Rome was situated in Latium, on a navigable river at an important crossroads between the Etruscans and the new Greek cities in southern Italy. Paul Roberts neatly summarises Rome as being founded by Trojans, ruled by Etruscans and peopled by Latins.
Outcasts, the Romans welcomed all men to join them. But critically, the community lacked women, an issue viewed as an existential threat. Seeking to redress that, in around 740 BC Romulus held a festival inviting the men and women of the neighbouring Sabine tribe in the Apennine Hills. Their open arms were extended rather too widely when they kidnapped all the women with the intention of procreation. This act has gone down in history as the rape of the Sabine women, portrayed by the painter Peter Paul Rubens among others.
By the time the Sabine men were ready to counter-strike, the Sabine women were wives and mothers of Romans. It is believed that the Sabines (led by King Titus Tatius) and the Romans (with their Latin League allies) fought beneath Rome’s hills. But the women intervened, demanding peace, so making the Sabines allies of the Romans.
In so doing, Rome became a Roman-Sabine town in which all Sabines were granted the full citizenship of Rome. This legendary merger was the true foundation of Rome itself.
Very little remains of the early Rome, however two of the best-preserved places are the Cloaca Maxima and the Lapis Niger. The Roman Forum was established on a flood plain in the swampy valley called Velabrum. The Cloaca Maxima is one of the oldest monuments in the Roman Forum, originally serving as an open channel with stone foundations for sewage and run-off water believed to have been commissioned by Tarquinius Priscus. In the 200s BC, it was enclosed with a stone semicircular barrel vault, becoming an underground sewer. Later, during the early reign of Emperor Augustus, it was extensively repaired by his friend General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, making open parts wide enough to sail though.
Another of the earliest structures in the Roman Forum is the Shrine to the Vulcan, the God of Fire, dating from the time of Romulus and near the original site of the Comitium in the Forum.
The Lapis Niger, the Black Stone (Roman Forum) was discovered in 1899. It sits on top of the Shrine to Vulcan and is believed to be where Romulus and the King of the Sabines, Titus Tatius, concluded their peace treaty – considered by many as the ritual foundation spot of Rome (the mundus). It is also regarded by some as the final resting place of Romulus (killed by senators rebelling against his despotic rule). Inscriptions on the Lapis Niger are believed to date from the end of the monarchy, but experts debate on its true heritage, some believing it was constructed much later by Julius Caesar. Today, it is difficult to see the Lapis Niger since it is placed under a protective canopy.
Excerpt from The History Lover’s Guide to Ancient Rome by Callum Moy
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Photographs CM 2025
