How was Rome founded? - History of the Roman Empire - Part 1

Hey guys, this is the start of a new series on our channel, in which we will cover the whole history of the Roman Empire. Rome. The name itself evokes vivid thoughts and imagery of papacy, an empire, a republic, and seemingly endless history. But how did it all begin? Before Rome could become the legendary city and beyond that it is today, it had to start somewhere. The story of the founding of Rome is a tale that was often told by the Romans as the earliest history of their ancient city. As the legend goes, Rome was founded on April 22nd, 753 BC, by twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The boys were the son of Rhea Silvia, a daughter of King Numitor of Alba Longa, who was impregnated by the god of war, Mars. When the twins were born, King Numitor's younger brother, who had previously deposed the king, attempted to have the boys murdered by drowning them in the Tiber River in hopes to avoid any new rivals to the throne. Somehow, the infants survived and eventually washed ashore near Palatine Hill. Here, the legend has it that they were suckled by a she-wolf and later found by Faustulus, a local shepherd. He and his wife took the boys in. And with age, Romulus and Remus became leaders of a group of shepherd warriors before finding out about their true lineage. Knowing that they had a valid claim to Alba Longa, the twins launched an attack on the city, assassinating their great uncle and placing their grandfather back on the throne. They then decided to found their own city nearby, at the site where they suckled from the she-wolf as babies. But a conflict between the brothers ended with Romulus murdering his brother, and Romulus alone then founded the city of Rome, named after none other than himself. Romulus now had to address the obvious problem of somehow populating his new town, which currently had no woman. To overcome this obstacle, Romulus devised a plan to invite his neighbors, the Sabines, to a festival at which he had their woman kidnapped. This, unsurprisingly, triggered armed conflicts between the new Romans and the Sabines. But thankfully for Romulus, the abducted woman actually came to mediate and insisted on putting an end to the war before Rome could be captured. The subsequent peace treaty allowed for the merging of the two kingdoms and made both Romulus and the Sabine king Titus Tatius the population's authority. Additionally, to help with the growth of Rome, Romulus invited both exiles and fugitives to come and seek asylum in his kingdom. By the time that his counterpart King Titus died, no heir replaced the Sabine, which left Romulus once again the sole monarch over the new city. After the founder's death, there would be six more kings until the kingdom would become a republic instead. This, of course, is only one theory as to how Rome came to be. The somewhat outlandish tale has been questioned by many historians over the years, and other hypotheses concerning how Rome was founded exist and have been supported by some curious figures. For one, Strabo, a Greek historian, wrote of another tale that claimed an Arcadian colony first occupied what would become Rome, and the city itself was founded by a Greek man from Arcadia named Evander. According to Strabo, a Roman historian, Lucius Coelius Antipater, also agreed with this theory. Still, another belief is that Rome was founded by Ramos, a son of King Odysseus and Circe, which would have made the Romans of Greek descent and may have become an unfavorable fact as discord with the Greeks began to grow. Martin P. Nilsson, a Swedish scholar, explains that this theory may, in fact, have once been the main story of Rome's birth. But as the concept of Greek ancestry became more embarrassing for the Romans, they likely would have tweaked the story, changing the name of Ramos to the native name of Romulus. But the name Ramos, which later turned into the native name of Remus, was never fully forgotten and would account for the story of two founders, not just one. Further lending to the possibility of having a potentially hidden Greek descent, in his satire The Caesars, Emperor Julian is said to have had Alexander the Great say to the Romans, I am aware that you Romans are yourselves descended from the Greeks. And yet another option is that the Trojan Prince Aeneas actually founded Rome, as described by Virgil, a Roman poet in his epic known as Aeneid. Both Emperor Augustus and Julius Caesar are said to have been descendants of Prince Aeneas as well. Historically speaking, regardless of how Rome was truly founded, we know that there were supposedly seven kings in total during the first era of establishment, beginning with Romulus and eventually ending with the Etruscan kings. The final three monarchs of this civilization were Priscus, Tullius, and Superbus. A problem is evident with not necessarily the belief that the last three kings were Etruscan, but with the limited number of kings in total. If only seven kings reigned over 243 years, that would average roughly 35 years per monarch, which has been strongly discredited by modern historians. While it is possible that Rome could have been ruled by only seven kings in its first years, there is no way to prove the unlikely claim due to the lack of contemporary evidence. When the Gauls sacked Rome during the Battle of Aelia in the 4th century BC, they destroyed a large amount of Rome's existing records and many of the rest became lost or damaged over the following years. One way or another, Rome's foundation as a monarchy came to an end in 509 BC, when the Romans finally gained control back from the Etruscan people who had been ruling over them for the past three reigns. As the story goes, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king, was deposed after his son Sextus Tarquinius committed a heinous crime against Lucretia, a noblewoman, which resulted in her death. Lucretia's father, husband, and even the king's nephew came together with the goal of punishing the royal family by overthrowing the king himself. Both the Roman military and senate decided to support this coup. Not only would King Tarquinius be overthrown, but the kingship in its entirety would be abolished by the senate, and the majority of his duties were instead transferred to two elected consuls. Each consul would act as a type of checks and balances for each other, with each term lasting only one year, and any consul being at the mercy of the law if they abused their power while in office. The first two consuls were Brutus and Colin Tinnus, although the latter was a relative of the deposed king and was eventually forced to give up his position and go into exile. Publius Valerius Publicola would take Colin Tinnus' place as the second consul. King Tarquinius did make a few attempts to regain his throne and re-establish the Roman monarchy, such as with the Tarquinian conspiracy the same year of his removal and two battles within the Roman-Etruscan wars shortly after. The former king proved disappointingly unsuccessful, and the republic remained. At this point in time, while the republic may have been an improvement from the monarchy, it still was not like a democracy. Instead, the senate, which was made up of purely aristocrats or patricians, were responsible for voting in each consul for every term, and the lower classes, known as the plebeians, did not possess any type of power to challenge or influence decisions made by the senate. Additionally, there were notable efforts made to separate and distinguish the varying levels of society. Marriage between patricians and plebeians was strictly forbidden. As the republic aged and developed, the plebeians did slowly begin to gain more and more influence and power, including eventually becoming eligible for the position of consul, but the patricians essentially maintained their overall authority by means of their wealth. Another curious feature of the early Roman republic was the way it dealt with emergencies. In the case of, for example, a military emergency in the form of war, the senate and consuls had the ability to basically elect a temporary dictator who would assume complete authority over Rome for the time of the crisis. The position was, quite frankly, a dangerous one, as it gave the dictator unchecked control and power in an already chaotic time. But for a plebeian by the name of Cincinnatus, the concept worked as had hoped. The aristocrats brought Cincinnatus from his farm during a military emergency that they felt required the appointment of a dictator to take charge and lead the troops as well. After a mere 15 days, Cincinnatus led the Romans to victory, voluntarily stepped down from his temporary position, and returned back to his farm. By 449 BC, the Roman Republic had also established its first set of written laws, known as the Twelve Tablets. Contrary to the earlier structure of the republic, these laws now aimed to make every citizen equal under the eye of the law. Finally, after refining the very foundations of the new republic, Rome could move on to another goal, expansion. Over the following centuries, Rome would begin to grow, creating only the first few chapters of our Roman history books today, whilst paving the way for the long Roman history that changed the face of Europe and the world in terms of civilization, culture, traditions, and much more. We have more stories to tell about the Roman Empire, so be sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell button to be notified when a new video is available. Thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you in the next one.