Roman Culture I History Art Architecture 2014
Roman Culture (753 B.C.E. C.E. 476)
• Dated from the legendary founding of Rome by
Romulus in 753 B.C.E. to the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire in C.E. 476.
• The Roman Mythos
• The goddess Venus and the mortal
Anchises have
Venus
Anchises a son named Aeneas, whose story is told by the
Aeneas
Roman poet Virgil in an epic called the
Aeneid.
Aeneid
Roman poet Virgil
Aeneas’ descendents rule the Kingdom of Alba in
Italy. One of his descendents, Rhea Silvia, is
Rhea Silvia made a Vestal Virgin, but she is impregnated by
Vestal Virgin the god Mars. She subsequently gives birth to
Mars
twins, Romulus and Remus, who, because of the
Romulus and Remus
King of Alba’s (her uncle's) fear that they may one day dethrone him and because of the taboo
against Vestal Virgins having children, are abandoned in a small trough next to the Tiber
River. The river wafts up the trough and lands
River
it safely at another location where a shewolf nurses the twins and a woodpecker constantly nurses the twins feeds and watches them. Much later in time,
Romulus founds the city of Rome, and he and
Remus become rivals.
Remus become rivals. Remus provokes
Romulus and Romulus kills him.
Romulus and Romulus kills him. Later,
Romulus disappears in the midst of a storm, and a story emerged that he had been wafted up into the heavens by the gods so that they could deify him as Quirinus, a god of war.
• So, Aeneas is semidivine, his descendant Rhea Silvia is semi divine, and Romulus stems from the god Mars and becomes a god himself; therefore his city of Rome must be divine, and the leaders and citizens of Rome must be divine –
Romans are then the divinely guided rulers of the world.
Capitoline SheWolf
The wolf may well be Etruscan, dating to the late sixth century
B.C.E., but the suckling twins,
Romulus and
Remus, were added during the
Renaissance (C.E. fifteenth century).
• Roman history can be divided up into the
• Dated from the legendary founding of Rome by
Romulus in 753 B.C.E. to the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire in C.E. 476.
• The Roman Mythos
• The goddess Venus and the mortal
Anchises have
Venus
Anchises a son named Aeneas, whose story is told by the
Aeneas
Roman poet Virgil in an epic called the
Aeneid.
Aeneid
Roman poet Virgil
Aeneas’ descendents rule the Kingdom of Alba in
Italy. One of his descendents, Rhea Silvia, is
Rhea Silvia made a Vestal Virgin, but she is impregnated by
Vestal Virgin the god Mars. She subsequently gives birth to
Mars
twins, Romulus and Remus, who, because of the
Romulus and Remus
King of Alba’s (her uncle's) fear that they may one day dethrone him and because of the taboo
against Vestal Virgins having children, are abandoned in a small trough next to the Tiber
River. The river wafts up the trough and lands
River
it safely at another location where a shewolf nurses the twins and a woodpecker constantly nurses the twins feeds and watches them. Much later in time,
Romulus founds the city of Rome, and he and
Remus become rivals.
Remus become rivals. Remus provokes
Romulus and Romulus kills him.
Romulus and Romulus kills him. Later,
Romulus disappears in the midst of a storm, and a story emerged that he had been wafted up into the heavens by the gods so that they could deify him as Quirinus, a god of war.
• So, Aeneas is semidivine, his descendant Rhea Silvia is semi divine, and Romulus stems from the god Mars and becomes a god himself; therefore his city of Rome must be divine, and the leaders and citizens of Rome must be divine –
Romans are then the divinely guided rulers of the world.
Capitoline SheWolf
The wolf may well be Etruscan, dating to the late sixth century
B.C.E., but the suckling twins,
Romulus and
Remus, were added during the
Renaissance (C.E. fifteenth century).
• Roman history can be divided up into the