Founding of Rome in Livy

¶ … founding of Rome in Livy and Plutarch. What sources do they cite? Are there any significant differences from Virgil's account in Aeneid Book 6?

The story of Romulus and Remus, the two abandoned twins suckled by a she-wolf, was framed by Livy to stress the practical and self-sufficient qualities of the mythological founder of Rome. In Livy's eyes, Romulus embodied the Roman virtues popular in his day. He either deemphasized the fantastical elements of the Romulus story or treated them with open skepticism (Miles 138). Livy believed that the godlike ancestry of Romulus was symbolic, not literal, and debunked the idea that Romulus was raised by a literal wolf. Instead, Romulus' foster-parents were herdsman and their stepmother was a prostitute (hence, a she-wolf in Roman slang) (Miles 139; 143). Livy also stressed the real, martial struggles of Romulus to win Rome which indicated that his victory was anything but divinely-ordained and inevitable. In contrast, Plutarch accepted the fantastic elements of the myth, stating that there was no way Romulus could have achieved what he did in the absence of divinity. In contrast to Livy, Plutarch suggested that the twins' true ancestry was always known, not something they had to prove with self-sufficiency and great deeds.

Livy's interpretation of the legend is thus also very different from that which was exhibited by Virgil in Book 6 of the Aeneid, in which the hero goes to the underworld and learns of the future glory of Rome. In Virgil, the triumph of Romulus is inevitable, but in Livy's conception it is anything but -- Livy used Romulus to symbolize the Roman's status as a self-made people, which was very different from that of the Greeks in terms of the Romans' practicality, morality, and ability to wage war (Miles 149).

Q2. Discuss literary parallels for elements of the legend of the founding of Rome. Are there any unique elements to the Romulus and Remus legend?

Romulus and Remus are socially marginal figures -- cast-off children, the result of the rape of a vestigial virgin by Mars -- who attain great political and military status. One obvious parallel between the tale of the brothers and earlier legends is that of Achilles, the great warrior who was the son of a goddess who was almost supernatural in his greatness. Another parallel is that of Oedipus, who was abandoned when he was a boy because of the fearful prophesy foretold about his future. But unlike these previous mythical characters, rather than coming to a bad end, Romulus overcomes the difficulties of his circumstances and triumphs. There are also many versions of the Roman foundation story which contain non-Greek elements, like the idea of a 'phantom phallus' impregnating the boys' mother, which could suggest a kind of immaculate conception (Wiseman 60). The death of Remus at the hands of his brother for disobediently jumping a wall is also a unique and somewhat perplexing aspect of the story: why did Romulus 'need' a twin?

Q3. To what extent is the Roman foundation legend shaped by Greek mythological motifs?