Myth ch 23

Legends of Early Rome

Aeneas and the Aeneid still leave us a couple hundred years from the founding of Rome

450 years—up to 753BC

ab urbe condita

Aeneas was from Venus—Romulus is from Mars

Livy (59 BC – AD 17 )

history side of Augustus' propaganda

Ab urbe condita

READ

look at his tone

very cynical people

Romulus and Remus story

origin? Is it Roman?

Exposure of children

cf. Oedipus, Paris, Moses

Royal brothers

Greek equivalents

and Cain and Abel; Jacob and Esau

Co-found city—but seek sign for superiority

Offer sacrifices—one gets first, other gets more

Romulus kills Remus

Rape of Sabine women

we need ladies

invite them in and seize them away

Romulus disappears mysteriously

becomes god

Apotheosis--”become a god”

Romulus, then Caesar, Augustus, and all the emperors (until Xianity, AD 337)

cf. Hercules

Dioscuri—very important in Rome

Romulus

Egyptians

Technically, the numen of the gens within an emperor

Caesar and Augustus didn't want to be a god

everyone else did

Domitian, Caligula (gave it to his sister), Galba (gave it to his boy friend)

Senate erased these, and Nero's

Other legends, from Livy

Horatii

dual btw three brother on each side, vs. Curiatii

Horatii win—kills sister for mourning one of the Curiatii

Roman toughness

Monarchy ends with Lucretia

Some army me were comparing the virtue of their wives, including Tarquin Sextus

visit unannounced

all the ladies are drinking and gossiping

except Lucretia—wife of Tarquin Collatinus

Tarquin Sextus visits, acts nice, then threatens rape

or I'll kill a slave and destroy your name too

Lucretia gathers her relatives and tells of the crime

“my body is violated but my soul is guiltless”

kills herself

Lucius Brutus—the “fake dope” swears revenge

drives out the king and establishes the Res publica

first consuls---Brutus and Tarquin Collatinus

Brutus—founder of Roman republic

alleged ancestor of Marcus Brutus—who killed Julius Caesar

Oracle—first to kiss his mother will rule

Tarquins misunderstand—but Brutus kisses the earth

Cincinnatus

ex-consul farmer

quick, we need help—made dictator

returns to his farm afterwards

Society of the Cincinnati – George Washington

Myth at Triumph at Rome

Military power

public displays—the TRIUMPH

only if approved by the senate

Most famous—Titus--71 AD destruction of Jerusalem

Augustus rebuilt Rome in his own honor

Rome—the Conqueror

Converts to Christianity in 313 AD (edict of Milan)

The ultimate colonizer—the real model of Europe

is America more Greek or Roman?

“control by Rome was in most cases preferable of the dangers of freedom”

just like Britain