Legends of Early Rome Romulus and Remus Aemulius

Legends of Early Rome

Romulus and Remus • Aemulius overthrew his older brother Numitor • made Numitor’s daughter Rhea Silvia a vestal (to prevent her producing an heir) • Rhea Silvia was raped by Mars -> birth of Romulus and Remus • Rhea Silvia punished by being imprisoned, Romulus and Remus exposed by a stream • Romulus and Remus rescued by a she-wolf • R&R founded Rome on the site where they had ben rescued

Romulus and Remus “they began to argue, but their quarrel soon turned to violence, and in the fighting Remus was killed. There is a better known story that Remus contemptuously jumped over his brother’s half -built wall. Romulus, furious at the slight, killed him, adding the bitter jest: ‘This is what will happen to anyone else who tries the same!’ Thus Romulus became sole ruler, and his name was given to the city he had founded. ” Livy, History of Rome

Rape of the Sabine Women as foundation of marriage & society at R Poussin c. 1637

Rape of the Sabine Women as foundation of marriage & society at R You, Romulus, nursed on the she-wolf’s harsh milk, you gave the order for the crime. You taught us to rape the Sabine women with no punishment; on account of you Amor dares anything at Rome today’ (Propertius 2. 6. 19 -22) ‘With Romulus the scandal first began, when ravished Sabines cheered his wifeless clan. ’ Ovid, Art of Love 1. 101 -2 (trans. Melville).

Rape of the Sabine Women as foundation of marriage & society in Ame Stephen Vincent Benet, ‘The Sobbin’ Women’ >

Sabine King Titius Tatius and Tarpeia • Sabine King Tatius besieges Rome to claim back the Sabine women • Tarpeia sees him and falls in love with him • Tarpeia will let him into the city if he gives her, ‘what the Sabines wear on their left arms’ • she wanted gold bracelets, but the Sabines piled their shields on her and crushed her • Tarpeian Rock = a place to execute traitors by throwing them down the cliffside of the Capitoline hill

Death and Deification (Apotheosis) of Romulus murdered and dismembered by senators? transformed into a god and whisked up to heaven? Julius Caesar was worshipped as a god after he was assassinated in Roman emperors were worshipped as gods after their deaths

Apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina (see p. 642)

Lucretia and the overthrow of the monarchy “The adulterer shall not go untouched. He is Sextus Tarquin [son of King Tarquin the Proud], who came last night in the guise of a friend, but in fact a bitter enemy, and made a plunder of this delight [= raped me], a plunder deadly to me – and, if you are men, to himself. ” One after another the men promised what she asked, meanwhile trying to console her sorrow by shifting the blame from the victim to the guilty man, Crime, they assured her, was a matter of the mind, not the body, and where there was no intent, there could be no offense. But Lucretia only answered, “you must determine his punishment. As for me, even though I acquit myself of guilt, I must still pay the penalty. From now on, no adulteress can live with Lucretia as her model. ” She had hidden a dagger in

Veronese, c. 1580

political uses of myth in Rome to explain origins of customs and rituals that viewed as essential to the stability of the state: • legitimacy of political power (ability of men to rule at Rome) • regulation of marriage/adultery (ability of men to transmit property to children) • legitimacy of actions of the state in conducting wars and taking control of territory (ability of men to extend power globally)

Forum of Augustus -celebration of Augustus as pater patriae, father of the fatherland

430

430

430

430

430

430

430

430

430

430