Kingdom I

Who were the Romans?

• Northern most Latin community
  • Latium
• Indo-European languages
  • Italic languages

Literary Historical Tradition

• Begins in 3rd. cent. BC
• Roman literature inspired by Greek literature
• Kingdom ended 300 years earlier
  • How much was known of kingdom?

Literary Tradition of Foundation/Kingdom

• Romulus and Remus
• Seven kings
• Foundation dated to ca. 753 BC by adding reigns of kings

Problems with Literary Tradition

• Too few kings for period from foundation to end of kingdom
• Reigns schematized
  • Many have a "specialty"
    • Romulus "founder" of a number of basic institutions
    • Numa the "religious" king
• "Romulus" and "Remus" clearly made up
  • "Romulus" derived from name of Rome, not other way
  • Same true of "Remus"
    • "e-grade" of Roma
• Much fictional material introduced on basis of:
  • Etymological and other sorts of conjecture
  • Copying of literary devices/motifs in Greek historical tradition

Evidence in Favor of Literary Tradition

• Names of kings plausible
  • Created like regular Italic names
  • Not like famous/normal names of Republic
• Republican priesthood "king of sacrifices" (rex sacrorum)
  • In democ. Athens "basileus" carries on duties of king

Archaeological evidence

• Archaeological evidence
• Based on durable physical remains
• Hard to correlate with literary evidence
  • In past, archaeological ev. interpreted on basis of literary ev.
  • Answers diff. questions than literary ev.