The origins of Rome are shrouded in mystery. There are many legends about the rise of Rome. One of them says that the city was founded by the hero of the Trojan war – Aeneas. After capturing and destroying Troy, he was to come to a land called Latium. He died shortly thereafter, which caused prolonged struggles to gain power among his descendants.
Numitor, king of the dynastic city of Alba Longa, was thrown from the throne by the usurper and also his own brother Amulius. The winner gave the daughter of the defeated – Rea Silvia for the service of the goddess Vesta. Soon she gave birth to twins (Romulus and Remus) in a relationship with the god of war Mars. The ruler of Latium – Amulius, learning about the birth of boys, ordered to kill them by throwing into the river Tiber. The mother, not wanting to lose her children, put them in a wicker basket. However, it did not go further with the river current, because it caught on to the branch. The boys were found by a she-wolf, who fed them and gave them to raise the royal shepherd. There is a belief that the wolf may have been the lord of thunder – Zeus. As the boys grew up, the fight broke out between them, as a result of which Romulus killed his brother Remus. Romulus built a city named after his name – Roma – meaning Rome.
The oldest traces of settlement that have been found so far on the Tiber River, dated between 1000 and 800 BCE Rome, probably created in 753 BCE. Until recently this date was almost unanimously questioned by specialists. The Romans themselves did not agree with this. This dating is by Marcus Terentius Varro, a researcher of past history who lived in the 1st century BCE. It gained popularity thanks to the monumental work Titus Livy, who used the date used by Varro, writing his Ab Urbe condita. According to the tradition handed down to us by Livius, Rome founded Romulus on April 21, 753 BCE and became its first king. From this date, the city’s history was calculated – Ab urbe condita or AUC (“since the city was founded”). Almost two thousand years after Livy’s death, however, it gained amazing confirmation in the results of archaeological research conducted at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s along the road leading from the Forum to the Palatine.
An Italian archaeologist, Andrea Carandini, investigating the area, found there were traces of a wall along the Palatine slope around the middle of the 8th century BCE. These studies do not indicate the exact date the city was founded on the Tiber, but they confirm the existence of urban clusters in this place already in this early period. The place was exceptionally well-chosen. It was most comfortable here, looking from the mouth of the river, crossing the Tiber. So it had to lead this way leading to the coastal salinas, a place of obtaining salt, necessary for the Sabine mountain tribes dealing in cattle and sheep breeding. This road also led to the cities of southern Etruria. The Bend of the Tiber just off the island gave a convenient port to which Phoenician and Greek ships with various types of goods could arrive. In other words, it was a dream place for a shopping centre.
The Palatine settlement after about a hundred years merged with the second village, inhabited by the Sabinów, focused on the slopes of the Quirinal and Capitol. Separating the two communities, the swamp was buried and thus one of the most famous tourist destinations in Rome was created – Forum Romanum.
Rome was built on the seven hills (Septimontium). Seven hills, all located on the eastern side of the Tiber, constitute the heart of the city. They played a very important role in mythology, religion and in the politics of ancient Rome. According to tradition, the city was founded by Romulus in the Palatine (Mons Palatinus).
The seven hills include:
- Aventine (Mons Aventinus);
- Palatine (Mons Palatinus). Its western slope was named Cermalus ;
- Quirinal (Collis Quirinalis). It consists of three peaks: Latiaris, Mucialis and Salutaris ;
- Viminal (Collis Viminalis);
- Celius (Mons Caelius);
- Esquiline (Mons Esquilinus). Consisting of summits: Oppius, Cispius and Fagutal ;
- Capitol (Mons Capitolinus), whose pass called Asylum, divides the northern summit Arx from the southern proper Capitol.
There are also other hills not included in the list of seven hills like Velia, which connects the Palatine with the slopes of Eskwilin. Another pass connecting the Capitol with the Quirinal was opened in the 2nd century CE when the Trajan Forum complex was being bu