1. Chapter Twenty-Three Lecture One Legends of Early Rome

2. Venus the mother of Aeneas, the ancestor of the Roman people But Mars also was a progenitor –Through Romulus and Remus –Presided over war, a constant companion of Rome

3. Legends of the Roman Monarchy Romulus and Remus

4. Aeneas founds Lavinium (about 1200 BC) Iulus, his son, founds Alba Longa There follows a secession of kings –450 Romulus and Remus found Rome (about 750 BC) Recounted up by the historian Livy (Ab Urbe Condita)

5. Romulus and Remus King Proca –Sons: Numitor and Amulius Numitor, the heir, driven into exile by brother Amulius kills all Numitor’s sons and forces his daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal virgin

6. Romulus and Remus Rhea Silva gives birth to twins by Mars, she said She’s imprisoned and the boys thrown into the Tiber in a basket Ficus Ruminalis –Romular The she-wolf Faustulus

7. Romulus and Remus Original myth or consciously modeled after Greek myths Has many Latin words in the story But like other abandoned heroes and twins in Greek and other earlier myths –Mother imprisoned like Danaë –Conflicts between brothers etc.

8. Romulus and Remus Twins grow up hunting, as per usual Remus captured as a bandit and brought to Numitor The two unite and kill Amulius The two found different towns Later they quarrel and Romulus kills Remus –Hence the settlement is called “Rome”

9. Rape of the Sabine Women

10. Women of nearby city of the Sabines kidnapped at a festival at Rome They are mollified by assurances that they will be treated as respectable wives Perhaps a reflection of historical reality of exchange of women?

11. Titus Tatius, Tarpeia, the Death of Romulus

12. King of the Sabines, Titus Tatius, attacks Rome Rome nearly betrayed by Tarpeia –Later, the Tarpeian Rock The Sabine women stop the final battle Romulus “disappears” in a storm

13. Becoming a God at Rome

14. Apotheosis of Romulus sets pattern for the cult of Roman emperors later –So also do the myths of Hercules and the Dioscuri E.g., Caesar and Augustus, like other heroes, were descended from a god, Venus Became “divine” after a vote of the Senate

15. Becoming a God at Rome Less power than an Olympian Before he died and was declared divine, his “cult” was to his genius –numen that dwelled in him Became more common and brazen after Caesar and Augustus –Not all were deified

16. Becoming a God at Rome The imperial cult provided political stability and unity Refusal to participate was considered treasonous –Early Christians and some Jews opposed all aspects of it

17. Horatii and the Curatii

18. Rome founded in 753 B.C. Four Romano-Sabine kings Three Etruscan kings The combat between the three Horatii (Roman) and the three Curatii (Alba Longa) –The surviving Horatius kills his own sister for grieving the loss of her fiancé Curatius and is acquitted

19. End