Mars, Romulus, & The Founding of Rome (Roman Mythology Explained)

For hundreds of years, the Roman civilization came to dominate Western Europe and much of the Mediterranean. It left lasting impacts that remain to this very day. It is known across the world for its culture, military prowess, and its mythology—or is it? Much of what is termed Roman mythology is, in fact, Greek mythology. Sometime before written Roman history, the Romans underwent a process of Hellenization. That process, and the factors that led up to it, means that we lost much of original Roman mythology. But there are glimmers of that myth lurking, largely in the oversized legends of the founding of the great city and the twin sons of Mars who would go on to gain everlasting fame. Join me as I explore the shadow of Roman mythology that has held its secrets for thousands of years—a tale where men and cities are not what they appear to be, in a mythology forgotten even by the Romans themselves.

[Music]

Hi friends, I'm Kevin Maclean. Please give a like, subscribe, and consider supporting me on Patreon or PayPal. It really helps me to produce long, in-depth content like this. Much thanks to all of my supporters.

The tales of the gods, the creation of the world, the various battles the gods took part in, their intrigues—these are largely of Greek origin, with small added tales here and there by a Roman poet to cover a specifically Roman topic, but often within a larger framework of Greek origin. Think of the entire tale of the Aeneid for a good example of this. During a period before written Roman accounts, the Roman gods had been assimilated into this Greek mythology. The names of the Greek gods had been changed for Roman ones, but the general structure presented by Homer, Hesiod, and others remained the bedrock. Zeus became Jupiter; Ares became Mars; Aphrodite became Venus; Athena became Minerva; Hermes became Mercury. While some of these interpretations may have been grounded in some core aspect of the god, we know that in several cases the Roman god and his functions do not closely correspond to that of the Greek. But eventually, this syncretism had its effect. The nature of Mars does not appear to have closely matched Ares. The true god of war and victory in Greece was Zeus, and above all, it seems that the very powerful figure of Zeus affected the Roman interpretation of Jupiter.

But there was more than the Greek influence affecting Roman religion; there were also the Etruscans. They were a non-Indo-European people living right beside the Romans, and at some point in their history they occupied and dominated the peoples of Latium. And it's possible that this situation is what actually led to the destruction of the Roman kingship. This Etruscan domination may have helped to destroy original Roman myths. The Romans emerged into the period of written history having kept many of their festivals and gods linked to them, but with a copy-pasted Greek mythology and forgotten tales of gods they knew little about. They had preserved the structures of their priesthoods, but they now worshipped a triad of gods that no longer reflected them: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. This was the Capitoline triad of gods worshipped by the Roman state. When Rome emerges into the historical period, it appears to be a copy of that held by the Etruscans. No other Indo-European religion was headed by a triad of one god and two goddesses, yet clearly this has been a relatively recent adoption, for the priesthood didn't reflect the change. There were three flamines maiores, the major priests who served the highest gods, the gods most important to the archaic Roman state and people. These priests were devoted to Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus. But by the period of written history, though the flamen remained along with some of their rituals, the information regarding some of these gods was very obscure, not only to us today but to the Romans at the time.

We know that at an earlier period the Romans must have had their own myths. All Indo-European-derived religions, from India to Ireland, had tales associated with them that helped to explain how the world came to be and the roles of particular gods in that cosmic drama, which was closely associated with the purpose and the actions of the rituals that were carried out in their honor. From these various Vedic, Iranian, Greek, Germanic, and Celtic tales, we can broadly sketch an outline of a common Indo-European mythology dating back at least to the Neolithic. These stories were not simply meant as entertainment, but preserved ancient knowledge and gave purpose to the ritual acts. It was a story explaining how the ancient Indo-European peoples structured and understood the world. There is some evidence from both Vedic and Celtic sources that these stories were not at all separate from the rituals, but that the rituals themselves may have involved acting out these tales, with those involved taking the role of gods—gods which also represented distinct roles in the community. And we actually do see some of this in preserved rituals in the Roman tradition, some of which involve people acting out elements of the tale.

However, there are some traces of what was an earlier mythology. Georges Dumézil, a comparative mythologist, first started to put together such arguments in the 1940s, and though some of his conclusions may be rejected now, he did decisively show that some of the legendary history of Rome was a mythology turned into history, much like the Christian Gaels and Scandinavians turned their gods into historical kings in order to assimilate them into the Christian religion. The same thing seems to have happened to the Roman religion, yet well before Christianity. Glimmers of this can be seen in the Aeneid. Though the overall tale is, like the vast majority of the Roman tales, filtered through a Greek structure, it nevertheless contains certain details and divergences which are not Greek. Virgil was drawing on some native traditions and ideas, but he may also have had political agendas as well, and not all of what he writes reflects the full tradition or is anything more than his own speculations or viewpoints. One of these views is on the nature of Romulus, and it is indeed with the twin sons of Mars that we find the clearest shadow of an early mythology of purely Roman origin.

As with many ancient legends that are widespread, there are numerous versions of the founding of Rome. Plutarch, Vero, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus record very similar accounts, however, that they believe are of largely Roman origin and were widely believed in Latium itself. This story, in its core, does not appear to have imitated any Greek legends and is one of the few significantly important Roman myths. Two brothers, the sons of the king of Alba Longa, Numitor and Amulius, came into their inheritance. Though Numitor was the older and should have been ruler, Amulius seizes power and tries to ensure that Numitor will be forever subservient. Some accounts say that Amulius had Numitor's son murdered. Fearing for the life of his daughter, Ilia or Rhea Silvia, he had her become a priestess of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth fire, for these priestesses are sworn virgins and thus she would not be able to conceive a son and give reason for Amulius to kill her. Yet when Silvia goes to the grove of Mars to fetch pure water for a ritual, a darkness covers the sky and a specter appears to her, both great and beautiful, identified as the daemon or spirit of the god Mars. He forces himself on her and tells her that she would bear two sons that would far excel all men in valor and warlike achievement. When Amulius discovers she has given birth, he has the children gathered up, placed in a basket, and tells his servant to go down to the river and drown them. However, another version tells of how King Targetius ruled Alba Longa and that a phantom emerged from his fireplace, and an oracle said that his daughter should couple with the phantom phallus. The daughter instead had her handmaid perform the task, infuriating the king who wished to kill her. The goddess Vesta appeared to him and forbade him from killing her, so instead he waited for the children to be born and then ordered one of his men to take the twins down to the river to be drowned.

These versions are perhaps not so distinct; they both involve the goddess Vesta and some spirit or god coupling with a woman against the wishes of the king. In both cases, the twins are associated with a prophecy that will result in the overthrow of the king. In both cases, a servant of the king takes the children down to the river to be drowned, but either due to a softness of heart or his unwillingness to approach the swelling river, he sets the basket down by the bank and leaves, allowing the rising water to carry the basket away. The river spares the twins, and they end up on the shore of the river beneath a fig tree. The fig tree is named *rumenalis* in Latin, which refers to the teat and lactation for its type of sap. The name is then related to the goddess Rumina, who presides over young children. It is here, beneath the fig tree, that the she-wolf appears and feeds Romulus and Remus. Yet the wolf is not alone, but accompanied by a woodpecker who helped to feed and watch over them both. The wolf and the woodpecker are the sacred animals of Mars. The wolf has an obvious connection to the earlier Indo-European warrior band and likely even pre-Indo-European beliefs, for there are similar stories of children suckled by a she-wolf and fed by a crow among Turkic people. In Latin, the name of the woodpecker and crow both come from the same root. In Italic society, the woodpecker was a great bird of prophecy. There was a sacred wooden pole dedicated to Mars, which the Greek commentators compared to the sacred oak tree of Dodona. In Dodona, doves landed upon a tree and their speech was interpreted; the woodpecker landing on the wooden post would give oracles.

Although often unrecognized, Mars was a far more complex figure than that of a simple war god. He was a prophetic god, also invoked to protect the crops from unnatural weather. In the conception of Romulus and Remus, he unites with a woman named for the woods, and he is invoked by Cato the Elder in his treatise on agriculture as Mars Sylvanus. The woodpecker was long recognized as a doctor of the trees, one who would protect the trees from diseases and harmful insects. In the old Roman 10-month calendar, said to have been created by Romulus, Mars was given the first month. Faustulus was a swine herder of Amulius, and he finds the babies being fed by the wolf and takes them back to his home, where they are cared for by his wife, Acca Larentia. Larentia was worshipped and equated with the goddess Diadea, goddess of the daylight, who is closely connected to fertility of the land and the cult of Ceres. When Romulus grows up, it is said that he took a place among the twelve of her sons who began the Arval Brotherhood, a group dedicated to the worship of Dea Dia and who perform various rites related to agriculture. According to Plutarch, it is the priests of Mars who specifically officiate over the rites of Larentia. A hymn reportedly sung by the Arval Brotherhood repeatedly invokes Mars, saying, "Mamar, let not plague or ruin attack the multitude; be filled, fierce Mars; leap the threshold, hult, wild one; by turns call upon all the gods of sowing; help us, Marmar." Marmar is another name here for Mars, used in certain archaic hymns. He isn't just a warrior on the battlefield, but will drive off ruin and plague, who will protect the fields; he is consistently linked to leaping, as is the dedicated priesthood who follows him, the Salii. That Romulus again and again is connected to agriculture and fertility of the land is a direct reflection of the role of his divine father. There is some insinuation that Amulius himself is the physical father of the twins and that he raped Silvia; nevertheless, Mars is clearly thought to be this spiritual progenitor. They are taken in by Faustulus, the swineherd, and herdsmen play liminal roles in many tales. His name refers to ritual silence, and this is similar to the father of the Gaelic god Lug, nicknamed the "silent phantom," Scale Valve. Several gods intervene to ensure the fate of these twins: the river is the god Tiber, who in some accounts later marries the mother of the twins; the river refuses to drown them; the fig tree represents the god of children who watched out for them; the wolf and the woodpecker represent Mars; and the wife of Faustulus is Larentia or Dea Dia, a goddess of the fertile land. The tale only barely masks that a whole host of gods are actually caring for and raising these fated twins.

Mars was not only thought to be the father of Romulus and Remus, but of Picus, another important king of Latium and the father of founders, though sometimes recorded as being the son of Saturn. The most correct understanding is that he is the son of Mars. Picus was originally a king, and he was changed into a picus, a woodpecker, the sacred bird of Mars, so the connection is quite straightforward. Faunus was the son of Picus, who is linked to pastoral activities and also issuing prophecies. Under Greek influence, he was equated with Pan, but was thought to be a noble king and connected also with the Lupercalia, which Romulus is likewise connected to and in some cases thought to have originated. The location that all of this was thought to have occurred in is also important. The Lupercal cave is in the Palatine Hill location, fairly recently rediscovered and not yet fully excavated, where the ark of the twins came ashore, where stood the fig tree, and where they were fed by the wolf and the woodpecker, and also where in later times a shack was maintained in pristine condition and was considered to be a temple to Romulus, where he was said to live when he was younger. This area would later be the very core of Rome and the seat of its most powerful. Also close to the location of the Roman Forum and the Temple of Vesta, right by the same spot was a grove and sacred spring to Faunus, grandson of Mars. In an account told by the Roman historian Livy, the Campus Martius, the field of Mars where the soldiers were assembled and trained, there happened to be a crop of grain growing upon it, ready for harvesting, but as the field was dedicated to the god, it was seen as improper to use it. Instead, the corn and straw was put into baskets and cast into the river—suspiciously similar to the tale of Romulus and Remus. Tales like this exist for other gods. Lug's mother is named Ethniu, meaning "a nut or kernel"; his uncle is named Miach, referring to a bushel of grain. He is tossed into the water as an infant and rescued by the sea god. During the Christianization of the Rus', the statue of the god Perun was cast into the river, and the Vedic god Indra is abandoned and cast into the water, which refuses to drown him. All these gods are likewise linked to war and to the protection of crops, yet perhaps another aspect to all of them is that they are linked to the power of growth and expansion, which also connects them to vegetation.

So the twins begin their lives as pastoralists, herding animals and living a simple life upon the Palatine Hill with an earth goddess. But they both grow very quickly and become exceedingly manly and fearless. They were greatly talented in all things, and Romulus especially excelled in sagacity and judgment. Herding and hunting, however, they got into a dispute with the herdsmen of Numitor, who dwelt on the opposing Aventine Hill. When some of Numitor's herdsmen took the cattle, Romulus and Remus retrieved them and defeated the thieves in combat. But later, when Romulus was away to make sacrifices to the gods—for he was said to be greatly fond of sacrifice and divination—Remus was set upon by the rival herdsmen, captured, and brought before Numitor. In one version, it was said that Romulus and Remus were participating in the Lupercalia and thus Remus was captured because he was dressed only in a loincloth and unarmed. Romulus gathers together the people to free his brother through an assault, and he invents the first basic form of the Roman military in the process, the manipulares, a group of a hundred men led by one carrying a handful of shrubs tied around a pole. They end up learning that Numitor is their grandfather, and they vow to return him to the kingship, leading an assault against Amulius. They defeat him, kill him, and restore Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa, fulfilling the fears that Amulius had before they were even born. It is also possible to see in this tale perhaps a more archaic version where there is not simply the great uncle they overthrow but the grandfather, or in fact the father, as in some versions Amulius is the father. Now, from the king, fearful of a prophecy, the casting in a water, the early life with an agricultural goddess, the overthrow of the grandfather or relative, the story is nearly identical to the folklore surrounding the Gaelic god Lug and similar also to that of Greek Perseus. Its origin clearly belongs to a common Indo-European structure.

After placing Numitor back on the throne, Romulus and Remus are not content to be princes of Alba Longa but decide to set out and found their own community. The idea that these sons of Mars are the ones to undertake such a venture likely has its roots in ancient European practice of the young warrior bands. These young men, expelled from the community due to lack of food or women or other social issues, would take on the persona of the wolf, living in the wilds according to their own specific laws and following their own god, a fierce god of the outcast, of the wilds, of the warrior band. In ancient Italic society, that god was called Mars or Mamers. Nobody has quite agreed as to the etymology of his name, but some link it to the gods called the Maruts in the Rig Veda, associated with stormwinds. We have more than speculation that Mars was the god of such young men, for Strabo recalls that when the Sabines were facing famine, they realized that though they had dedicated some of their excess crop to Mars in the previous year, they did not dedicate their sons to the god. So to alleviate the famine, they dedicated the young men to Mars and sent them out as colonists. Mars is both associated with the young warrior colonists and with alleviating the famine; he played a decisive role in the success or failure of crops. As the father of Romulus and the god of the young warriors, he is also the founder of cities and the god of the kings who first rule them. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, "At the same time the inhabitants being much increased in number, Numitor thought it good policy to get rid of some part of them, particularly those who had once been his enemies, lest he might have caused to suspect any of his subjects; and having communicated his plan to the youths and gained their approval, he gave them as a district to rule the region where they had been brought up in their infancy, and for subjects not only that part of the people which he suspected of a design to begin rebellion anew, but also any who were willing to migrate voluntarily." The other account simply says that Romulus and Remus wish not to live in Alba Longa if they were not to rule, and so they gathered about them slaves and fugitives and criminals, those who were outcasts from society, living wild. And it is this war band of the unwanted who founded the city of Rome. Both accounts express a similar idea: it was in the same way that Indo-Europeans spread from the steppes of Russia to the highlands of Scotland, and how in later times the Greeks colonized much of the Mediterranean and the coasts of the Black Sea. But it is with the founding that trouble first arises. One account says it was intended as friendly rivalry at first, which went bad, but in either event a hot contest brewed between the two brothers over who will decide where exactly to found the city. Each brother has his supporters to prove who is the one destined to rule, and to decide they have a contest—not sparring, nor racing, nor a game of wit or skill, but augury. The gods, through the flights of birds, will decide which one of them shall choose the place. Romulus sets himself up on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aventine Hill. Whomever sees the most auspicious bird sign first is to be the winner. Remus spots six vultures, and Romulus at first spots nothing, or lies and says that he has spotted twelve vultures. When Remus comes, twelve vultures appear, and Romulus points them out and says, "You see, I have won." However, it is actually unclear who has won, as Remus has spotted them first, but Romulus has spotted the same bird in a greater amount. The two sides fight, and Remus ends up dead, along with their foster father and many others. Another version says that Remus agreed to accept defeat but was bitter and he mocks Romulus and leaps over his wall and obstructs his effort, leading either Romulus or Celer, one of his men, to strike him dead. Celer would later give his name to the elite bodyguard that surrounded Romulus, called the Celeres.

A mythical interpretation of this event yields surprising results. The name Remus is thought to be derived from Indo-European *yemos*, meaning "twin." In ancient Persian legend, the Goodyama, a name derived also from *yemos*, helps to create the world, and under the name of Jamshed is one of the most important kings in Persian legend. He masters both the gods and the demons and establishes the social order as well as invents many arts and crafts. He is the god of the new year, having made a shining golden bejeweled throne which he forces the demons to rise up in the sky and drive off the winter. However, when he grows too arrogant, he loses his divine aura and is overcome by enemies and cut apart. The Norse tradition knows the primordial giant whom Odin and his brothers Vili and Vé kill and create the world from his body. Preserved here in this guise of Roman history appears to be a tale of the same origin, with a figure known by the same name, with the city of Rome representative of the cosmos. It suggests that the core of the tale of Romulus and Remus was not originally concerned with the founding of Rome but is possibly a repurposed myth of the creation of the world.

[Music]

But this myth of the twin founders of a city spotting birds as a sign has an almost exact parallel in the myth of a Gaulish city over 600 miles northwest of Rome. The following tale is recorded in De Fluviis: "When Momoros and the Temple Motors were dethroned by Cesaronios, in pursuance of the oracle's command, they designed to build a city upon the top of the hill. But when they had laid the foundations, great numbers of crows with their wings expanded covered all the neighboring trees, upon which Momoros, being a person well skilled in augury, called the city Lugdunum." Now, despite French Wikipedia claiming that the name Momoros means "swan," I have no idea where this idea comes from; no citation is given, of course, and I can find nothing in any Celtic language to suggest that Momoros means "swan." In Gaelic, "swan" is *eala*, sometimes *geis*; in Welsh, it is *alarch*. However, the name does bear a striking similarity to an alternative form of the name Mars, Mamers. The tale of the founding of Lugdunum, the fortress of Lug, may well originate from the same tale as the story of Romulus and Remus. Given that Celtic and Italic may have developed out of the same language group gives reason to expect such a strong similarity. That doesn't mean Momoros is actually cognate with Mamers; I don't have the expertise to determine that, but we are dealing with myths with a high degree of similarity.

[Music]

In this tale, Remus may represent the physical body which then forms the material world—literally the cosmic man who contains within him the totality, while his spirit continues on in the twin. Such an idea may lie at the root of other twin myths like Castor and Pollux, where one twin is mortal, the other immortal. Castor and Pollux were closely linked to mirrors by the Etruscans, and the mirror is linked to the soul, often featured on caskets or as a burial item. Such ideas about mirrors reflecting the soul or as a window into the other world were very common even into the modern period. If seen in this context, the immortal twin is the reflection of the mortal twin. The killing of Remus can be seen as a self-sacrifice—myself to myself, as Odin famously proclaimed when he hung upon the cosmic tree that binds the worlds together, called the Yggdrasil, the horse of the terrible one. Odin is another god who bears the spear, lord of kings, warriors, and wolves, a god who kills Ymir and builds the world. This cosmic significance of the establishment of Rome is further illustrated in the tale itself. Remus was buried, and a circular trench was dug around his grave, where offerings of the first fruits were sacrificed into it, along with a handful of the native soil from which every man there had come. When we look at the final tale of Romulus, we will see an exact opposite myth about him. It is said they call this trench, as they do the heavens, by...

The name of Mundus. Then, taking this as a center, they marked out the city in a circle around it. The founder, having shod a plow with a brazen plowshare and having yoked to it a bull and a cow, himself drove a deep furrow around the boundary lines. While those who followed after him had to turn up the clods which the plow threw up inwards towards the city and suffer no clod to lie turned outward. The spot where Romulus is buried forms the axis mundi, the cosmic center, with the outlines of the city mirroring the heavens. And in fact, the exact circle where he is buried is called Mundus. It is directly equatable to the Greek word cosmos.

This all takes place as part of a religious festival set to April 21st. And unlike nearly every other festival, there was to be no animal sacrifice. Instead, horse blood, saved by the Vestal Virgins from the October horse sacrifice to Mars, was utilized on the day, nearly half a year later, to consecrate the fires that were used to purify cattle and men alike. Romulus was said to have been the first one to light these fires of purification, and a leap over the flames to banish and remove the guilt of his wrongdoing. Cattle were also driven between the flames for the purpose of driving off illness from them.

These customs are identical to those which were held in Ireland at the festival of Beltane, sent to the first of May by modern calendars, but in ancient times was very likely calculated by a full moon taking place after the spring equinox. So not only was the custom very similar, but the timing is also very similar to the Roman festival called Parelia. Parelia is thought to have been a pastoral festival, for it honors the gods called the Pales. They were likely twin gods in origin who protected flocks and livestock. In Sicily, there is known the twin gods called the Palici. They are likewise protectors of flocks, but they are also linked to oath rituals. But there appears to be yet another cognate of these gods to be found in the north, the Lugii tribal confederacy, which at least in origin appears to have been Celtic. Tacitus relates that twin gods were worshipped in their sacred grove, which he relates to Castor and Pollux. They were known as the Alci.

Because some have erroneously labeled the Lugii as Germanic, this has led to the Alci being understood as relating to the elk gods. However, because the name is actually Celtic, and the Celtic language drops the Indo-European *pea*, the name in the pre-Celtic form is *Palkis*, cognate with the Roman *Pales* and the Sicilian *Palici*. The name seems to stem from an Indo-European root meaning "the protectors." Is it a coincidence that a tribal group named for the god Lugus is found worshipping twin deities cognate with those which happen to coincide with the date of the founding of Rome?

It is said that Romulus was asked by the people to be king, and also that, as a sign from heaven, lightning flashed from left to right, and that all kings afterwards were not acknowledged until there had been a clear sign from heaven. This relates to the divine nature of the king as a representative of the gods. Romulus was said to have been the best of augurs; he invented the lituus, the augur's rod, and after him all of the kings were the chief augurs. Similar ideas seem to have been held by Celtic and Germanic peoples, who feature kingly gods with birds of omen, such as the raven.

The first thing that Romulus does after establishing Rome is divide up all the men and establish the legion, the main fighting unit of the Romans. He then goes about to create all the basic social orders and even the relationship between patron and client, as well as setting up the first laws. He welcomed fugitives from other nearby cities, establishing a shrine of asylum to gather people of Latium to Rome. The third policy of Romulus was to show mercy to people that they defeated in conflict, not to kill them, but to incorporate them.

His royal powers were summed up as follows: for the king, he had reserved these prerogatives: in the first place, the supremacy in religious ceremonies and sacrifices and the conduct of everything related to the worship of the gods; secondly, the guardianship of the laws and customs of the country and the general oversight of justice in all cases, whether founded on the laws of nature or the civil law. He was also the judge in person of the greatest crimes, leaving the lesser to the senators, but seeing to it that no error was made in their decisions. He wished to summon the senate and call together the popular assembly to deliver his opinions first and carry out the decision of the majority. These prerogatives he granted to the king, in addition, the absolute command in war. Romulus and the institution of the king represented the totality of the social order and the one with the force to rise above it all to rule over the chaos. The king generally acted as an intermediary between the gods and men and often took on a martial nature, as is certainly the case with Romulus.

The myth of Romulus speaks of a man who began as a herdsman, then became a warrior, then a king who led sacrifices to Jupiter in his life. He lived all roles, and he formally established those roles in the city he founded. The Regia was a building next to the Temple of Vesta and was the ancient house of the king, said to have been established by Numa. Within the king's residence was a room with a shrine, and that shrine wasn't dedicated to Jupiter or Juno or Minerva or Quirinus, but to Mars.

With the founding of Rome, the problems for Romulus had just begun. His city, founded by youthful warriors, outcasts, and other asylum seekers of Italic origin, had no women, or very few. To resolve this problem, he looked to the nearby communities of the Sabines. They were a people also of Italic origin and spoke a closely related language. However, because of the less than illustrious status of the new inhabitants of Rome, nobody would agree to marry their daughters out to those who were still just a band of outcasts. Romulus had a plan. He had discovered an altar buried beneath the earth dedicated to the god Consus. And in this god's honor, he planned to host chariot races in the area that was later to become the Circus Maximus, where the altar was recovered and kept. The god was likened to an equestrian Neptune, and perhaps based on folk etymology, to secret councils. Consus became part of Romulus's secret plan. He invited the Sabines to the festival, and when they were unarmed and unaware, he and his cohorts set upon them, grabbing their daughters away at sword point and driving off the fathers and brothers. Through trickery and abduction, Rome had acquired its first women.

The act of carrying a woman over the threshold of a house on her wedding night originates from the capture of the Sabine women. That this event is paired with the agricultural festival of the Consualia hints at an archaic meaning. Consus is believed to have been a god of grains and of storage of grains specifically, and also to secret council. The Flamen Quirinalis and the Vestals officiated his rites. He is closely connected with the goddess Ops, and his primary festivals were concerned with reaping and sowing of grain. The abduction of the Sabine women corresponds to the reaping of the fields and the taking of the grain. In Persian and Norse myth, the first man and woman come from trees. One of the races of man was also said to have come from ash trees, and there may be a similar connection here. And we have already related a tale of grains from the Campus Martius being tossed into the Tiber in baskets, akin to the fate of Romulus and Remus. The notion of marriage called *feriae*, which Romulus was said to have created the laws around, was thought to be named after the word for spelt, *far*, an ancient form of grain. Dionysius relates that as Greeks began sacrifice with barley, the most sacred grain for the Romans was spelt. As the married man and woman shared the responsibilities in the sacred rites, their union was represented by the grain.

Consus was not the only god paid respects at the Consualia, but he was honored together with Mars, who aided in protecting the fields and harvests from blight and unfavorable weather and is also closely linked to horses and horse racing. It's interesting that a festival in legend linked to Consus and Romulus is held in honor of Consus and Mars. After the capture of the Sabine women, the Sabine men eventually make war on Romulus and his people. He faced Acron, king of the Ceninenses, and defeated him in single combat, dedicating his victory to Jupiter. After the victory, he sought a way to honor the god and the people, so he cut down a giant oak tree and carved it into the shape of a trophy and put Acron's armor on it, wreathing himself in laurel leaves. He then took the trophy upon his right shoulder and paraded it through Rome, creating the first military triumph and establishing the worship of Jupiter Feretrius, to whom was dedicated the arms and armor of honorable enemies killed in single combat and was also a witness to oaths, contracts, and marriages. But the image of Romulus with the trophy slung over his shoulder is identical to the image of Mars featured on many Roman coins. After his victory, he spares the lands of the defeated, save those who were parents of the abducted women. However, not all the Sabines were defeated; the rest were led by a great general, Tatius. The two armies clashed in intense combat, with the Romans being driven back right to the center of Rome and the Temple of Vesta. It is here that the Sabine women rushed out to put an end to the conflict, not wishing to see their husbands and their fathers kill each other. They pleaded for peace and unity. Some link the event to the commemoration of the Matronalia, held on March 1st. However, others suggest a connection to a goddess of fate, which would correspond perhaps to the goddesses of Gaul known as the Matronae. Heeding the advice of the women, the men set aside their arms and agreed to unite as one people. The Sabine elite were added to the Roman patricians and senate. From this also arose a situation where two kings ruled Rome, with Romulus ruling over the original Romans and Tatius ruling the Sabines.

We see this tradition of joint kings in various European traditions, from Greek Castor and Pollux representing the two kings of Sparta to the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus to the joint rule of the Galagas, Nuada and Lug, where they agree to exchange the king's seat every 13 days, but that Lug will lead in war. With the fusion of the Sabines and the Romans, it is agreed that the city will still be called Rome and that individual citizens will be called Romans, but that the Roman people collectively will be called the Quirites, from a name used amongst the Sabines. The joint rule with Tatius was to last only five short years. Friends of Tatius robbed and murdered Lavinian ambassadors, and though Romulus was for handing the culprits over to them for justice, Tatius refused, greatly angering Romulus. The families of the slain ambassadors then managed to murder Tatius in return. After this, Romulus was again sole ruler of Rome, and he grew more and more powerful. Some said that Romulus invented the consecration of fire and established the Vestal Virgins as well as the lituus, a staff used in augury. Now it seems chronologically not to make sense, given that his mother was said to have been a Vestal Virgin herself, but what it shows is that he was very closely connected to these things. And we see that the later house of the king, established by Numa, was positioned right beside the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, and this is also reflected in the myth of his birth and how tightly connected he is to this goddess.

We saw the tale regarding the creation of Rome where he created a purifying fire which cleansed men and cattle alike, and his conception generally involves some mix of fire and water, a theme that comes up several times in relation to Rome in obscure ways. One of the punishments he was said to deal out to people was to keep them from fire and water, which may mean that he prevented them from obtaining purification. During a plague and blight that strikes Rome, it was said that Romulus performed lustration upon the gates. Lustration is a type of sacrifice that purifies fundamentally; it drives away destructive spirits. Lustration rites seem to have been archaically linked to Mars, especially in the form of the Suovetaurilia, a procession and sacrifice of a pig, sheep, and bull. Cato the Elder records an invocation to Mars at just such a lustration: "Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou be gracious and merciful to me, my house and my household, to which intent I have been this to be led around my land, my ground, my farm, that thou keep away, ward off, and remove sickness seen and unseen, barrenness and destruction, ruin and unseasonable influence, and that thou permit my harvest, my grain, my vineyards and my plantations to flourish and to come to good issue; preserve in health my shepherds and my flocks, and give good health and strength to me, my house and my household." Mars purifies seemingly because he has the power to drive off maligned spirits. There is a similar idea in Norse religion where Thor is the fighter against trolls, likewise malign spirits. Lugus derives off the Fomorians and specifically defeats the power of the evil eye possessed by his grandfather, which causes trees and plants to wilt beneath its gaze. It is well known that among the Gauls, Mars was often ascribed healing functions; in fact, it often seems to have been a primary association. And it is for the exact reasons which Cato calls upon Mars: Mars, through his strength, can purify by driving off the bad. The idea may be connected to the conception of the twins when Rhea Silvia goes to fetch water from the grove of Mars for ritual use.

Romulus also established the first Roman calendar. He had his father Mars honored with the first month, originally March. This is why in Ovid's work, the Fasti, that deals with the Roman festivals, he tells a tale of the union of Mars and Anna Perenna, the goddess of the year, whose festival was set to March 15th, the first full moon of the old Roman calendar. That Mars begins the year seems to be connected with the same lustration ideas just discussed. It is Mars who must drive off the bad spirits of the old year and bring forth the new. This is further shown in the festival for the purification of weapons, the army lustrum, held on March 19th, quickly followed by the Tubilustrium, the purification of the tubae on the 23rd. Now this was a type of sacred trumpet used either in war, sacrifice, or both. And the use of noise-making instruments such as horns, bells, or drums during sacrifice is also intended to drive off bad spirits. These trumpets were purified by Mars in a ceremony that took place in a building called the Shoemaker's Hall. The Sally would then dance through the streets. In the Welsh story of Lleu and Blodeuwedd, the two brothers need to communicate secretly so that the evil spirits do not hear them, and in order to do this they try to use a special trumpet, but the bad spirits are interfering with it so that they cannot understand each other through it. They purify the horn with wine, driving out the bad spirits. They are generally understood to represent the god Lugus. Elsewhere in the poems of Taliesin, there is made mention of the golden pipes or horns of Ceridwen, referring perhaps to the Carnyx, but further Ceridwen is also linked to shoemaking. A shoemaker's guild in Spain made a dedication to Lugus. In Welsh myth, Ceridwen sews a shoe, and on a coin from Roman Gaul, a god is depicted wearing armor with a trident in one hand and a raven in the other, identified only by the title *Sutor Augustus*, meaning divine shoemaker. All this is very mysterious and can't be dealt with here, but given the number of other similarities observed thus far, is it really a coincidence? One of the rituals of Mars which exactly corresponds to a tale involving Lugus is carried out in a Shoemaker's Hall. In some very archaic period, it seems Roman Mars was also linked to the shoe; his leaping priests are certainly going to want to wear something on their feet after all. In Norse myth, Odin's son Vidar, the one who slays the wolf and thus saves the cosmos from total destruction, is also connected to the shoe in myth and cult.

So now that Romulus was again sole king, he led the invasion and takeover of many nearby people. In his greatest victory, he was said to have killed thousands of soldiers with his own hands, a day that corresponds to the October horse sacrifice to Mars. This was said to have been his final battle, an interesting point because the October horse sacrifice is believed to have marked the close of the military campaigning season as well as the harvest. It is the only known horse sacrifice in Roman tradition, which is very significant because in other Indo-European societies the horse was especially linked to the king. Chariot races were held in which the horse on the right side of the winning pair was sacrificed to the god in a very peculiar way: it was first pierced with a spear, and then it was cut apart with the head as a prize between two combatants. The tale was taken to the Temple of Vesta and its blood sprinkled on the fire of Rome, possibly to purify the fire. They seem to have also taken the blood from the horse and kept it for use in the Parilia the following year as an ingredient for the purifying flames. This makes the slaying horse part of a purification ritual, a theme again closely linked to Mars in its most archaic form. It may have been a ritual closely linked to the king.

Romulus was likewise said to have established horse races called the Equaria on February 27th and March 14th in honor of Mars, making Mars the god most connected to horses in the ancient Roman religion. The horse was never used much in Roman warfare, and many equestrian terms in Latin actually are borrowed from Gaulish. However, the celeres, the elite unit which Romulus was said to have established and surrounded himself with, were said to fight on horseback or on foot depending on the terrain. The horse connection may be a very archaic one with Indo-European routes rather than specific Roman practice.

As the rule of Romulus went on, he was said to become more and more oppressive, more like a tyrant and less like a king. He had people surrounding him that would keep the populace back with sticks and bind anyone upon his command. The idea of the king who also loses his favor towards the end of his rule is also mirrored in the myths of the Persian king Yama. It is primarily, however, at this late point in his story that the legend of Romulus is blurred substantially with Roman political agendas. According to Plutarch, when Numitor died, Romulus "taught the influential men at Rome also to seek after the form of government which was independent and without a king, where all in turn were subjects and rulers; for by this time not even the so-called patricians had any share in the administration of affairs, but a name and garb of honor was all that was left to them, and they assembled in their council chambers more from custom than for giving advice." It seems illogical that the autocratic king would suddenly be promoting self-rule, nor does it correspond to the picture painted by Plutarch himself. This does, however, seem to reflect the at that time current political trend in Rome, which was already well into the imperial period when Plutarch was writing his Parallel Lives. The emperors had increasingly taken power away from the senate and turned them into a symbolic institution, while of course claiming to rule on behalf of the people.

All sources, at least as far back as the poet Ennius writing in the 2nd century BC, record a dramatic scene at the end of Romulus's reign as king. It is said that one day Romulus assembled the people at the Goat's Marsh, part of the Campus Martius, the Field of Mars. Suddenly the light of the sun vanished; great thunder rent the sky; the wind wolf howled; the rain pelted down; and the lightning broke the darkness in a terrifying flash. The king was enveloped by mist and darkness; the people scattered in every direction, fleeing the scene. Everyone forgot about their king. When the sky cleared and the sun came out from behind the terrible storm clouds and everyone began to look for Romulus, he was gone, never to be seen on earth again. The common belief was that Romulus was brought up to heaven by his father. Ennius, writing in the 2nd century, is our earliest attestation of this, but very likely it was a genuine ancient belief. As we have seen, the myth of Romulus properly belongs to a god and has many points of contact with other Indo-European deities. His apotheosis occurs in a storm, suggesting that he and his father Mars were anciently connected with the storm. Martial gods were linked to storms across the Indo-European world. Mars is asked to avert bad weather, to drive off bad spirits, and to protect the crops—all things that other gods like Thor, Indra, Lugus, and Perun do. As first king and son of Mars, it is possible that Romulus represented an incarnation of the god, or that much in his tale once belonged to the story of Mars. Mars is placed in special connection to the ancient king; he is the only god to receive a horse sacrifice; he has a shrine within the house of the king; and his son was believed to have been the first king. Despite Jupiter being the father of the gods and likely the general ruler of heaven, it is Mars who was the progenitor of kings and the father of Rome.

Despite the myriad connections between Mars and Romulus, many Roman historians and poets record a different association. After Romulus disappeared from the Campus Martius, Plutarch and others say that a man of the noblest birth and the most trustworthy character and closest of friends with Romulus, Julius Proculus, claimed that he saw Romulus coming down the road. The king spoke to him, told him that "after founding a city destined to be the greatest on earth for empire and glory, I should dwell again in heaven; so farewell, and tell the Romans that if they practice self-restraint and add to it valor, they will reach the utmost heights of human power, and I will be your propitious deity, Quirinus." Something very similar is recorded by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and of course poets like Virgil and numerous others. There is little doubt that people came to believe this, but besides these claims, there is no other reason to think that equating Quirinus and Romulus was of ancient origin. Firstly, the encounter itself has the ring of something written in the later part of the first century BC. No real folk account speaking about Rome's destiny as an empire was carried over hundreds of years. It is absurd to think that before the notion of empire that Romulus would have been speaking about it and that somehow this account survived intact, word for word. Other associations that we have examined so far make sense as they survive in cult practice or general concepts, not direct recited statements that speak of political concepts not even dreamed of during the age they claim to come from. Secondly, there is nothing in the way of archaeology to support this equation. There is no ancient inscription from the Temple of Quirinus naming him Romulus. There are no depictions of Romulus at the Temple of Quirinus, at least none that have been found. There is nothing in what little iconography exists of Quirinus to suggest a connection to Romulus. Romulus is depicted in ancient Rome either as a young warrior or as an infant together with Remus and the wolf. Quirinus is depicted as an elderly man with a spear, but not with an overly martial character. Thirdly, this is entirely reliant upon the super trustworthy, beyond questionable statement of Julius Proculus, who, just by pure coincidence, happens to be the mythical ancestor of the Iulii family, as in Julius Caesar. The same Julius Caesar who intentionally promoted his identification with Romulus, even changing the Lupercalia to insert himself into it. Further evidence can be found in the humorous lampooning poems by Catullus that reference Julius Caesar by calling him Romulus. Julius Caesar promoted the idea that he was a descendant of Venus, and he also seemed to promote the idea that he was Quirinus, donating a statue in his own likeness to the Temple of Quirinus, dedicated to the immortal god himself, to himself apparently. Within Caesar's own lifetime, he had people worship him, not like a god, but as an actual god. He appointed a flamen for himself. The Iulian family may have been long connected to the cult of Quirinus, and the cousin of Caesar was serving as the flamen of Quirinus in the 50s BC. It seems that Caesar and potentially others in his family, perhaps starting even before he was born, were trying to divinize themselves through the manipulation of ancient mythology. A few months after his birth, there was a comet that made an…

Impression on people. And despite the tens of thousands of other people born at the same time, his family and extended connections managed to spread the story that the comet was a sign of the divinely ordained birth. This comet would later feature on coins of Caesar, who is the first living mortal to be featured on a Roman coin.

Many people have the wrong impression of Caesar, thinking he was some sober-minded military genius. The reality was that he was as mad as Nero, but simply higher functioning. An original plan may have included co-opting the identity of Quirinus, a god little understood by his time. In the end, however, he was so powerful that he was simply declared a living god. The mythical connection between Romulus and Quirinus that he and his family had spread continued on at the time when Caesar was rising to power, or had already become a dictator, when he was openly fostering an idea that he was a god and that he was the new Romulus. We find these accounts that call Romulus Quirinus.

On the other hand, this account of Romulus becoming Quirinus does not appear in the earlier works by Aeneas. It is also not repeated by Varro in any of his works. As a matter of fact, he seems to say something quite opposite to it in On the Latin Language. He records the place name of Kermaliam or Germalium, which he says is near the temple of Romulus. The Kermalium does not refer to the Quirinal Hill where is found the only temple to Quirinus, a place never associated with Romulus and which wasn't even included in the original city boundary he marked out. Rather, it is exactly where one would expect to find Romulus, right near the Lupercal cave where the twins were found and where a simple rustic hut was maintained in perfect condition where Romulus was said to have lived before he was king and where people would still bring small offerings. This is what Varro correctly identifies as the temple of Romulus, still honored in rustic traditions by common folk as a protective spirit of the city.

Varro had fought against Caesar in this civil war, though he was one of the lucky ones granted clemency after. He appears to have been unwilling to adopt his lie. While a later account forces a match between the disappearance of Romulus and the celebration of the Quirinalia, the only festival named for Quirinus, all earlier accounts, even Plutarch, are agreed that Romulus disappeared on July 7th and that the festival corresponding to his disappearance involves people going to the Campus Martius near the Goat Marsh and shouting random names, reenacting the time when Romulus disappeared in the great storm and everyone was blinded by darkness, lost and confused.

We don't know very much about Quirinus, but what we do know is that he was thought to be a type of Mars associated with the society of Rome. A Greek account called him the Mars who governs peace. His name is thought to be linked, both by ancients and modern scholars, to the Quirites, which refers to the Roman citizens together in peace. The Quirinal Hill was a Sabine residence, and why Romulus should be equated with a Sabine god is never explained. The worship of Quirinus is thought by all accounts to have been started by Numa, a Sabine king who brought rule of peace to Rome and instituted the civil society as opposed to the martial society of Romulus. He is also clearly a divine figure of high virtue. He built the temple and established the worship of Janus, whose temple marked periods of war and peace, and Janus is sometimes linked to the epithet Quirinus. The god is closely linked to the myrtle, and myrtle was used as a crown for those who achieved victory without fighting. Numa came from a town called Cures, which is linked by many ancient writers with the word for Quirites, and Numa was said to have also had a personal residence on the Quirinal Hill. In one tale, he captures Faunus and Picus and forces them to divulge this secret to avert thunder and lightning, and they call down Jupiter. Jupiter demands that it be averted with heads, but Numa, with the help of his goddess lover, Egeria, manages to put one over on the god through wordplay and therefore avert human sacrifice.

As with Romulus, these are not tales of a real king but a divine figure, summing up the rule of both Romulus and Numa. Roman historians said that Romulus was the rule of war and Numa was the rule of peace, effectively mirroring the Greek account that calls Quirinus the Mars who ruled during peace. Now it isn't conclusive, of course, that Numa is to be equated with Quirinus, who appears to have been a god of civil society, but certainly Numa, who is thought of like a god and who had a residence on the Quirinal Hill, is far more likely a candidate for being related to Quirinus than Romulus. Romulus was the son and mortal embodiment of the father of the Roman people, Mars. If Romulus really had been Quirinus, then there would have been a shrine to Quirinus in the Regia, the house of the king. Instead, there is a shrine to Mars.

But there is yet another account of the death of Romulus, and perhaps not less important. Some disputed that he disappeared in this way. Some said that he was murdered by the senators who came to hate his kingship. While they were gathered with him, they killed him and tore him to pieces, and each senator took away a piece of his body in their togas and buried it somewhere in the city so that it was never found. As odd as this may sound, this tale takes us back to the Indo-European link with Yama. In Persian myth, Yama was killed by being cut apart. After his death, according to Zoroastrian scriptures, the rule was divided between three other gods and three separate functions: priest, warrior, and producer. Yama, as king, represented the totality of these roles, just as Romulus did.

There is a similar dynamic in Norse myth, for Odin kills Ymir and divides up his body to create the world, but he does this as one of three brothers: Odin, Vili, and Vé, each of which may represent a different role. Odin means inspiration, Vili means will, and Vé means sacred, or perhaps temple. This is further illustrated when they give life to the first man and woman: Odin gives them spirit or breath, Vili gives will or intelligence, and Vé gives them countenance, or perhaps understood as definitive form. In Gaelic myth, Lugh is killed by the three grandsons of the Ollamh, and Ireland is divided into three, and the three rule as kings in turn, unable to fill the original role of the singular great king.

After Romulus and before the rule of Numa, there was a period of a year which was called the interregnum where power rotated between members of the senate. Some Greek kings also have such a legend. Pelops was divided up and served to the gods at a feast and later restored, which seems to be a reversal of the same type of story. The idea may be connected to the belief that the body of the king represents the community in a very real way and even after death contains such power, especially protective power and fertility related to the land. The body of the king taken to represent every part of the cosmos and, in this specific case, the defined boundaries of the city. If there is a difference between Romulus and Remus, it may be that Remus is represented as the axis and Romulus is the extended region.

It is difficult to separate the layers of meaning throughout this whole tale. One could read it as having been a legend based on the myth of a god, or a legend that represents the cosmic myth on the human and local level. In any case, it demonstrates that in the original Roman mythology, Mars played an important role in the ordering of the cosmos, and the story of Romulus shares important aspects with other Indo-European gods. It disproves some claims by scholars such as Georges Dumézil, while also reinforcing some other of his ideas. The main flaw, I believe, in understanding the Indo-European king was to attempt to squeeze the king into being a priest-king. In reality, he was a priest, he was a warrior, a judge, a producer; he was everything. He was a representation of perfection, of the divine come down to earth. He was the cosmic man. Thus, the great Romulus ascended the sky with his father.

I hope you like this video. Don't forget to give a like, subscribe, and consider supporting me through Patreon or PayPal. It takes an exceptional amount of time to do this kind of research and to prepare a decent video along with it, so I would appreciate any and all of your support. All the best to you, and as always, stand tall. [Music]