How was Rome founded? – History of the Roman Empire – Part 1

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Hey guys! This is the start of a new series on our channel in which we will cover the whole history of the Roman Empire. The name itself evokes vivid thoughts and imagery of papacy, an empire, a republic, and seemingly endless history. But how did it all begin? Before Rome could become the legendary city it is today, it had to start somewhere.

The story of the founding of Rome is a tale often told by the Romans as the earliest history of their ancient city. According to legend, Rome was founded on April 22nd, 753 BC, by twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The boys were the sons of Rhea Silvia, a daughter of King Numitor of Alba Longa, who was impregnated by the god of war, Mars. When the twins were born, King Numitor’s younger brother, who had previously deposed the king, attempted to have the boys murdered by drowning them in the Tiber River to avoid any new rivals to the throne. Somehow, the infants survived and eventually washed ashore near Palatine Hill.

Here, the legend has it that they were suckled by a she-wolf and later found by Faustulus, a local shepherd. He and his wife took the boys in, and with a group of shepherd warriors, Romulus and Remus became leaders. Once they learned of their true lineage, knowing they had a valid claim to Alba Longa, the twins launched an attack on the city, assassinating their great uncle and placing their grandfather back on the throne. They then decided to found their own city nearby at the site where they were suckled by the she-wolf as babies. However, a conflict between the brothers ended with Romulus murdering Remus, and Romulus alone then founded the city of Rome, named after himself.

Romulus faced the challenge of populating his new town, which had no women. To overcome this obstacle, he devised a plan to invite his neighbors, the Sabines, to a festival, during which he had their women kidnapped. This unsurprisingly triggered armed conflicts between the new Romans and the Sabines. Thankfully for Romulus, the abducted women came to mediate and insisted on ending the war before Rome could be captured. The subsequent peace treaty allowed for the merging of the two kingdoms and made both Romulus and the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, co-rulers.

To help with the growth of Rome, Romulus invited exiles and fugitives to seek asylum in his kingdom. By the time King Titus died, there was no heir to replace the Sabine king, leaving Romulus as the sole monarch over the new city. After Romulus’s death, there would be six more kings until the kingdom became a republic.

This is just one theory of how Rome came to be. The somewhat outlandish tale has been questioned by many historians over the years, and other hypotheses concerning the founding of Rome exist. For instance, Strabo, a Greek historian, wrote of another tale that claims an Arcadian colony first occupied what would become Rome, and the city itself was founded by a Greek man named Evander. Roman historian Lucius Coelius Antipater also agreed with this theory.

Another belief is that Rome was founded by Romos, a son of King Odysseus, which would have made the Romans of Greek descent. This may have become an unfavorable fact as discord with the Greeks began to grow. Scholar Martin P. Nilsson explains that this theory may have once been the main story of Rome’s birth, but as the concept of Greek ancestry became more embarrassing for the Romans, they likely tweaked the story, changing the name of Romos to the native name of Romulus.

In his satire, Emperor Julian is said to have had Alexander the Great say to the Romans, “I am aware that you Romans are yourselves descended from the Greeks.” Another option is that the Trojan prince Aeneas actually founded Rome, as described by Virgil, a Roman poet in his epic known as the “Aeneid.” Both Emperor Augustus and Julius Caesar are said to have been descendants of Prince Aeneas.

Historically speaking, regardless of how Rome was truly founded, we know that there were supposedly seven kings in total during the first era of establishment, beginning with Romulus and eventually ending with the Etruscan kings. The final three monarchs of this civilization were Priscus, Tullius, and Superbus. A problem arises with the limited number of kings in total; if only seven kings reigned over 243 years, that would average roughly 35 years per monarch, which has been strongly discredited by modern historians.

While it is possible that Rome could have been ruled by only seven kings in its early years, there is no way to prove this unlikely claim due to the lack of contemporary evidence. When the Gauls sacked Rome during the Battle of the Allia in the 4th century BC, they destroyed a large amount of Rome’s existing records, and many of the rest became lost or damaged over the following years.

One way or another, Rome’s foundation as a monarchy came to an end in 509 BC when the Romans finally gained control back from the Etruscan people who had been ruling over them for the past three reigns. As the story goes, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king, was deposed after his son, Sextus Tarquinius, committed a heinous crime against Lucretia, a noblewoman, which resulted in her death. Lucretia’s father, husband, and even the king’s nephew came together with the goal of punishing the royal family by overthrowing the king himself. Both the Roman military and Senate decided to support this coup. Not only would King Tarquinius be overthrown, but the kingship in its entirety would be abolished by the Senate, and the majority of his duties were instead transferred to two elected consuls. Each consul would act as a check and balance for each other, with each term lasting only one year.

The first two consuls were Brutus and Collatinus, although the latter was a relative of the deposed king and was eventually forced to give up his position and go into exile. Publius Valerius Publicola would take Collatinus’s place as the second consul. King Tarquinius made a few attempts to regain his throne and re-establish the Roman monarchy, such as with the Tarquinian Conspiracy the same year of his removal and two battles within the Roman-Etruscan Wars. Shortly after, the former king proved disappointingly unsuccessful, and the republic remained.

At this point in time, while the republic may have been an improvement from the monarchy, it still was not a democracy. Instead, the Senate, made up of purely aristocrats or patricians, was responsible for voting in each consul for every term, and the lower classes, known as the plebeians, did not possess any power to challenge or influence decisions made by the Senate. Additionally, there were notable efforts made to separate and distinguish the varying levels of society; marriage between patricians and plebeians was strictly forbidden.

As the republic aged and developed, the plebeians slowly began to gain more influence and power, eventually becoming eligible for the position of consul. However, the patricians essentially maintained their overall authority through their wealth. Another curious feature of the early Roman Republic was the way it dealt with emergencies. In the case of a military emergency, the Senate and consuls had the ability to elect a temporary dictator who would assume complete authority over Rome for the duration of the crisis.

The position was quite frankly a dangerous one, as it gave the dictator unchecked control and power in an already chaotic time. But for a plebeian by the name of Cincinnatus, the concept worked as hoped. The aristocrats brought Cincinnatus from his farm during a military emergency that they felt required the appointment of a dictator to take charge and lead the troops. After a mere 15 days, Cincinnatus led the Romans to victory, voluntarily stepped down from his temporary position, and returned to his farm.

By 449 BC, the Roman Republic had also established its first set of written laws known as the Twelve Tables. Contrary to the earlier structure of the republic, these laws aimed to make every citizen equal under the law. Finally, after refining the very foundations of the new republic, Rome could move on to another goal: expansion. Over the following centuries, Rome would begin to grow, creating only the first few chapters of our Roman history books today, while paving the way for the long Roman history that changed the face of Europe and the world in terms of civilization, culture, traditions, and much more.

We have more stories to tell about the Roman Empire, so be sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell button to be notified when a new video is available. Thank you so much for watching, and we’ll see you on the next one!

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