The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Rape of the Sabine Women was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other cities in the region. It has been a frequent subject of artists during the Renaissance and post-Renaissance eras; the word "rape" is the conventional translation of the Latin word raptio used in the ancient accounts of the incident. Modern scholars tend to interpret the word as "abduction" or "kidnapping" as opposed to a sexual assault. Controversy remains, as to how the acts committed against the women should be judged; the Rape occurred in the early history of Rome, shortly after its founding by Romulus and his male followers. Seeking wives in order to establish families, the Romans negotiated unsuccessfully with the Sabines, who populated the surrounding area; the Sabines feared the emergence of a rival society and refused to allow their women to marry the Romans. The Romans planned to abduct Sabine women during a festival of Neptune Equester, they announced a marvelous festival to attract people from all nearby towns.
According to Livy, many people from Rome's neighboring towns attended, including folk from the Caeninenses and Antemnates, many of the Sabines. At the festival, Romulus gave a signal, at which the Romans grabbed the Sabine women and fought off the Sabine men; the indignant abductees were soon implored by Romulus to accept Roman husbands. Livy claims that no direct sexual assault took place, albeit the fuller evidence, when compared with the history, suggests a seduction based on promises by the Romans and betrayal of those promises. Livy says that Romulus promised civic and property rights to women. According to Livy, Romulus spoke to them each in person, declaring "that what was done was owing to the pride of their fathers, who had refused to grant the privilege of marriage to their neighbours. Outraged at the occurrence, the king of the Caeninenses entered upon Roman territory with his army. Romulus and the Romans met the Caeninenses in battle, killed their king, routed their army. Romulus attacked Caenina and took it upon the first assault.
Returning to Rome, he dedicated a temple to Jupiter Feretrius and offered the spoils of the enemy king as spolia opima. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a triumph over the Caeninenses on 1 March 752 BC. At the same time, the army of the Antemnates invaded Roman territory; the Romans retaliated, the Antemnates were defeated in battle and their town captured. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a second triumph in 752 BC over the Antemnates; the Crustumini started a war, but they too were defeated and their town captured. Roman colonists subsequently were sent to Antemnae and Crustumerium by Romulus, many citizens of those towns migrated to Rome; the Sabines themselves declared war, led into battle by their king, Titus Tatius. Tatius succeeded in capturing Rome, thanks to the treason of Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, Roman governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill, she opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for "what they bore on their arms", thinking she would receive their golden bracelets.
Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, her body was thrown from a rock known since by her name, the Tarpeian Rock. The Romans attacked the Sabines; the Roman advance was led by the Sabine defence by Mettus Curtius. Hostus fell in battle, the Roman line gave way, they retreated to the gate of the Palatium. Romulus rallied his men by promising to build a temple to Jupiter Stator on the site, he led them back into battle. Mettus Curtius was unhorsed and fled on foot, the Romans appeared to be winning. At this point, the Sabine women intervened:, from the outrage on whom the war originated, with hair dishevelled and garments rent, the timidity of their sex being overcome by such dreadful scenes, had the courage to throw themselves amid the flying weapons, making a rush across, to part the incensed armies, assuage their fury. If you are dissatisfied with the affinity between you, if with our marriages, turn your resentment against us, it were better that we perish than live widowed or fatherless without one or other of you."
The battle came to an end, the Sabines agreed to unite in one nation with the Romans. Titus Tatius jointly ruled with Romulus until Tatius's death five years later; the new Sabine residents of Rome settled on the Capitoline Hill, which they had captured in the battle. Many treatments of the incident combined a suitably inspiring example of the hardiness and courage of ancient Romans with the opportunity to depict multiple figures, including heroically semi-nude figures, in intensely passionate struggle; the subject was popular during the Renaissance as symbolising the importance of marriage for the continuity of families and cultures. It was an example of a battle subject in which the artist could demonstrate his skill in depicting female as well as male figures in extreme poses, with the added adva
Romulus
Romulus was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these traditions incorporate elements of folklore, it is not clear to what extent a historical figure underlies the mythical Romulus, the events and institutions ascribed to him were central to the myths surrounding Rome's origins and cultural traditions; the myths concerning Romulus involve several distinct episodes and figures: the miraculous birth and youth of Romulus and Remus, his twin brother. Romulus and Remus, his twin brother, were the sons of Rhea Silvia, herself the daughter of Numitor, the former king of Alba Longa. Through them, the twins are descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas and Latinus, the mythical founder of the kingdom of Latium. Before the twins' birth, Numitor had been usurped by Amulius. After seizing the throne, Amulius murdered Numitor's son, condemned Rhea to perpetual virginity by consecrating her a Vestal.
Rhea, became pregnant, ostensibly by the god Mars. Amulius had her imprisoned, upon the twins' birth, ordered that they be thrown into the rain-swollen Tiber. Instead of carrying out the king's orders, his servants left the twins along the riverbank at the foot of Palatine Hill. In the traditional telling of the legend, a she-wolf happened upon the twins, who were at the foot of a fig tree, she suckled and tended them by a cave until they were found by the herdsman Faustulus and his wife, Acca Larentia. The brothers grew to manhood among hill-folk. After becoming involved in a conflict between the followers of Amulius and those of their grandfather Numitor, they learned the truth of their origin, they restored Numitor to the throne. The princes set out to establish a city of their own, they returned to the hills overlooking the site where they had been exposed as infants. They could not agree on; when an omen to resolve the controversy failed to provide a clear indication, the conflict escalated and Remus was killed by his brother or by his brother's follower.
In a variant of the legend, the augurs favoured Romulus, who proceeded to plough a square furrow around the Palatine Hill to demarcate the walls of the future city. When Remus derisively leapt over the "walls" to show how inadequate they were against invaders, he was struck down by Romulus in anger. In another variant, Remus died during a melée, along with Faustulus; the founding of the city by Romulus was commemorated annually on April 21, with the festival of the Parilia. His first act was to fortify the Palatine, in the course, he laid out the city's boundaries with a furrow that he ploughed, performed another sacrifice, with his followers set to work building the city itself. Romulus sought the assent of the people to become their king. With Numitor's help, he received their approval. Romulus accepted the crown after he sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter, after receiving favourable omens. Romulus divided the populace into three tribes, known as the Ramnes and Luceres, for taxation and military purposes.
Each tribe was presided over by an official known as a tribune, was further divided into ten curia, or wards, each presided over by an official known as a curio. Romulus allotted a portion of land to each ward, for the benefit of the people. Nothing is known of the manner in which the tribes and curiae were taxed, but for the military levy, each curia was responsible for providing one hundred foot soldiers, a unit known as a century, ten cavalry; each Romulean tribe thus provided about one thousand infantry, one century of cavalry. Choosing one hundred men from the leading families, Romulus established the Roman senate; these men he called the city fathers. The other class, known as the "plebs" or "plebeians", consisted of the servants, fugitives who sought asylum at Rome, those captured in war, others who were granted Roman citizenship over time. To encourage the growth of the city, Romulus outlawed infanticide, established an asylum for fugitives on the Capitoline Hill, where freemen and slaves alike could claim protection and seek Roman citizenship.
The new city was filled with colonists, most of whom were unmarried men. With no intermarriage between Rome and neighboring communities, the new city would fail. Romulus sent envoys to neighboring towns, appealing to them to allow intermarriage with Roman citizens, but his overtures were rebuffed. Romulus formulated a plan to acquire women from other settlements, he announced a momentous festival and games, invited the people of the neighboring cities to attend. Many did, in particular the Sabines. At a prearranged signal, the Romans began to snatch and carry off the marriageable women among their guests; the aggrieved cities prepared for war with Rome, might have defeated Romulus had they been united. But impatient with the preparations of the Sabines, the Latin towns of Caenina and Antemnae took action without their allies. Caenina was the first to attack.
Aqua Marcia
The Aqua Marcia was one of the longest of the 11 aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome. The aqueduct was built between 144–140 BC, during the Roman Republic; the still-functioning Acqua Felice from 1586 runs on long stretches along the route of the Aqua Marcia. Together with the Aqua Anio Vetus, Aqua Anio Novus and Aqua Claudia, it is regarded as one of the "four great aqueducts of Rome." The ancient source for the aqueduct was near the modern towns of Arsoli and Agosta, over 91 km away in the Anio valley. This general locale, in hills to the east of the city, was used for other aqueducts including the Anio Vetus, Anio Novus, Aqua Claudia; the same source is used today to supply the modern aqueduct. The Aqua Marcia supplied water to the Viminal Hill in the north of Rome, from there to the Caelian, Aventine and Capitoline regions of the city, its extension to the Capitoline Hill caused a controversy at the time, because traditionalists were concerned about a passage in the Sibylline Books warning against bringing water there.
The Aqua Marcia was constructed from 144 to 140 BC by the praetor Quintus Marcius Rex, for whom it is named. The aqueduct was paid for by spoils from the recent Roman conquests of Corinth in 146 BC and the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War, in the same year; the aqueduct followed the via Tiburtina into Rome, entered the city in its eastern boundary at the Porta Tiburtina of the Aurelian Wall. It was well known for pure waters; the aqueduct was repaired by Marcus Agrippa in 33 BC, later again by Augustus, according to the inscription in the arch, made into the Porta Tiburtina. Augustus augmented the supply by linking it to an additional source, the Aqua Augusta, doubling the throughput. Much of its supply was siphoned off by private citizens for their own use, making it only a trickle in the city by the time of Nero; the supply was increased again by emperors. Frontinus measured the flow of the Aqua Marcia at its source around AD 97 as 4690 quinariae, making it the second-greatest source of the city's water.
Modern estimates of size of one quinaria vary over a wide range, from 10,000 l to 76,800 l of water a day, giving the Aqua Marcia a flow rate of 46,900,000 l to 360,192,000 l of water a day. Ancient Roman technology#Aqueducts Coarelli, Guida Archeologica di Roma, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 1989. Claridge, Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998 Aqua Marcia entry on the Lacus Curtius website Information on Roman aqueducts Map of Roman aqueductshttp://www.romanaqueducts.info/aquasite/index.html
Hersilia
In Roman mythology, Hersilia was a figure in the foundation myth of Rome. She is credited with ending the war between Rome and the Sabines. In some accounts she is the wife of Romulus, the founder and first King of Rome in Rome's founding myths, she is described as such in both Plutarch. This would make her the grandmother of the third king of Rome. Livy tells this tale in his work Ab urbe condita: While the Romans were thus occupied in the City, the army of the Antemnates seized the opportunity afforded by their absence, made an inroad upon their territory, they were therefore routed at the first charge and shout, their town was taken. As Romulus was exulting in his double victory, his wife Hersilia, beset with entreaties by the captive women, begged him to forgive their parents and receive them into the state, he granted her request. Just like her husband, she was deified after her death as Hora, as recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses: The rape of the Sabine women Roman Myth Index Bryn Mawr T. P. Wiseman: The Wife and Children of Romulus
Third Punic War
The Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage and the Roman Republic. The Punic Wars were named because of the Roman name for Carthaginians: Poenici; this war was a much smaller engagement than the two previous Punic Wars and focused on Tunisia on the Siege of Carthage, which resulted in the complete destruction of the city, the annexation of all remaining Carthaginian territory by Rome, the death or enslavement of the entire Carthaginian population. The Third Punic War ended Carthage's independent existence. In the years between the Second and Third Punic War, Rome was engaged in the conquest of the Hellenistic empires and of the Illyrian tribes to the east, suppressing the Hispanian peoples in the west, although they had been essential to the Roman success in the Second Punic War. Carthage, stripped of allies and territory, was suffering under a large indemnity of 200 silver talents to be paid every year for 50 years. According to Appian, the senator Cato the Elder finished his speeches on any subject in the Senate with the phrase ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam, which means "Moreover, I am of the opinion that Carthage ought to be destroyed".
Cicero attributed a similar statement to Cato in his dialogue De Senectute. He was opposed by the senator Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, who favoured a different course that would not destroy Carthage, who prevailed in the debates; the peace treaty at the end of the Second Punic War required that all border disputes involving Carthage be arbitrated by the Roman Senate and required Carthage to get explicit Roman approval before going to war. As a result, in the 50 intervening years between the Second and Third Punic War, Carthage had to take all border disputes with Rome's ally Numidia to the Roman Senate, where they were decided exclusively in Numidian favour. In 151 BC, the Carthaginian debt to Rome was repaid, meaning that, in Punic eyes, the treaty was now expired, though not so according to the Romans, who instead viewed the treaty as a permanent declaration of Carthaginian subordination to Rome akin to the Roman treaties with its Italian allies. Moreover, the retirement of the indemnity removed one of the main incentives the Romans had to keep the peace with Carthage – there were no further payments that might be interrupted.
The Romans had other reasons to conquer her remaining territories. By the middle of the 2nd century BC, the population of the city of Rome was about 400,000 and rising. Feeding the growing populace was becoming a major challenge; the farmlands surrounding Carthage represented the most productive, most accessible and the most obtainable agricultural lands not yet under Roman control. In 151 BC Numidia launched another border raid on Carthaginian soil, besieging the Punic town of Oroscopa, Carthage launched a large military expedition to repel the Numidian invaders; as a result, Carthage suffered a military defeat and was charged with another fifty year debt to Numidia. Thereafter, Rome showed displeasure with Carthage's decision to wage war against its neighbour without Roman consent, told Carthage that in order to avoid a war it had to “satisfy the Roman People.” In 149 BC, Rome declared war against Carthage. The Carthaginians made a series of attempts to appease Rome, received a promise that if three hundred children of well-born Carthaginians were sent as hostages to Rome the Carthaginians would keep the rights to their land and self-government.
After this was done the allied Punic city of Utica defected to Rome, a Roman army of 80,000 men gathered there. The consuls demanded that Carthage hand over all weapons and armor. After those had been handed over, Rome additionally demanded that the Carthaginians move at least 16 kilometres inland, while the city was to be burned; when the Carthaginians learned of this, they abandoned negotiations and the city was besieged, beginning the Third Punic War. After the main Roman expedition landed at Utica, consuls Manius Manilius and Lucius Marcius Censorius launched a two-pronged attack on Carthage, but were repulsed by the army of the Carthaginian Generals Hasdrubal the Boeotarch and Himilco Phameas. Censorius lost more than 500 men when they were surprised by the Carthaginian cavalry while collecting timber around the Lake of Tunis. A worse disaster fell upon the Romans when their fleet was set ablaze by fire ships which the Carthaginians released upwind. Manilius was replaced by consul Calpurnius Piso Caesonius in 149 after a severe defeat of the Roman army at Nepheris, a Carthaginian stronghold south of the city.
Scipio Aemilianus's intervention saved four cohorts trapped in a ravine. Nepheris fell to Scipio in the winter of 147–146. In the autumn of 148, Piso was beaten back while attempting to storm the city of Aspis, near Cape Bon. Undeterred, he laid siege to the town of Hippagreta in the north, but his army was unable to defeat the Punics there before winter and had to retreat; when news of these setbacks reached Rome, he was replaced as consul by Scipio Aemilianus. The Carthaginians endured the siege, starting 149 BC to the spring of 146 BC, when Scipio Aemilianus assaulted the city. Though the Punic citizens offered a strong resistance, they were pushed back by the overwhelming Roman military force and destroyed. Many Carthaginians died from starvation during the part of the siege, while many others died in the final six days of fighting; when the war ended, the remaining 50,000 Carthaginians, a small part of the original pre-war population, were sold into slavery by the victors. Cartha
Ancient Rome
In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, conventionally founded in 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed; the Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117. In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and to an autocratic semi-elective empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it dominated the North African coast and most of Western Europe, the Balkans and much of the Middle East.
It is grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, society, law, government, art, literature and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France, it achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments and public facilities. The Punic Wars with Carthage were decisive in establishing Rome as a world power. In this series of wars Rome gained control of the strategic islands of Corsica and Sicily. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa.
The Roman Empire emerged with the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman–Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, it stretched from the entire Mediterranean Basin to the beaches of the North Sea in the north, to the shores of the Red and Caspian Seas in the East. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent "barbarian" kingdoms in the 5th century; this splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-medieval "Dark Ages" of Europe.
The eastern part of the empire endured through the 5th century and remained a power throughout the "Dark Ages" and medieval times until its fall in 1453 AD. Although the citizens of the empire made no distinction, the empire is most referred to as the "Byzantine Empire" by modern historians during the Middle Ages to differentiate between the state of antiquity and the nation it grew into. According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC on the banks of the river Tiber in central Italy, by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas, who were grandsons of the Latin King Numitor of Alba Longa. King Numitor was deposed by his brother, while Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, gave birth to the twins. Since Rhea Silvia had been raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine; the new king, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so he ordered them to be drowned. A she-wolf saved and raised them, when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
The twins founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over the location of the Roman Kingdom, though some sources state the quarrel was about, going to rule or give his name to the city. Romulus became the source of the city's name. In order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent and unwanted; this caused a problem, in that Rome was bereft of women. Romulus visited neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables he was refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins with the Sabines. Another legend, recorded by Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, says that Prince Aeneas led a group of Trojans on a sea voyage to found a new Troy, since the original was destroyed at the end of the Trojan War. After a long time in rough seas, they landed on the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, but the women who were traveling with them did not want to leave.
One woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent their leaving
Trevi nel Lazio
Trevi nel Lazio is a town and comune in the province of Frosinone in the Italian region of Lazio in the upper valley of the Aniene river. It is 17 kilometres by road northeast of Fiuggi and 23 kilometres by road southeast of Subiaco, the nearest larger towns; the town first makes its appearance as Treba, a place of the Aequi, was called Treba Augusta to help distinguish it from Trebiae. The town was a bishopric from 499 to 1060. In August 2011 the Italian government had made plans to merge the village with neighbouring Filettino, in order to cut administrative costs, but they were interrupted by the protestations of the mayor of the village, Luca Sellari, who announced his village would become its own independent principality, in order to preserve its identity. An old arch within the territory of the comune is said to be Roman, some remains of the ancient acropolis have survived, but otherwise Trevi's monuments are medieval or later: collegiate church of S. Maria Assunta oratory of S. Pietro oratory of S. Maria del Riposo, with 15th‑century frescoes.
List of Catholic dioceses in Italy Comunità Montana dell' Aniene
Media related to Aqua Anio Vetus (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
