the community’s reproductive power, and were thus sworn to chastity). Yet she caught the eye of Mars, the war god, and gave birth to twins; she was thrown into prison and her sons were exposed in the flood lands of the Tiber. Their basket washed up near a fig tree (the Ficus Ruminalis), a she-wolf suckled them, and one of the king’s herdsmen took them home and raised them as his own. As leaders of a band of shepherds, they punished Amulius, freed their mother, and returned their grandfather to his legitimate position. Romulus and Remus then planned to found a settlement at the location where they had been exposed. Since they were twins, they needed a divine sign indicating who would enjoy primacy, rule, and give the city his name. Remus received the first sign, Romulus soon a more impressive one; a fight resulted, and Remus, perhaps provoking Romulus, was killed. Romulus became king and the city was called Rome.

This story apparently was already part of the first Roman historical work, written by Fabius Pictor at the end of the third century to explain to the Greek world how Rome had become a Mediterranean power. A catalog inscription in an ancient library summarizes his first book: ‘‘Quintus Fabius, called Pictor,.. .who wrote about the arrival of Heracles in Italy and of Lanoios and his allies, Aeneas and Ascanius. Much later were Romulus and Remus and the foundation of Rome by Romulus, the first king.’’ Much later: this means after the long dynasty of the Silvii in Alba Longa, about whom there was little to say; Livy too offers only a list of names (1.3.6-9), and for good reasons. The Roman historians and antiquarians (below) dated the foundation of Rome to about the middle of the eighth century (Fabius Pictor to 747,

Varro, a great scholar in Caesar’s time, to 753). In Greece also the eighth century (featuring, for example, the inception of the Olympic Games or Sparta’s conquest of Messenia) was the earliest period reached by later memory (however patchy and unreliable it may have been). By the late fifth century, Greek scholars knew that the ‘‘heroic age’’ with important events such as the Trojan War (which they considered historical) was even much older. Herodotus dated the Trojan War to around 1300, the third-century Alexandrian scholar Eratosthenes to 1183 (remarkably close to modern dates for the wave of destructions that marked the end of the Bronze Age). This gap between the twelfth and eighth centuries needed to be closed, especially since many Greek aristocratic families claimed descent from the heroes of the Trojan War and other myths. Greek specialists, most famously Hellanicus of Lesbos, (re)constructed king-lists and genealogies that served this very purpose.4

When was this chronological gap integrated into Roman perceptions of the city’s prehistory? Certainly before Fabius Pictor but apparently not much earlier. Echoes in extant remains of Greek literature permit us to trace the evolution of Rome’s foundation myth. Sixth-century authors were aware of Latins and Etruscans and knew that Aeneas had reached Sicily or even Italy. Hellanicus wrote that Aeneas called his foundation Rome because, after their landing in Italy, Rhome, one of the Trojan women, incited the others to burn the ships to prevent further travels. In the fourth century, Roman elite families began to trace their descent to Trojan immigrants. Romulus appeared only in the second half of that century, first as one of several eponymous (name-giving) heroes (like Rhomus or Rhome) who all were believed to be sons or daughters of Aeneas or Ascanius, then as founder. Western Greek authors who in that period mention Romulus do not know Remus yet, and they all date the foundation of Rome in the time of Aeneas or his immediate descendants.

It follows that Rome, like most Greek cities, initially had only one founder. The myth apparently reached its fully developed form in the last decades of the fourth century, shortly before the Ogulnii set up the first statue of the wolf and twins. Exposed children are miraculously saved by wild animals in tales attested in many cultures. But why twins? The formation or evolution of myths is usually based on experiences that are highly important to the community involved. As T. P. Wiseman observes, twin founders may well have been suggested by the double magistracy of the consulship that was firmly established (perhaps after serious conflicts) in 367-6, and by subsequent legal provisions that made plebeian participation in this magistracy (and soon other offices) mandatory, that is, by the rise to political equality of the plebeians and the formation of a patrician - plebeian aristocracy (below). Several specific traits of the myth, including name and character of Remus, point to the same period.