Ancient Rome and its entire history are steeped in legend. Every stone tells a new story, a new chapter begins on every street corner. One of the most fascinating stories is undoubtedly the history and legend surrounding the origin of Rome.
Origin of Rome
The origin of Rome is still not entirely clear: the historical notions we have are based on the data transmitted by the classical authors and on the information arising from the study of archaeological finds. The stages of the foundation of the city were transmitted under the guise of a legend, denying, in some cases, the veracity of the monarchical period of the capital.
The historians of the XIX and XX centuries evaluated the real value of the legend and the history of the first kings (Romulus, Numa Pompilio, Tulo Hostilio), as well as the foundation of the "Urbs", fixed on the date of April 21 from 753 BC (Year of the Birth of Rome) by the historian Varrón, based on the calculations of the astrologer Lucio Tarzio. From the XNUMXth century, thanks to the study of some archaeological remains, it was possible to sift through the historical data provided by the legend about the origin of Rome.
Surely the first inhabitants of Rome came from different areas and did not have the economic and cultural development of their neighbors to the north, the Etruscans, or those to the south, the Sabines and the Latins. In the Palatine area, archaeologists found remains of a settlement from the XNUMXth century BC. C. and it is probable that the inhabitants of this area later occupied the neighboring areas of the hill and the valley.
Romulus and Remus: the foundation of the origin of Rome
According to the Roman historian Varro, Romulus founded the city of Rome on April 21, 753 BC. C. The origin of Rome is a source of myth and darkness. The best known myth is that of Romulus and Remus, who are said to have been descendants of the Trojan hero Aeneas.
Aeneas part of Troy
At the time the Greeks sneakily invaded Troy with a wooden horse, Aeneas was sleeping. In his dream, Hector, the main hero of Troy, came to tell him to leave his beloved city and seek refuge elsewhere.
Once awake Troy was on fire and Aeneas fought. He soon realized that the city was lost and he fled with his fleet. After many wanderings, they ended up in North African Carthage. They were hampered mainly by the wind, which split their fleet in two off the Punic coast.
Neptune, god of the seas, thought that Aeneas had been through enough misery. After a successful trip around the Mediterranean, they ended up in Cumae, Italy. After a visit to the underworld (where Aeneas saw the souls that would later become Caesar and Augustus), he married Lavinia, the daughter of the king of the Italian region of Lazio.
However, Lavinia was already betrothed to an indigenous chief, who declared war on Aeneas. The Trojans won. Aeneas settled in Latium and had a dozen children. Finally, his granddaughter, Rea Silvia, would be the mother of Rómulo and Remo.
Romulus and Remus
The myth of Romulus and Remus speaks of the kingdom of Alba Longa and its king Amulius, son of Aeneas. Amulius opposed his brother Numitor and banished him from his kingdom. He then forced his brother's daughter, Rea Silva, to join the Vestal Virgins. As her name suggests, this group of women were forbidden to marry and have children. However, Amulius had not taken into account the world of the gods.
The Roman god of war, Mars, fell madly in love with Rhea Silva and gave her the twins Romulus and Remus. The king of Alba Longa ordered his slaves to drown the twins, but because the Tiber was flooded, they could not reach the banks of the river. They left the babies on the bank of the Tiber. When a she-wolf heard the howling of the children, she rescued them and raised them until they were found by a shepherd who took them under her protection.
The children were later discovered by the chief shepherd of the royal flock, Faustulus. He took them home, where Romulus and Remus grew up to become shepherds like Faustulus. At one point, Root was captured after fighting other herdsmen and taken to Numitor. Numitor recognized Root and then, along with his grandchildren, murdered his brother to become king himself.
With their grandfather taking control of the kingdom, the twins planned the founding of a riverside town where the two had stayed. His hunger for power caused a fight between the brothers; both considered themselves best suited to lead the new city. In the bloody fight that followed, Root was killed. On April 21, 753 BC, Romulus founded Rome, the city named after the man who killed his brother out of sheer desire for power. This is the mythological origin of Rome
The history of the origin of Rome
The story that archaeologists trace about the origin of Rome is very different. According to them, there were small settlements on the Palatine and Esquiline as early as the XNUMXth century BC. In the XNUMXth century, a third hill, the Celio, was established. Around that time, a kind of defensive wall would have been built on the Palatine for the first time. In the sixth century a. C., these settlements were conquered by the Etruscans, who forged the communities of the three different hills together in a small city.
The swamp at the foot of the Palatine Hill was drained and laid out as a center, while a kind of fortress was built on the Capitol. The seven characteristic hills of the city, from the origin Rome were part of this city in the fourth century BC. C. A wall was built around the city and gradually the city grew in size and prestige.
early rome
When Italy emerged into the light of history around 700 B.C. C., before the origin of Rome, it was already inhabited by various peoples of different cultures and languages. Most of the country's natives lived in villages or small towns, supported themselves by farming or herding (Italy means "Land of Calves"), and spoke an Italic dialect belonging to the Indo-European language family.
Oscan and Umbrian were closely related Italic dialects spoken by the Apennine people. The other two Italic dialects, Latin and Venetic, were equally closely related to each other and were spoken, respectively, by the Latins of Lazio (a plain of west-central Italy) and the people of northeastern Italy (near the modern Venice). Iapigios and Mesapios inhabited the southeast coast. Their language resembled the speech of the Illyrians across the Adriatic.
During the 700th century BC, the Po valley of northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul) was occupied by Gallic Celtic-speaking tribes who had migrated across the Alps from mainland Europe. The Etruscans were the first highly civilized peoples of Italy and were the only inhabitants who did not speak an Indo-European language. Around XNUMX BC C. several Greek colonies were established along the southern coast. Both Greeks and Phoenicians actively participated in trade with the native Italians.
The northwest of the Apennine peninsula was inhabited by Etruscan tribes. The Etruscans are supposed to have arrived in Italy from Asia Minor at the end of the second and the beginning of the first millennium BC. In the late 616th century BC the twelve largest Etruscan city-states formed an alliance led by an annually elected king and high priest. This alliance extended its influence over most of northern and central Italy. According to legend, the Etruscan kings of the Tarquin clan ruled between 509 and XNUMX BC in Rome.
Etruscan ships reached great distances. Under the influence of the Greeks, the Etruscans developed a distinctive culture. Already in the seventh century BC they had writing and used the Greek alphabet. The influence of the Etruscans was very noticeable in the early period of Roman history.
The Etruscan cities were a model for the Romans in terms of the state structure and the organization of the army, in applied arts and construction. The Romans inherited a number of political and religious institutions from the Etruscans.
The Greeks were another people who influenced the origin of Rome. Their colonies appeared in the south of the Apennine peninsula between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries BC. The developed cultural and political traditions of the Greeks became an example for the indigenous people of the peninsula to follow.
The region of central Italy was inhabited by Latin tribes. In the IX and VIII centuries. AC among the Latinos begins the disintegration of the tribal system, the first cities appear. In the middle of the XNUMXth century BC, several tribal communities located on the banks of the Tiber river were united into a single entity: which caused the origin of Rome. Indeed, this unification marked the beginning of the formation of the Roman civil community (civitas), a political formation typologically similar to the Greek city-states.
The royal period, 753-509 BC. c.
According to legend, the origin of Rome was thanks to the brothers Romulus and Remus, the first of whom became a Roman king. According to tradition, after Romulus, Rome was ruled by six more kings: Numa Pompilius, Tullius Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius the Proud. The last three kings were representatives of the Etruscan dynasty, suggesting that in the XNUMXth century BC Rome fell under the influence of the Etruscan confederation.
The power of the king was initially close to the power of the tribal leader: the king performed the functions of commander and high priest, but his real influence in the internal political life of Rome was largely confined to the clan aristocracy. Only during the reign of the dynasty, from the origin of Rome, Etruscan kings began to claim unlimited power.
During the royal period, the entire population of Rome, the "Roman people" (populus romanus), was divided into three hundred genera, ten curiae (thirty genera each), and three tribes (ten curiae each). The supreme governing body was the popular assembly (comitia), in which all full-fledged residents of the community could participate. Initially, only the patricians, the descendants of the indigenous inhabitants of Rome, the plebeians, the descendants of families who moved to Rome, were not eligible to participate in the comitia.
Another governing body was the council of elders, chiefs of three hundred clans, the senate (from the Latin, senex = elder). Only during the reign of Servius Tullius (mid-XNUMXth century) did commoners become members of the Roman community. Clan administration was replaced by a census: the entire population of the Roman community was divided into five categories, according to the status of property.
The division of the census of the members of the community became the basis of the organization of the Roman army, as well as of the political structure of Rome: the vote in the popular assembly, which had previously been carried out by tribal curiae, was replaced by voting by census units: the century.
Roman Republic (509-30 BC)
In 509, King Tarquin the Proud, who abused his power, was expelled from Rome, after which a republican form of government (from the Latin Res Publica – common cause) was established. Power was entrusted to officials elected by the Senate: the magistrates. The prerogatives of royal power passed to two consuls, chosen by the Senate from among the patricians.
Later, the judiciary of quaestors appeared, in charge of legal and financial procedures, as well as councilmen, whose functions included the management of the city's economy. In special cases, unlimited powers could be granted to the dictator for a period of six months. The magistrates were chosen by the Senate from among the representatives of the patrician families, thus establishing an aristocratic regime in Rome.
During the 494th and XNUMXrd centuries the main content of the internal history of the Republic was the struggle of the plebeians to limit the power of the patrician and the senate. As a result, the commoners were able to achieve a number of great successes. In XNUMX BC C. Under pressure from the commoners, the Senate established the office of people's tribunes, defenders of the interests of the commoners, who had the right to veto any decision of the Senate.
Soon, the commoners were admitted to the public use of the land. The influence of the popular assembly was reinforced. Around 367 BC. C. commoners were admitted to the consulate. In fact, at the beginning of the third century the distinction between plebeians and patricians began to fade. The elite of plebeian and patrician clans, who retained their influence, gradually formed a new ruling stratum - the nobility.
Foreign policy of the Roman Republic
The foreign policy of the Roman Republic was characterized by continuous wars. The Roman army of that time was a popular militia, united into a kind of troops, depending on the state of ownership. The main military unit was the legion (6.000 men), divided into thirty tactical manipule units capable of autonomous action during battle.
In the first decades of the Republic, Rome resisted the hardest war with the Etruscan confederation. In the 390th century, after defeating their closest neighbors, the Romans asserted their power over the lower reaches of the Tiber River. At the beginning of IV, the expansion of Rome was suspended by the devastating invasion of the Celtic tribes, the Gauls, who devastated Rome in XNUMX a. c.
In the late fourth century, Rome finally asserted its dominance in the Latin Confederation, an alliance of cities founded by Latin tribes. During the Samnite Wars (343 to 290 BC) Rome subdued all of central Italy and began to threaten the Greek colonies in the south of the peninsula. The intervention of King Pyrrhus, the ruler of the small Hellenistic state of Epirus, in the struggle between Rome and the Greek colony of Tarentum, marked the beginning of the Pyrrhic War (280 to 275 BC).
Despite the fact that Pyrrhus, using war elephants, inflicted a series of defeats on the Roman armies, the Romans were still able to expel their troops from Italy. After the victory over Pyrrhus, Rome finally extended its influence throughout Italy.
After the conquest of Italy, the Roman expansion went beyond the Apennine peninsula. Here the Romans had to face one of the largest states in the western Mediterranean - Carthage. The wars between Rome and Carthage (the so-called Punic Wars) continued (on and off) for more than 100 years. As a result of the First Punic War (264-241 BC), the Roman Republic acquired overseas possessions - the islands of Corsica, Sardinia and part of Sicily. These territories became Roman provinces.
During the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) the famous Carthaginian commander Hannibal invaded Italy and inflicted a series of defeats on the Romans (at Trebia in 218, at Lake Trasimeno in 217, in a general battle at Cannes in 216). Despite the fact that Hannibal threatened Rome directly for sixteen years, the troops of the Republic, under the command of Scipio Africanus (the Elder), managed to transfer hostilities to enemy territory and, as a result, defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama ( 202 BC).
As a result of the Second Punic War, Rome gained territories in Spain and in fact became the hegemon of the Western Mediterranean. At the end of III, Rome begins to expand into the eastern Mediterranean. During the three Macedonian wars (215‒205, 200‒197, 171‒168 BC), the Romans extended their rule to the Balkan Peninsula.
After the Syrian war (192-188 BC) against the Seleucid king Antiochus III, the Hellenistic states of Asia Minor entered the sphere of influence of Rome. Finally, during the III Punic War (149-146 BC), Carthage was finally destroyed. Rome has become the greatest Mediterranean power.
Crisis of the Roman Republic
The wars of conquest contributed to a radical transformation of the sociopolitical and economic structure of Roman society. The victorious wars caused an influx of cheap slaves to Italy. Slavery gradually became the basis of industrial relations in Italy. Hundreds of thousands of slaves flock to Italy and slave revolts become regular.
Then in 138 BC the slaves of Sicily rebelled. The rebels took control of the entire island and even tried to create their own state. Only in 132 a. C. the Roman army was able to repress this movement. Between 104 to 99 BC there was a large-scale Sicilian slave uprising. In 74 BC C. the greatest slave uprising in ancient history took place under the leadership of Spartacus. It was only thanks to the extreme effort of the forces of the Roman Republic that the uprising was suppressed in 71 BC. c.
The development of a large latifundist economy, based solely on the exploitation of cheap slave labor, caused a massive ruin of medium and small peasant farms unable to resist the competition and the lack of land of broad strata of Roman citizens. The impoverished Romans (plebs) who gathered in the cities became a source of unrest and constant civil strife.
In the 30s, XNUMXnd century BC, the rights of the plebs began to be defended by a representative of an aristocratic family, the tribune of the people Tiberius Gracchus. To solve the land problem, he proposed setting the maximum amount of land ownership allowed and dividing the surplus among the poor Romans. Overcoming powerful resistance from the nobility, Gracchus succeeded in passing the law, but was soon assassinated. In fact, the reform was not implemented.
Tiberius' reforming activities were continued by his brother Gaius Gracchus. To solve the land problem, he proposed to start the distribution of the land fund of the conquered provinces among the poor Roman citizens. These initiatives by Gracchus caused riots in Rome. In 122 BC C. the reformer was assassinated. The death of the Gracchus brothers only intensified the social contradictions.
In addition, the expansion of Roman influence to remote areas promoted the development of trade and relations between merchandise and money. Wealth flowed to Rome from provinces devastated by Roman troops and governors. In Rome, a usurious merchant nobility appears, who enter into a struggle for political domination with the senatorial aristocracy (nobility).
The position of the upper strata of the Italic communities was also strengthened, fighting for a complete equalization of rights with the Romans. Gaius Gracchus proposed to grant Italians the rights of Roman citizenship. This proposal was one of the main reasons for the assassination of him. At the beginning of the XNUMXst century BC the struggle of the Italians for their rights intensified.
In 91 a. C. the tribune of the Druze people repeated Graco's proposal to emancipate the Italians. The failure of the bill in the Senate was the pretext for the start of the Allied War (90-88 BC), a general uprising of the Italian communities against Rome. Despite the fact that the Italians were defeated, the Senate was forced to make concessions and include the entire population of the Apennine peninsula in the Roman civil community. This, in turn, led to the fact that the popular assembly actually became a legal fiction.
In the context of the growth of socioeconomic contradictions, the crisis of the Roman civitas is clearly manifested. The republican political institutions that emerged as the authorities of a small rural community failed to effectively manage the colossal territories that became part of the Roman state. Thus, the provinces were effectively transferred to the full control of Senate-appointed governors, who bankrupted the provinces with endless and, indeed, uncontrolled extortion.
In the provinces, revolts constantly broke out against the rule of Rome. The most ambitious attempt to throw off the Roman yoke was a series of wars with Rome by King Mithridates VI, the ruler of the small Hellenistic state of Pontus located in Asia Minor (89-85; 84-82; 74-63 BC).
The era of civil wars
The last century of the Roman Republic's existence was a constant struggle between various strata of Roman society, periodically turning into civil war. At the end of the second century BC in Rome, two opposing parties finally emerged: the optimates (supporters of the preservation of the power of the nobility) and the popular (which defended the need for reforms). The climax of the struggle between these movements was the period of activity of Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla.
Marius rose to the top of political life in Rome during the war against the Numidian king Jugurtha (111-105 BC). After the end of the military conflict, Mario carried out a military reform. Military service for eligible elements was replaced by a professional army. The poorest strata of Roman society were admitted to military service, whose property position depended directly on the success of their commander.
The army and its leaders became a political force virtually independent of the Senate. Thanks to the reform of the army, Rome was able to successfully repel the invasion of the Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and Teutons (102-101 BC).
In 89 B.C. C. began the First War of Mithridates. The Senate entrusted the conduct of the war to the aristocrat Sulla, but the popular assembly appointed Manius Aquillius. The fight over this issue led to the fact that Sulla sent an army that was preparing to march to the East against Rome. For the first time in the history of the city, Rome was taken by Roman troops. After the departure of Sulla and his army to the East, the rule of Rome passed into the hands of supporters of Manius Aquillius.
After Sulla's return to Italy, the political struggle between the parties turned into open civil war. Taking Rome again in battle, Sulla established (in 82 BC) a dictatorship supported by political terror (the system of proscriptions). In fact, Sulla's dictatorship (82-79 BC) was the last attempt to maintain the political dominance of the nobility and the power of the Senate.
In the years 70 to 60 BC is the rise of Pompey the Great. He participated in the suppression of the Spartacus uprising, became famous in the war with Mithridates, his campaigns in Asia Minor and Transcaucasia, the fight against Mediterranean pirates. In 60 BC Pompey, together with the oligarch Marcus Crassus and the aristocrat Gaius Julius Caesar, formed a political union (I Triumvirate), whose members, relying on the army, divided power over the provinces.
Caesar was given control of Illyria and Gaul, much of which was not under Roman control. During the Gallic Wars 58-51 BC the whole country was subject to Caesar. The victorious war brought the commander great spoils, which Caesar used to strengthen his political positions and his popularity among the Roman plebs.
The threat of Caesar's strengthening forced Pompey to conspire with the Senate and order Caesar to disband the army and he appears in Rome to stand trial. Caesar did not obey and crossed the border of Italy. He actually declared war on the Senate. During the civil war (49-45 BC), Caesar won several victories over Pompey and his followers in Greece, North Africa, and Spain.
At the age of 45, Caesar was proclaimed "father of the country" and dictator for life, practically unlimited ruler of the Republic. More and more openly, the monarchical nature of Caesar's power aroused the discontent of the aristocratic opposition. On March 15, 44 B.C. C., Caesar was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius.
Caesar's death caused the resumption of civil wars. The Caesarians were opposed by supporters of the Republic: an associate of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Caesar's great-nephew Octavian, who, in turn, also competed for the dictator's inheritance. In 43 BC Antonio, Octavio and Lepidus, who joined them, entered into an alliance (II triumvirate). The Triumvirs dealt harshly with the opposition, after which they opposed the Republicans.
At the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the republican army was defeated and its leaders Brutus and Cassius committed suicide. After the victory over the republicans, a fight began between the triumvirs Octavian and Antony, supported by Ptolemaic Egypt. The war between them ended with the victory of Octavian's fleet at the Battle of Cape Stock in 31 BC. C. and the annexation of Egypt to Rome.
In 30 BC Octavian became the sole ruler, and in 27 BC. C. the obsequious senate gave him the title of "Augustus" (Sacred). The state, without formally eliminating republican institutions, in fact, became a monarchy - the Roman Empire.
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