The early history of Rome is shrouded in
mystery. No written sources survive from this early period and historians have
long been forced to rely on documents written many centuries later. The tale
these later sources tell is obviously not very reliable, but there have been
long and detailed debates about how much of them we can believe.
Even if the Roman histories written in
about 200bc or 100bc are taken at face value there are great chunks of the
story of early Rome missing. Long years go by when nothing is recorded as
having happened at all, which is obviously not what really happened. The later
historians also include a lot of information about gods and monsters that is
better read as being legend rather than history. This has caused some modern
historians to doubt everything that these historians wrote and they declare
that the early history of Rome is entirely invented and should be ignored. But
such a sweeping statement cannot be true.
Ancient Roman writers such as Livy or
Polybius had access to all sorts of historical sources that have since been
lost. They could consult the official archives of Rome, which included such
things as treaties with other states, the lists of men who had held official
positions and financial accounts of the army, road building and other state
departments. In addition to this the Pontifex Maximus, or Chief Priest, had the
duty at the end of each year of writing down what he considered to have been
the most important events. Those writings were then stored in the temples.
There were also numerous private documents,
such as family archives, temple records and business contracts that could be
consulted. None of these sources would have given a complete history, and many
of them would have been biased - a family archive for instance would probably
present ancestors in a flattering light. It is a matter of guesswork how
reliable these documents were and how accurately the historians whose work has
survived took information from them.
So with all those facts in mind we must
turn to the history of Rome as we have it. According to the ancient historians,
Rome was founded on 21st April 753BC by twin brothers named Romulus and Remus.
From "A Little Book of Ancient Rome" by Rupert Matthews.
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