Rome founded - History of the Roman Empire

 in which we will cover the whole history

of the roman empire

rome the name itself evokes

vivid thought and imagery of papacy

but how did it all begin before rome

could become the legendary city and

beyond that it is today

it had to start somewhere

the story of the founding of rome is a

tale that was

often told by the romans as the earliest

history

of their ancient city as the legend goes

rome was founded on april 22nd 753

bc by twin brothers romulus

and remus the boys were the son of rhea

silvia a daughter of king numator of

alba longa who was impregnated by the

god of war

mars when the twins were born

king numator's younger brother who had

previously deposed the king

attempted to have the boys murdered by

drowning them in the tiber river

in hopes 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 fostillus a local

shepherd

he and his wife took the boys in and

with age

romulus and remus became leaders of a

group of

shepherd warriors before finding out

about their true

lineage knowing that 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 suckled from the

she-wolf as babies

but a conflict between the brothers

ended with romulus murdering his brother

and romulus alone then founded the city

of

rome named after none other

than himself romulus now had to address

the obvious problem of somehow

populating his new town

which currently had no woman

to overcome this obstacle romulus

devised a plan to invite his neighbors

the sabines to a festival at which he

had their woman kidnapped this

unsurprisingly

triggered armed conflicts between the

new romans and the sabines

but thankfully for romulus the abducted

woman

actually came to mediate and insisted on

putting an

end to 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 tatis

the population's authority additionally

to help with the growth of rome romulus

invited both

exiles and fugitives to come and seek

asylum

in his kingdom by the time that his

counterpart king titus died no air

replaced the sabine which left

romulus once again the sole monarch over

the new city

after the founder's death there would be

six more kings until the kingdom

would become a republic instead

this of course is only one theory as to

how rome came to be

the somewhat outlandish tale has been

questioned by many historians over the

years

and other hypotheses concerning how rome

was founded exist

and have been supported by some curious

figures

for one 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 from arcadia

named evander according to strabo a

roman historian

lucius cowellias tippeter also agreed

with this theory

still another belief is that rome was

founded by

romos a son of king odysseus and chirshi

which would have made the romans of

greek descent and may have become an

unfavorable fact as discord with the

greeks began to grow

martin p nilsson a swedish scholar

explains that this theory

may in fact 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 would have

tweaked the story

changing the name of romos to the native

name of

romulus but the name romos which

later turned into the native name of

remus was never fully forgotten

and would account for the story of two

founders

not just one

further lending to the possibility of

having a potentially

hidden greek descent in his satire the

caesars

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 and yet

another option is that the trojan prince

aeneas actually founded rome as

described by

virgil a roman poet in his epic known as

aeneid both emperor augustus and julius

caesar are said to have been descendants

of prince aeneas as well

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

is evidence with not necessarily the

belief that the last three kings were

etruscan but 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 first years

there is no way to prove the unlikely

claim

due to the lack of contemporary evidence

when the gauls sacked rome during the

battle of elia 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 starkinius 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 tarkinius 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 consoles each console

would act as a type of checks and

balances for each other

with each term lasting only one year

and any console being at the mercy of

the law

if they abused their power while in

office

the first two consoles were brutus and

colin tinnis

although the latter was a relative of

the deposed king

and was eventually forced to give up his

position and go

into exile publius valeria's publicola

would take

colin tennis's place as the second

console

king tarkinius did make a few attempts

to regain his throne and re-establish

the roman monarchy

such as with the tarkinian 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 like

a democracy instead the senate

which was made up of purely aristocrats

or patricians

were responsible for voting in each

console for every term

and the lower classes known as the

plebeians

did not possess any type of 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 did slowly begin to gain more

and more influence and power including

eventually becoming eligible for the

position of console

but the patricians essentially

maintained their overall authority

by means of their wealth another

curious feature of the early roman

republic was the way it dealt

with emergencies in the case of

for example a military emergency in the

form of war

the senate and consoles had the ability

to basically elect

a temporary dictator who would assume

complete authority over rome for the

time 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 had 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 as

well

after a mere 15 days cincinnatus led the

romans to victory

voluntarily stepped down from his

temporary position

and returned back to his farm

by 449 bc the roman republic had

also established its first set of

written laws

known as the 12 tablets contrary to the

earlier structure of the republic

these laws now aims to make every

citizen

equal under the eye of 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

whilst paving the way for the long roman

history

that changed the face of europe and the

world in terms of civilization