According to the ancient Roman writer Virgil (building on the earlier works of Pictor), Romulus and Remus are born to the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silva. In mythical circumstances she is raped by the god Mars producing the famed twins.
The twins’ uncle Amulius, seeking to become the sole King of Alba Longa, steals the baby twins and leaves them to drown in a basket by a bend in the River Tiber. Miraculously, the twins are found, nurtured by a she-wolf and raised by a local herdsman. Offering some hope of truth in the story, the wolf may have been a local woman since lupa (wolf) is a colloquialism for a prostitute.
Upon reaching manhood the twins overthrow Amulius, install their grandfather to power and set up their own base at the fledgling settlement of Rome. A good climate and a productive growing season make it an attractive location, Romulus retiring to the Palatine Hill and Remus to the Aventine Hill. As a portent, birds flock over the Palatine.
Over time, Romulus and Remus descend into dispute over who should lead Rome. As matters escalate Romulus accidentally kills Remus – leaving him to become the first King of Rome, the settlement taking his name.
These stories were met with great suspicion by the ancient Roman writers Livy and Cicero. Mary Beard notes that Romulus could be pure myth, nevertheless Rome’s official birthday continues to be 21 of April 753 BC (despite the fact there are no surviving documents and radiocarbon dating does not support the date).
In the non-mythical world, the going was hard. Romans were shunned; regarded as outcasts and fugitives and forced to appeal to anyone to join their community.
By 800 BC the settlement on the Palatine Hill gradually united with other cattle-rustling tribes and by 753 BC all tribes shared a communal necropolis (burial site) on the Esquiline Hill.
There is strong evidence of the integration of Rome with the Etruscans from the north. From around 600 BC, early Roman street plans followed Etruscan designs and temples were built to the gods Jupiter and Minerva on the Capitoline Hill by King Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. David Gwynn also notes that aqueducts, bridges, drainage systems and arched vaults are all Etruscan design. Furthermore, Roman traditions such as haruspicy (examining the entrails of animals for prophecy), wearing of a toga and the sacrosanct nature of the colour purple are, again, all Etruscan in origin.
So much of ancient Rome owes a legacy to the Etruscans; Greek art was brought to Rome by the Etruscans, and the name ‘Roma’ might even be Etruscan.
From 753 BC to 509 BC, the (semi-mythological) seven kings ruled Rome in sequence. Their names (and start of their reign) are believed to be Romulus (753 BC), Numa Pompilius (715 BC), Tullus Hostilius (672 BC), Ancus Marcius (640 BC), Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (616 BC), Servius Tullius (578 BC) and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (534 BC). If we suspend the myth and the impossibility of the dates (in the opinion of Tim Cornell), it is believed that the kings from the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus were of Etruscan origin.
As alluded to earlier, there is no solid proof that Rome was founded by Romulus. The existence of Romulus’s cave, boundary walls or a subsequent palace is all conjecture for which there is no strong evidence – despite the efforts of some academics to associate archaeological finds to this early past. Some scholars suggest the name ‘Rome’ may have been reprojected to Romulus.
There is light evidence that some kind of monarchy may have existed, but not as we would recognise it today. Writers during the Republican period such as Livius Andronicus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Livy, and later Imperial period writers such as Plutarch and Tacitus, all mention a monarchy. But they base their views on other sources that are now mostly lost.
Suggesting the existence of a monarchy, there are some inscriptions on early tombs and coins but there is no strong written or archaeological evidence of the chronology of the seven kings as traditionally set out. However, current excavations under the Regia in the Roman Forum have uncovered some enticing possibilities, so it is a dynamic field of enquiry.
Excerpt from The History Lover’s Guide to Ancient Romeby Callum Moy.
Photographs CM 2025
