Roma, Romolo, Remo
to unknown
The Roman sources are quite insistent on the point that Rome was
founded in the middle of the eighth century BC. Most of them settling
on the specific date of the 23rd of April, 753 BC when the first
settlement was built on the Palatine Hill. According to the myth
Romulus chose the Palatine while his twin brother Remus
preferred the Aventine.
Things had gotten a bit testy between the brothers
after they both decided to found a city on the same spot and couldn't
agree on who should be its king. When Romulus built a simple earthen
wall around his settlement, Remus contemptuously jumped over it jeering:
"See? That was a piece of cake, Dork Face."
Infuriated, Romulus took out his sword
and killed him on the spot.
"See? Yes I see! And that goes for anyone else
hanging shit on my walls - or calling me Dork Face!"
What can you say? Brothers. Those are direct quotes btw.
A model of the Regia which is part of Robert Garbisch's astonishingly detailed model of the Roman Forum. For a guided tour of the whole model, go here.
Despite this adamence from traditional sources, archaeology hasn't been too forthcoming on this early age of Rome, only
occasionally turning up the odd rustic village or burial ground and finding very
little in the way of stone dwellings or city streets.
It has been long
assumed that Rome's origins had been very humble indeed and the greatness
attributed to its heroic age was mostly a fabrication of later times
when people were seeking to find a fitting foundation myth for a city that later
became the inheritor of the known world.
The first kings must have
lived in huts rather than palaces goes this notion and, by way of example, one only has to look at the humble little
dwelling on the Forum which was known as the Regia that was located opposite the great
convent of the Vestal Virgins and was dwarfed by the much later Temple of
the Divine Julius. The Regia has often been associated with the original
residence of the first Roman kings and in Republican times it served as
the
official residence of the pontifex maximus, the high priest of the
Roman state religion. The divine Julius Caesar himself had once lived there because, apart
from being one of the most ambitious and talented generals that Rome had ever
seen, he was also, at the same time, serving as their pope.
Anyway, it's the simplicity of this ancient regal dwelling which is my point
but recently a structure of palatial proportions and dating from the
eighth century BC, in other words at the time of Rome's traditional founding date, has come to light only tens of meters away from the
Regia. The building, which had been buried under seven metres of soil, had
an
imposing entrance which opened up into a 240 square metre courtyard and a
further 100 square metres under tiled roof. It was about ten times
larger than the average dwelling of the time and was decorated with
elaborate
furnishings and ceramics.
Surprisingly, this palace may have actually stood in the Forum up
until as late
as 64 AD (that is, for eight hundred years) before being
finally consumed by the famous Great Fire during
the
reign of the
emperor Nero. Until that time it served as the official
residence of the rex sacrorum
(sacred king), another priestly office which was appointed for life by
the Pontifex Maximus to perform the sacred ceremonial duties that
before Republican
times could have only been performed by the king.
Today the remains of the palace actually lie below the evocatively
named
Temple of the Divine Romulus. Actually, this was dedicated to a
completely different and
much later Romulus but, still, one can't help wondering whether the memory of this
site's association with Rome's first king had completely perished by
this time.
Furthernore, this temple now serves as the vestibule of that extraordinarily versatile chapel of Santi Cosma
e Damiano.
Romulus and Remus
OH, LITTLE did the Wolf-Child care--
When first he planned his home,
What city should arise and bear
The weight and state of Rome.
A shiftless, westward-wandering tramp,
Checked by the Tiber flood,
He reared a wall around his camp
Of uninspired mud.
But when his brother leaped the Wall
And mocked its height and make,
He guessed the future of it all
And slew him for its sake.
Swift was the blow--swift as the thought
Which showed him in that hour
How unbelief may bring to naught
The early steps of Power.
Forseeing Time?s imperilled hopes
Of Glory, Grace, and Love--
All singers, C?sars, artists, Popes--
Would fail if Remus throve,
He sent his brother to the Gods,
And, when the fit was o?er,
Went on collecting turves and clods
To build the Wall once more!
--- Rudyard Kipling
