some of the myths behind the creation of
rome was made
over 6 000 years ago long before the
city of rome was even thought about
some of the myths of its creation
mirrors the life of jesus
and so today we're going to look at how
rome came to be
and these myths behind it so welcome to
the story
of the stories behind the creation of
rome and welcome
to kraken fort
the story of rome involves two brothers
romulus
and remus and i'll begin by giving a
synopsis
of the romulus arima smith
on how rome came to be created and then
we can walk around the myth and see what
stories are really being told
whilst there are many flavors of myths
surrounding romulus and remus
i'll tell a version based on one of the
accounts by livy who was a roman
historian
and plutarch's biography of romulus
called the parallel lives
and plutarch was a greek historian and
philosopher
and so so the story starts with the fall
of troy
with people migrating from what is now
turkey to italy
and after many generations a king of one
of these new regions
king numitor of al balonga was in power
now king numator had a daughter called
ria
silvia but numitor also had a brother
called amulis
an amulet sought power and eventually
overthrew his brother numator
deposing him from the throne and in an
attempt to protect his stone
amulets then forced rear sylvia to
become
a vestal virgin and in doing so he
prevented her giving birth to potential
heirs to his throne
now as an aside a vestal virgin is a
priestess of the goddess fester
who was the goddess of the heart a
sacred fire
and vestal virgins looked after this
fire ensuring it would never go out
however if you're a god then making a
vestal virgin pregnant
shouldn't be difficult and mars the war
god proved this
by making ria pregnant when she visited
a sacred grove dedicated him
and nine months later she gave birth to
twins who she named
romulus and rivas and according to
plutarch this would have happened around
the year 771 bce
amulets concerned that there would be a
threat to the throne
to his rule in the future ordered that
the children be drowned in the tiber
river
they were placed there in a trough and
they were let
go and floated down the river to their
fate
but fate has a way of doing things that
seems improbable at times
and so the tiger flooded the river
slowed
and the boy survived as a trough came to
rest
further down river near a sacred fig
tree known as ficus
ruminalis there the boys were found by a
she-wolf
and the woodpecker both sacred creatures
to mars
the boys suckled on the wolf and were
kept in a cave
which is in history named as lupercal
and there they grew until one day they
were found by herdsmen
named fastullus and he treated them like
his own children
and the cave lerpacal was said to have
been discovered in 2007
located under emperor augustus palace on
palatine hill
and although there is still much uh
debate to this which is odd
as do people really think that romulus
remus if historical
were actually raised by wolf in a cave
um
all we know is that a cave has been
found that was considered
by the ancient romans to be the cave
that romulus and remus
would have been raised by a wolf inn
anyway
the boys grew up and helped protect
their father's village from invaders
and both gained loyal followings with
this strength in numbers
they decided to go back to where they
were born and kill amulis
restoring their grandfather to the
throne and from here
they thought they should build the city
on a hill
near where they were found by the wolf
but the brothers disagreed on which hill
should be chosen
and when the gods were asked to send a
sign it was ambiguous
romulus went ahead and built a large
city wall on his hill
and the date this was certainly happened
was the 21st of april
753 bce
remus was angered by his brother he felt
taunted by romance's actions
and so he jumped over the city wall
romulus had built
and there was killed by his brother
romulus
romulus then decided to name the city
after himself
rome and there he consolidated his power
often asylum to exiles and fugitives to
help grow the city's population
but the city lacked for women and so he
arranged festivities
they invited native tribes including one
called the sabines
to come to the feasts and during the
festivities romulus troops
seized all the unmarried women from the
sabine tribe and forced them to marry
men in rome
and this made the spins rather unhappy
and war was declared
the women who are now married to the
romans persuaded the two sides
to sign a peace treaty in which the
sabine ruler titus thatyus
would be king of rome and this
made titus king the titan soon died
leaving romulus to all on his own and
romulus ruled for some time
but as time passed the senate became
unhappy with romulus
and wanted him gone they conspired
against him
but one day a storm came and the sun
went dark
and romulus just disappeared the people
of rome wanted to search for him but the
senate told them not to
it was pointless they said as he had
gone
and joined the gods and so many went
away hoping to hear from this new gods
but some had doubted this had really
happened on a journey to rome
a man by the name of proculus a close
friend of romulus and a respected roman
saw romulus come down from heaven and
spoke to him
and romulus said that he knew he'd
always been a god and had come down from
heaven to establish a
new and great kingdom but now he had to
return home to the heavens romulus asked
poculus to tell all romans
that if they were virtuous then they
would have worldly powers
and rome would be the greatest city in
the world and so poculus did this
and so rome understood romulus was
really a god
thus setting the story of romulus and
remus into myth
now this specific version of the myth
was
probably created around the 4th century
bce and the myth of romulus rumors then
was more formalized by the end of the
1st century bce
so some 400 years after the events went
to have occurred
and therefore we can expect a little
editorial license to creep in over the
years
in that version of the story influenced
through time and by other sources
and the first influence we see is the
creation of nameplaces from a hero name
and that was very much a greek trait and
the plot about the capture to spin
women could be used to explain the
custom of simulated capture
during the ancient roman marriage
ceremony and then
the linking of mars to romulus creates a
link
between the origins of rome and an
important deity adding strength
to this roman story but is there
any historical fact in this story well
about 80 years ago an archaeological dig
found that the city of rome did have
walls dating to the 8th century bce
suggesting elements of truth in the myth
about the founding of the city wall
but this wall appears to be a century
older than when romulus and remus
were supposed to have been alive but
what i find
most interesting about the story of
romulus and remus are two myths
one of which is one of the oldest we
know and the other one one of the most
famous
but it may not be immediately obvious so
let me tell you
this summary of observations based on
plutoc's version of the myth
and see it becomes clearer ormulus was
the son of a god
he was born of a virgin attempts are
made to kill him as a baby
and he was raised by a poor family
hailed as a king
and the elite conspired against him to
have him killed
he dies he rises from the dead and then
comes back down to earth from heaven
to appear to a friend before sending
back up to heaven
to rule from there now hearing it like
that
does it sound like a more familiar story
and add to that that the fact that
pluto's eternities were celebrated in
rome
when romulus went to heaven what we hear
is a story that is like jesus's
applied to romulus who lived 800 years
before jesus
now whilst we think that may be
incredible it should be also noted that
plutarch wrote
much of his work towards the end of the
first century ce so could have copied
stories from
the gospels so he have to take some
caution
but to counter this a large portion of
the myth as i said was formalized in the
3rd century bce
at least 200 years before jesus
that isn't the only mythology about
romulus it's fascinating
what we can see in this story is the
influence of the proto-indo-european
creation myth
and the pro-european creation myth and
so you could say the myth is over
6 000 years in the making and if you
aren't familiar with the
proto-indo-european croatian myth i'll
tell you a very brief version now
as there was a better version in this
video which explains the myth in more
detail
but in short it goes along the lines of
in the beginning
in the cosmos there was yumo and manus
and a giant cow from which they suckled
milk
manus kills yumo and from his body
creates the world
and then he comes down to earth as a
priest figure and teaches through ritual
sacrifice
how to keep the world in order now
if we compare that to the story of
romulus and remus
who were twins well yumo means twin in
proto-indo-european the giant cow from
which yuma mana suckles milk
is replaced by a wolf where manus kills
yemo
so romulus kills remus and rather than
create the world
romulus creates rome it is a creation
myth for a city
taken from the original creation myth of
the world
so what does this mean well the story of
romulus and remus is a culmination of
stories
intertwined as it wanders through time
and cultures
but which definitely shows evidence of
borrowed myths from a
proto-indo-european source
stories that have survived thousands of
years irrespective of how civilizations
have migrated
and the upheaval and alongside this it
shows that the plot of the
life for jesus was alive and well in
rome
the place where christianity was heavily
influenced from hundreds of years before
jesus was born
and christianity existed so there i'll
leave you to ponder that
the facts around the story of romulus
and venomous far more fascinating far
more than just a story of brothers found
in the city
i hope you enjoyed that so until the
next video please
stay safe and stay well and this is
[Music]
krakenfold
[Music]
you