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63-515: The theology of Quirinus is complex and difficult to interpret. From early times, he was identified with the deified Romulus , who originally seems to have shared some common theological and mythological elements with Quirinus. The flamen Quirinalis presided over at least three festivals, the Consualia Aestiva on August 21, Robigalia on April 25, and Larentalia on December 23. Beside these festivals that of Quirinus himself,

126-505: A Vestal . When Rhea became pregnant, she asserted that she had been visited by the god Mars. Amulius imprisoned her, and upon the twins' birth, ordered that they be thrown into the Tiber . But as the river had been swollen by rain, the servants tasked with disposing of the infants could not reach its banks, and so exposed the twins beneath a fig tree at the foot of the Palatine Hill . In

189-466: A lucus (grove) on the site and a long prayer pronounced by the flamen Quirinalis. The Larentalia of December 23 were a parentatio , an act of funerary cult in memory of Larunda or Larentia . A sacrifice was offered at the site of her supposed tomb on the Velabrum . She was not a goddess but a sort of heroine, with two conflicting legends: In the first story (and probably elder one) Larentia

252-645: A temple to Jupiter Feretrius . Antemnae and Crustumerium were conquered in turn. Some of their people, chiefly the families of the abducted women, were allowed to settle in Rome. Following the defeat of the Latin towns, the Sabines, under the leadership of Titus Tatius , marshalled their forces and advanced upon Rome. They gained control of the citadel by bribing Tarpeia , the daughter of the Roman commander charged with its defense. Without

315-583: A bearded warrior wielding a spear as a god of war, the embodiment of Roman strength and a deified likeness of the city of Rome. He had a Flamen Maior called the Flamen Quirinalis , who oversaw his worship and rituals in the ordainment of Roman religion attributed to Romulus's royal successor, Numa Pompilius . There is however no evidence for the conflated Romulus-Quirinus before the 1st century BC. Ovid in Metamorphoses XIV ( lines 805-828 ) gives

378-483: A description of the deification of Romulus and his wife Hersilia , who are given the new names of Quirinus and Hora respectively. Mars, the father of Romulus, is given permission by Jupiter to bring his son up to Olympus to live with the Olympians . One theory regarding this tradition proposes the emergence of two mythical figures from an earlier, singular hero. While Romulus is a founding hero, Quirinus may have been

441-453: A god of the harvest, and the Fornacalia a festival celebrating a staple crop ( spelt ). Through the traditional dates from the tales and the festivals, they are each associated with one another. A legend of the murder of such a founding hero, the burying of the hero's body in the fields (found in some accounts), and a festival associated with that hero, a god of the harvest, and a food staple is

504-843: A pattern recognized by anthropologists . Called a " dema archetype", this pattern suggests that in a prior tradition, the god and the hero were in fact the same figure and later evolved into two. Possible historical bases for the broad mythological narrative remain unclear and disputed. Modern scholarship approaches the various known stories of the myth as cumulative elaborations and later interpretations of Roman foundation myth . Particular versions and collations were presented by Roman historians as authoritative, an official history trimmed of contradictions and untidy variants to justify contemporary developments, genealogies and actions in relation to Roman morality . Other narratives appear to represent popular or folkloric tradition; some of these remain inscrutable in purpose and meaning. T.P. Wiseman sums up

567-546: A plan to acquire women from other settlements. He announced a momentous festival and games , and invited the people of the neighboring cities to attend. Many did, in particular the Sabines , who came in droves. At a prearranged signal, the Romans seized and carried off the marriageable women among their guests. The aggrieved cities prepared for war with Rome, and might have defeated Romulus had they been fully united. But impatient with

630-463: A ritual in ancient sources. He puts forward another interpretation based on the fact that the only religious ritual recorded for that day are the stultorum feriae , i.e. the last day of the Fornacalia . This festival used to be celebrated separately by each of the thirty curiae . Therefore, the Fornacalia had no fixed date and were not mentioned on calendars. Every year the curio maximus established

693-525: A series of artworks based on the Roman foundation myth. The artists contributing works included a sculpture of Hercules with the infant twins by Gabriele Fiorini, featuring the patron's own face. The most important works were an elaborate series of frescoes collectively known as Histories of the Foundation of Rome by the Brothers Carracci: Ludovico , Annibale , and Agostino . The subject for

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756-461: A source. Other significant sources include Ovid 's Fasti , and Virgil 's Aeneid . Greek historians had traditionally claimed that Rome was founded by Greeks, a claim dating back to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos of 5th-century BC, who named Aeneas as its founder. Roman historians connect Romulus to Aeneas by ancestry and mention a previous settlement on the Palatine Hill , sometimes attributing it to Evander and his Greek colonists. To

819-506: A staple food. He cooperates with god Consus , as is testified by the role of his flamen in the Consualia, to the aim of assuring the nurture of the Roman people. There is also a connection between the function of the flamen Quirinalis in the Quirinalia and the functioning of organized Roman society as expressed through the role played by the curiae in the Fornacalia. The curiae were in fact

882-548: A unit known as a century , and ten cavalry. Each Romulean tribe thus provided about one thousand infantry, and one century of cavalry; the three hundred cavalry became known as the Celeres , "the swift", and formed the royal bodyguard. Choosing one hundred men from the leading families, Romulus established the Roman senate . These men he called patres , the city fathers; their descendants came to be known as " patricians ", forming one of

945-447: Is a back-formation from the name of the city. Roman historians dated the city's foundation to between 758 and 728 BC, and Plutarch reports the calculation of Varro 's friend Tarutius that 771 BC was the birth year of Romulus and his twin. The tradition that gave Romulus a distant ancestor in the semi-divine Trojan prince Aeneas was further embellished, and Romulus was made the direct ancestor of Rome's first Imperial dynasty . It

1008-479: Is a courtesan who had become fabulously rich after spending a night in the sanctuary of Heracles. Later she had bestowed her fortune on the Roman people on the condition that a rite named after her were held yearly. In the second story she is Romulus and Remus's wet nurse , also considered the mother of the Fratres Arvales and a she wolf. Gellius in a detailed passage on Larentia makes a specific reference to

1071-518: Is unclear whether or not the tale of Romulus or that of the twins are original elements of the foundation myth, or whether both or either were added. Ennius (fl. 180s BC) refers to Romulus as a divinity in his own right, without reference to Quirinus . Roman mythographers identified the latter as an originally Sabine war-deity, and thus to be identified with Roman Mars . Lucilius lists Quirinus and Romulus as separate deities, and Varro accords them different temples. Images of Quirinus showed him as

1134-482: The Campus Martius . Livy says that Romulus was either murdered by the senators, torn apart out of jealousy, or was raised to heaven by Mars, god of war. Livy believes the last theory regarding the legendary king's death, as it allows the Romans to believe that the gods are on their side, a reason for them to continue expansion under Romulus' name. Romulus acquired a cult following, which later became assimilated with

1197-569: The Dema deity archetype (from the character of Hainuwele in Melanesian religion first described by German ethnologist Adolf Ellegard Jensen ). In such a pattern a founder hero is murdered and dismembered, his corpse turning into the staple food of his own ethnos. Romulus Romulus ( / ˈ r ɒ m j ʊ l ə s / , Classical Latin : [ˈroːmʊɫʊs] ) was the legendary founder and first king of Rome . Various traditions attribute

1260-623: The Opiconsivia . This occasion was related to Consus too and was performed in the Regia of the forum, where Ops had a very sacred chapel, open only to the pontifex maximus and the Vestals. The Robigalia of April 25 required the sacrificial offering of blood and entrails from a puppy, and perhaps also the entrails of a sheep. The rite took place near the fifth milestone of the Via Claudia . Ovid talks of

1323-462: The Quirinalia , would almost surely require the participation of the flamen Quirinalis . The Quirinalia were held on February 17 and must be among the oldest Roman yearly festivals. These festivals were all devoted to the cult of deities of remarkable antiquity: Consus has been described as the god of the stored grains (from condere , to store grains in an underground barn or silos). Robigus

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1386-420: The curiae is important as it supports the interpretation of Quirinus as a god of the Roman civil society. The curiae were in fact the original smallest grouping of Roman society. The most probable etymology of curia is considered by many scholars, to be rooted in *co-viria and that of quirites in *co-virites. The Virites were goddesses worshipped along with Quirinus: Gellius, writes to have read in

1449-604: The flamen Quirinalis . Macrobius makes reference to the presence of an unnamed flamen, "per flaminem". This flamen could neither be the Dialis nor the Martialis, let alone the minores, given the nature of parentatio (funeral rite) of the festival, leaving only the Quirinalis as the likely flamen mentioned by Macrobius. The Quirinalia occurred on February 17 in the Roman calendar ( a.d. XIII Kal. Mart. ). Some scholars connect

1512-427: The pontificales libri , that dea Hora and Virites were invoked in prayers in association with the god. The Virites, Quirinus's female paredrae , must be the expression of the god's virtus , in the case of Quirinus namely the personification of the individuals composing Roman society as citizens, in the same way as e.g. Nerio , Mars's paredra, must be the personification of military prowess. Hence Quirinus would be

1575-543: The 1788 Prix de Rome was the death of Tatius ( La mort de Tatius ). Garnier won the contest. Curio maximus The curio maximus was an obscure priesthood in ancient Rome that had oversight of the curiae , groups of citizens loosely affiliated within what was originally a tribe . Each curia was led by a curio , who was admitted only after the age of 50 and held his office for life. The curiones were required to be in good health and without physical defect, and could not hold any other civil or military office;

1638-645: The Aventine based on priority, Romulus the Palatine based on number. The conflict escalated, and Romulus or one of his followers killed Remus. In a variant of the legend, the augurs favoured Romulus, who proceeded to plough a square furrow around the Palatine Hill to demarcate the walls of the future city ( Roma Quadrata ). When Remus derisively leapt over the "walls" to show how inadequate they were against invaders, Romulus struck him down in anger. In another variant, Remus

1701-417: The Quirinalia with the anniversary date of the murder of Romulus by his subjects on the basis of the calendar of Polemius Silvius and of Ovid, where the story of Romulus's apotheosis is related, and accordingly interpret the festival as a funerary parentatio . Dumezil on the other hand remarks that in all other sources the date of this event is July 7 ( Nonae Caprotinae ). Neither there is any record of such

1764-510: The Roman homologous of the correspondent last component god of the supreme divine triad among all Italic peoples, such as the Vofionus of the Iguvine Tables , whose name too has been interpreted as a term meaning the increaser of the people (either from Loifer, or from Luther, an abbreviation from Greek Eleutheros) or simply the people , related to German Leute. This hypothesis is confirmed by

1827-415: The Romans, Rome was the institutions and traditions they credit to their legendary founder, the first "Roman". The legend as a whole encapsulates Rome's ideas of itself, its origins and moral values. For modern scholarship, it remains one of the most complex and problematic of all foundation myths. Ancient historians had no doubt that Romulus gave his name to the city. Most modern historians believe his name

1890-544: The Romulus myths were an exercise in mockery, they were a signal failure. The episodes which make up the legend, most significantly that of the rape of the Sabine women , the tale of Tarpeia , and the death of Tatius have been a significant part of ancient Roman scholarship and the frequent subject of art, literature and philosophy since ancient times. In the late 16th century, the wealthy Magnani family from Bologna commissioned

1953-486: The Sabine advance. Romulus vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Stator , to keep his line from breaking. The bloodshed finally ended when the Sabine women interposed themselves between the two armies, pleading on the one hand with their fathers and brothers, and on the other with their husbands, to set aside their arms and come to terms. The leaders of each side met and made peace. They formed one community, to be jointly ruled by Romulus and Tatius. The two kings presided over

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2016-459: The Sabine women, and the only one already married. He also mentions that some authorities make Hersilia the wife of Hostus Hostilius , rather than Romulus. Two children are attributed to Romulus in Plutarch: a daughter, Prima, and a son, Avillius, but here Plutarch notes that his source, Zenodotus of Troezen, is widely disputed. Livy , Dionysius , and Plutarch rely on Quintus Fabius Pictor as

2079-473: The Tiber from Rome, also raided Roman territory, foreshadowing that city's role as the chief rival to Roman power over the next three centuries. Romulus defeated Veii's army, but found the city too well defended to besiege, and instead ravaged the countryside. After a reign of thirty-seven years, Romulus is said to have disappeared in a whirlwind during a sudden and violent storm, as he was reviewing his troops on

2142-410: The advantage of the citadel, the Romans were obliged to meet the Sabines on the battlefield. The Sabines advanced from the citadel, and fierce fighting ensued. The nearby Lacus Curtius is said to be named after Mettius Curtius, a Sabine warrior who plunged his horse into its muck to stymie his Roman pursuers as he retreated. At a critical juncture in the fighting, the Romans began to waver in the face of

2205-497: The chief of all the gods of what he defines as the third function in Indo-European religions. Italo-Hungarian religious historian Angelo Brelich advanced a hypothesis that could bring together all of the poorly understood elements of the religious traditions concerning Romulus and Quirinus. He argues it is not likely that the two figures were merged at a later stage in the development of the legend, but they were in fact one since

2268-458: The city itself. Romulus sought the assent of the people to become their king. With Numitor's help, he addressed them and received their approval. Romulus accepted the crown after he sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter , and after receiving favourable omens. Romulus divided the populace into three tribes , known as the Ramnes , Titienses , and Luceres , for taxation and military purposes. Each tribe

2331-609: The cult of Quirinus , perhaps originally the indigenous god of the Sabine population. As the Sabines had not had a king of their own since the death of Titus Tatius, the next king of Rome, Numa Pompilius , was chosen from among the Sabines. Various sources state that Romulus had a wife, Hersilia . In Livy, following the defeat of the Caeninenses and the Antemnates, the Sabine women begged Hersilia to intercede with her husband on behalf of their families so that they would be received into

2394-402: The days for each curia . However those who had missed their day ( stulti , dull ones) were allowed an extra off day to make amends collectively. Festus and Plutarch state that the stultorum feriae were in fact the Quirinalia . Their assertion seems acceptable to Dumézil for two reasons: The connection hypothesized by Dumezil between the flamen Quirinalis and an activity regulated through

2457-497: The establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these traditions incorporate elements of folklore , and it is not clear to what extent a historical figure underlies the mythical Romulus, the events and institutions ascribed to him were central to the myths surrounding Rome's origins and cultural traditions. The myths concerning Romulus involve several distinct episodes and figures, including

2520-446: The fact that the two first god names at Iguvium are identical to their Roman counterpart (Jov- and Mart-) and grammatically were nouns, whereas name Vofiono- is an adjectival derivation in no- of a noun root, just as *Co-virino. Moreover, philologists Vittor Pisani and Emile Benveniste have proposed a likely etymology for Vofiono- that makes it the equivalent in meaning of *Co-virino: Leudhyo-no. The Consualia, Robigalia, Larentalia, and

2583-482: The growing city of Rome for a number of years, before Tatius was slain in a riot at Lavinium , where he had gone to make a sacrifice. Shortly before, a group of envoys from Laurentum had complained of their treatment by Tatius' kinsmen, and he had decided the matter against the ambassadors. Romulus resisted calls to avenge the Sabine king's death, instead reaffirming the Roman alliance with Lavinium, and perhaps preventing his city from splintering along ethnic lines. In

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2646-462: The last act of Fornacalia (the Quirinalia) are the religious rituals performed by flamen Quirinalis . If Romans' traditions were conserved, rather than re-adapted, these rituals should reflect the most ancient and original nature of god Quirinus. The festivals connect him to wheat at the three important and potentially risky stages of its growth, storing, and preservation. Quirinus is thus concerned with

2709-519: The latter part of the fourth century BC. This hypothesis is rejected by other scholars, such as Tim Cornell (1995), who notes that by this period, the story of Romulus and Remus had already assumed its standard form, and was widely accepted at Rome. Other elements of the Romulus mythos clearly resemble common elements of folk tale and legend, and thus strong evidence that the stories were both old and indigenous. Likewise, Momigliano finds Strasburger's argument well-developed, but entirely implausible; if

2772-532: The link of sexual pleasure and wealth. In the interpretation of Dumézil this has to do with the Indo-European myth of the divine twins , but Romulus's connections to kingship and war are not necessarily part of the original conception of Quirinus. According to Dumezil the theological character of the god as reflected in the functions of his flamen is thence civil and social, being related to nurture, fertility, plenty, wealth, and pleasure. This features make him

2835-504: The matter to the Senate , who promptly tossed it back to them. Political jockeying no longer discernible in the historical record was perhaps in play. Mamilius was duly elected, and held the office until he died of plague in 175 BC. His successor, also a plebeian, was Gaius Scribonius Curio , whose new cognomen passed to his descendants, most notably a father and son who were active at the time of Julius Caesar . The electoral procedure for

2898-520: The miraculous birth and youth of Romulus and his twin brother , Remus ; Remus' murder and the founding of Rome; the Rape of the Sabine Women , and the subsequent war with the Sabines ; a period of joint rule with Titus Tatius ; the establishment of various Roman institutions; the death or apotheosis of Romulus, and the succession of Numa Pompilius . According to Roman mythology , Romulus and Remus were

2961-431: The most ancient times. This view allows us to understand why the Fornacalia, the feast of the toasting of spelt, were also one of the traditional dates of the murder of Romulus: according to this tradition the king was killed by the patres , his body dismembered and each bit of it buried within their own plots of land. Brelich sees in this episode a clear reflection of a mythical theme found in primitive religion and known as

3024-543: The office of curio maximus probably resembled that of pontifex maximus ; that is, election through the tribes . Others known to have held the office include C. Calvisius Sabinus , the consul of 39 BC. The curio maximus presided over the Quirinalia , and also the agricultural festivals of the curiae such as the Fordicidia , when pregnant cows were sacrificed, and the Fornacalia , or Oven Festival. The Fornacalia had no fixed date, and though each curia might celebrate

3087-443: The pool of willing candidates was thus neither large nor eager. In the early Republic , the curio maximus was always a patrician , and officiated as the senior interrex . The earliest curio maximus identified as such is Servius Sulpicius ( consul 500 BC), who held the office in 463. The first plebeian to hold the office was elected in 209 BC. The election of a plebeian to succeed an impeccably pedigreed Aemilius Papus

3150-400: The preparations of the Sabines, the Latin towns of Caenina , Crustumerium , and Antemnae took action without their allies. Caenina was the first to attack; its army was swiftly put to flight, and the town taken. After personally defeating and slaying the prince of Caenina in single combat, Romulus stripped him of his armour, becoming the first to claim the spolia opima , and vowed to build

3213-597: The smallest cell of ancient Roman society. The role of the flamen Quirinalis in the Larentalia is also significant. In the two legends concerning Larentia she is a figure related to nurture, agricultural plenty, and wealth. She rears the divine twins, is the mother of the Fratres Arvales, performers of the agricultural propitiary rite of the Ambarvalia , and bestows wealth on her heirs and figurative children. Her story hints to

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3276-474: The sons of Rhea Silvia by the god Mars . Their maternal grandfather was Numitor , the rightful king of Alba Longa , through whom the twins were descended from both the Trojan hero Aeneas , and Latinus , the king of Latium . Before the twins' birth, Numitor's throne had been usurped by his brother, Amulius , who murdered Numitor's son or sons, and condemned Rhea Silvia to perpetual virginity by consecrating her

3339-403: The state rather than slain by Roman arms. In Dionysius, Hersilia was herself one of the Sabine women, and the only one who was already married at the time of her abduction. Dionysius explains that she was either mistaken for a virgin, or, he thinks more probably, that she was the mother of one of those abducted, and refused to abandon her daughter. Plutarch also relates that Hersilia was one of

3402-491: The throne. The princes then set out to establish a city of their own. They returned to the hills overlooking the Tiber , near where they had been exposed as infants, but disagreed on the site of their new city. Each took up station on a different hill, and awaited an omen to decide between them. Remus sighted six vultures over the Aventine Hill, then Romulus saw a flight of twelve above the Palatine Hill. Remus argued for

3465-496: The traditional account, a she-wolf happened upon the twins, and suckled them until they were found by the king's herdsman, Faustulus , and his wife, Acca Larentia . The brothers grew to manhood among the shepherds and hill-folk. After becoming involved in a conflict between the followers of Amulius and those of their grandfather Numitor, Faustulus told them of their origin. With the help of their friends, they lured Amulius into an ambush and killed him, restoring their grandfather to

3528-541: The two major social classes at Rome. The other class, known as the " plebs " or "plebeians", consisted of the servants, freedmen, fugitives who sought asylum at Rome, those captured in war, and others who were granted Roman citizenship over time. To encourage the growth of the city, Romulus outlawed infanticide, and established an asylum for fugitives on the Capitoline Hill . Here freemen and slaves alike could claim protection and seek Roman citizenship. The new city

3591-578: The whole issue as the mythography of an unusually problematic foundation and early history. The unsavoury elements of many of the myths concerning Romulus have led some scholars to describe them as "shameful" or "disreputable". In antiquity such stories became part of anti-Roman and anti-pagan propaganda. More recently, the historian Hermann Strasburger postulated that these were never part of authentic Roman tradition, but were invented and popularized by Rome's enemies, probably in Magna Graecia , during

3654-453: The years following the death of Tatius, Romulus is said to have conquered the city of Fidenae , which, alarmed by the rising power of Rome, had begun raiding Roman territory. The Romans lured the Fidenates into an ambush, and routed their army; as they retreated into their city, the Romans followed before the gates could be shut, and captured the town. The Etruscan city of Veii , nine miles up

3717-551: Was an evil spirit that could cause mildew and thus damage growing wheat. Larenta was a figure connected to the primordial legendary times of Rome or to the founding of the city itself. During the Consualia Aestiva the flamen Quirinalis and the Vestals offered a sacrifice at Consus's underground altar in the Circus Maximus . Four days later the Vestals took part in the rites of the festival of Ops , goddess of agricultural plenty,

3780-432: Was filled with colonists, most of whom were young, unmarried men. While fugitives seeking asylum helped the population grow, single men greatly outnumbered women. With no intermarriage taking place between Rome and neighboring communities, the new city would eventually fail. Romulus sent envoys to neighboring towns, appealing to them to allow intermarriage with Roman citizens, but his overtures were rebuffed. Romulus formulated

3843-519: Was killed during a melée, along with Faustulus. The founding of Rome was commemorated annually on April 21, with the festival of the Parilia . Romulus' first act was to fortify the Palatine with the Murus Romuli , in the course of which he made a sacrifice to the gods. He laid out the city's boundaries with a furrow that he ploughed, performed another sacrifice, and with his followers set to work building

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3906-495: Was predictably controversial, even though the office of curio maximus had become "anachronistic and somewhat bizarre", and the election of both a plebeian pontifex maximus as early as 254 BC and rex sacrorum just the previous year would have seemed to clear the way. When the patricians objected to the candidacy of Gaius Mamilius Atellus , the tribunes of the plebs , who normally withheld themselves from religious affairs, were called in. They followed procedure by referring

3969-417: Was presided over by an official known as a tribune , and was further divided into ten curia , or wards, each presided over by an official known as a curio . Romulus also allotted a portion of land to each ward, for the benefit of the people. Nothing is known of the manner in which the tribes and curiae were taxed, but for the military levy, each curia was responsible for providing one hundred foot soldiers,

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