History for the RomanCatholic

The Kingdom · event

The Founding of Rome — Romulus & Remus

Placeholder: the first lesson. Rome's founding legend, and what archaeology says about it.

753 BC — traditional date, 21 April 753 BC (Varro's reckoning)Palatine Hill, RomeRomeGovernmentDraft

The hook

One story explained who founded Rome, how the city got its name, and why it began on the Palatine Hill. Historians call this kind of story an aetiological myth.

The story

What we actually know

The Catholic thread

Still standing

Interesting facts

Teach it back

Sources

  1. Primary source History of Rome, Book 1 (Ab Urbe Condita), Livy
  2. Primary source Life of Romulus, Plutarch
  3. Primary source City of God, Book XV, Augustine of Hippo

    Compares Romulus killing Remus to Cain killing Abel.

  4. Primary source Sermon 82 (Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul), Leo the Great

    Presents Peter and Paul as Rome's true founders, in place of Romulus and Remus.

  5. Scholarship The Beginnings of Rome, T. J. Cornell (1995)Buy on Amazon
  6. Popular history The History of Rome (podcast), Mike Duncan (2007–2012)

    Source of the framing that the founding legend neatly answers Rome's questions about its own origins.