The Romans in 100 Facts

By Jem Duducu

The Roman Empire is one of the most famous civilisations in history, and with good cause. Over a period spanning nearly 1,000 years, the Romans came, saw and conquered land after land. This book looks at Roman history from the foundation to collapse of the empire, covering famous Romans, famous events and some of the more bizarre moments of ancient history. Among the historic figures featured are Julius Caesar, Spartacus and Nero. The great tales of these giants of history are told through facts about battles, uncontrolled decadence and the power-plays between emperors. However, there are also some more unexpected stories. The Romans, for example, couldn't decide on the foundation story of Rome. The tale of Romulus and Remus was used for centuries, but a completely contradictory story appeared in the first century AD claiming the Romans were actually refugees from Troy. Jem Duducu condenses the colossal story of the Romans into 100 accessible facts in this fun introduction to the Roman Empire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Nov 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781445649719

Jem Duducu

Jem Duducu has been in love with history for as long as he can remember. He went to UWCC to read Archaeology and Medieval History. He is the author of several history books from the ‘100 Facts’ series for Amberley along with 'Deus Vult' and 'The Sultans'. Follow him on Twitter @HistoryGems.

Book preview

1. THE ROMANS COULDN’T DECIDE ON THEIR ORIGINS

The legend of Romulus and Remus tells the story of the twin brothers, raised by wolves, who became the founding fathers of Rome. It’s a myth known to most schoolchildren. However, the tale is more blood-soaked than is usually conveyed.

The two boys’ mother, Rhea Silvia, had been a queen, but she had been forced into becoming a Vestal Virgin by the usurper Amulius. Rhea Silvia then had a miraculous conception, either by the god Mars or by Hercules (there are variations on the myth, which doesn’t seem to bother anyone). When Amulius heard of this he ordered the infant twins to be taken to the Tiber River, where they were left to die. In the event, they were saved and nourished by a she-wolf and later taken in by a shepherd and his family until they grew to manhood, unaware of their origins. Eventually they heard the story of the treachery of Amulius, after which they confronted and killed the tyrant. Then, because Romulus wanted to found their new city on the Palatine Hill and Remus preferred the Aventine Hill, they agreed to see a soothsayer (the Romans were very superstitious). However, each brother interpreted the results in his own favour … which led to a disagreement, which turned into a fight in which Romulus killed Remus and founded the new city of Rome in 753 BC. This is not a happy, Disney-style story of two children looked after by a nice she-wolf but, instead, a tale of attempted infanticide, murder and fratricide. It’s a strange account that hardly portrays the city’s founders as godlike and noble.

What’s stranger still is that there was a later founding story. Written in the eighth century BC, Homer’s Iliad is the story of the Trojan War, a much earlier war that took place in (roughly) 1200 BC. There is a second telling of this same story by another giant of ancient writing, Virgil, in his book the Aeneid. This was written more than seven hundred years after the Iliad at the time of the Emperor Augustus. As well as enhancing the earlier story, this also postdates the tale of Romulus and Remus. This is important because, according to Virgil, Troy’s population wasn’t completely destroyed. Instead, a prince called Aeneas escaped with a small group of Trojans and sailed the Mediterranean until he found an area he liked the look of. So this ancient and noble civilisation transplanted itself in Italy and founded Rome. This, of course, completely contradicts the original foundation legend.

Both tales tell us something. The first story shows us that the Romans were explaining where their predatory and argumentative attitudes came from: they are all the children of wolves. The second story was created at the time of emperors, so there is a demand for respectability and heritage. The Trojan War was as famous then as now, so why not connect this new empire to a very old and familiar tale?

2. ROME STARTED IN A SMALL WAY

The area around Rome had natural advantages for early tribes in the vicinity. The Tiber created a useful barrier, and the hills were a natural defensive feature. Archaeological evidence bears witness to ancient settlements, and the roads that ran through the area indicate that it was an early crossroads for communication and trade. The Romans put the date of the foundation of the city at 753 BC, and that may not be far from the truth.

Correspondingly, the Palatine Hill does seem to have been first inhabited around the ninth century BC. This settlement had circular buildings (common across Europe at the time), with a basic wall to protect the site. The need for a wall implies outside threat, so it could be that such a strategically useful site was coveted by other tribes.

It appears that from these humble beginnings the most famous empire in history had its start. The early city was then located on the edge of another civilization, that of the Etruscans, who called themselves the Rasenna. Their capital, Velzna, was much further north, and it’s ironic that this older civilisation is now known by its Latin name. At this point in history, Rome was just one small town among many.

While the Etruscan language was unique, their art, architecture and methods of warfare were heavily influenced by Greece. It should therefore come as no surprise that while the Romans had a different language, they were also subject to a strong Hellenic influence.

3. EARLY ROME HAD KINGS

Rome did not start as a republic. At first there were kings – except these kings weren’t quite the same as a royal dynasty. Rome was sacked multiple times, but the first time, in 390 BC by the Gauls (Celts from France), was one of the most destructive and resulted in the ruin of many earlier records. Consequently, accounts of the era of the kings of Rome were built on legends, with much of the extant literature coming centuries later.

Romulus may have been a real person (although we can discredit the whole wolf-rearing story), and he is officially the first king. But we are on the edge of ‘history’ here, and we must be wary that his name on a list of kings is not historical evidence.

According to legend, there were seven kings in all and each ruled for decades. Comparing this to other lists of monarchs, the consistently long reigns stand out and lead to suspicions that either there are some inaccuracies, or a few kings may have been lost to history. However, between 753 BC and 509 BC, Rome was ruled by kings.

Kings appear to have been elected by a kind of senate, where the best man was chosen for the job. Kings had all the powers you would expect: lawmaker, commander-in-chief and head of state. But the king also had an important religious role and served as the high priest, the conduit between the Roman population and its gods.

The last king (who had seized the throne by assassinating the previous occupant) was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (Superbus means vain or proud), who ruled for nearly twenty-five years before being overthrown himself, allegedly because he had tried to force himself on the wife of one of his generals. Although events led to an uprising and his exile, it wasn’t quite as simple as that because he was constantly seeking revenge and plotting his return. Fifteen years later, he did return at the head of a coalition of local powers eager to put him back on the throne. However, the Roman army showed the beginnings of its empire-building prowess by defeating the coalition and ensuring that Tarquinius would never again reach a position of power.

Later on, in the Republican era (509–27 BC), the Romans separated the religious role of high priest from that involving administrative duties. The two roles were carried out by two consuls, who were, in turn, advised by a senate composed of elected magistrates. The consuls were elected annually by the citizens of Rome. A citizen was required to have land and was obliged to carry out military service.

So began a system that would evolve and occasionally teeter but would endure from the sixth century BC to 27 BC, nearly 500 years of the same political system, with no need for a king. It was under this republican system that Rome would go from being just another ancient conurbation to a mighty empire that could take on all comers and (usually) win.

4. ROME WAS A BAD NEIGHBOUR

By the fifth century BC, Rome was one of many tiny states on the Italian Peninsula. In 480 BC, if you were a gambler, you would probably have put your money on an eventual Etruscan empire. Over the centuries the realm had grown substantially, and while Rome’s central and southern towns had thrown off Etruscan dominance, the Etruscans were still the largest power in an area populated by numerous other Italic peoples, many of their names barely remembered by history.

It’s a forgotten fact that the Romans had to conquer the rest of Italy, and one of the first tribes to fall was the Sabines. According to a famous legend, oft repeated in ancient texts (and a popular subject with Renaissance artists), the Romans abducted the Sabine women for breeding purposes, in order to increase the population of Rome. Whether this was true or not is impossible to say, but the Romans were consistently avid slavers; and what is uncontested is that by the dawn of the fourth century BC, the Sabine kingdom had been absorbed into Roman lands.

Romans and Italians were never the same thing. It’s just that the Roman city state was more aggressive, with a better army, or was just luckier than the other kingdoms of Italy. It wouldn’t have taken much to snuff out Rome at this time, in which case this could have been a book about the empire of the Frentani, yet another Italic people then located on the east coast of the peninsula.

Although geographically close to each other, these realms were so diverse that they didn’t even speak the same language. Etruscan is still, frustratingly, one of the languages that has yet to be satisfactorily translated. The Sabines spoke Oscan. The Hellenic colonies in the toe of Italy spoke Greek. To these people, the Romans were not fellow countrymen carrying out a hostile takeover that was always inevitable and perhaps a tiny bit yearned for. No, this was an invasion by a foreign nation of terrifying men who spoke an alien tongue.

Once again we are confronted by the discrepancies between legend and history. The most important descriptions of these wars that still exist were written by Livy. He was roughly a contemporary of Caesar Augustus, so his accounts were written over four hundred years later. While Livy may have had access to earlier chronicles, he was also writing during one of the peaks of imperial power and confidence, which is possibly why he wrote from the point of view that Rome was always on the ascendancy.

However, what cannot be disputed is that by means fair or foul, by martial skill and/or incredible luck, Rome was starting to flex its muscles and to substantially expand its borders. By 400 BC it had reached a critical mass where it was no longer a city state but a realm of considerable resources. Under the circumstances, other local powers would have been forced to ally or nervously prepare for conflict.

5. THE FIRST SACKING OF ROME NEARLY FINISHED THE CITY

The traditional date for the first sacking of Rome is 390 BC, but modern historians agree that a date of 387 BC is more likely. When a tribe of Gauls called the Senones came over the Alps into Italy in search of lands to settle, the first people they met were the Etruscans. Unsurprisingly, the Etruscans didn’t want to cede any of their lands to these foreigners, so they asked for military assistance from the rising military power of Rome.

Rome gathered together a large army and sent it north to help its neighbour fight this alien threat. Meanwhile, the diplomacy wasn’t going well. Even in this ancient era there was a general rule that ambassadors and messengers were to be left unharmed, but one of the Roman diplomats killed one of the Gaulish chieftains. The Gauls (not unreasonably) demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice, and some in Rome agreed. However, the Roman masses did not, and this provocation led to the meeting of both sides at the Allia River, both ready for battle.

The Romans had amassed a mighty army of over 20,000; the Senones had about half that. However, as battle ensued, the Gauls shattered the two flanks of the Roman army and surrounded the elite central force. Now outmanoeuvred and tired from fighting, this Roman army was completely annihilated.

Unlike later stories of Roman defeats and recoveries, Rome then did not have the resources to quickly pull together another sizeable host of soldiers. It meant that the road to Rome was open to the Gauls, who were led by the terrifying figure of Brennus.

What happened next is described in a series of fables and legends, none of which dispute that the Gauls fell on Rome and destroyed much of it. Indeed, they did such a good job that contemporary histories of Rome prior to and during this period are sketchy because of the scale of destruction.

Why the Gauls didn’t settle in the conquered city is unknown. One Roman source claims they were chased away by another Roman army, but this was most likely an explanation created to give the Romans something of a face-saving ending to an otherwise total defeat. What is more probable is that, like many northern armies which had tried to settle around Rome, the Gauls found the climate distinctly unhealthy, and it’s probable that disease spread through Brennus’ men. Either way, the Gauls retreated into the mists of legend and hearsay.

Rome was so completely destroyed that there was serious debate about re-founding the capital in Veii. Instead, the Senate decided to stay and authorised the building of the first major stone walls to defend the city.

The fact that Rome came so close to annihilation so early in its history was never forgotten by the Romans. The subject of the attack and its leader Brennus was a recurring theme throughout Roman history, but it would be more than three centuries before Rome could exact its revenge on the Gauls.

6. THE EARLY ROMAN ARMY WAS NOTHING SPECIAL

The popular image of the stereotypical Roman legions comes from the age of the Caesars. They were the world’s most complex and efficient fighting force (of the time and possibly ever). However, they did not arrive fully formed, and the army of the early Republican era was more reminiscent of a contemporary Athenian force than what’s commonly thought of as a Roman legion.

In the city state’s era of expansion, and at the time of its defeat at the hands of the Gauls, Rome had a citizen army. It was a requirement of citizenship that all men should fight in the legions. In addition to the two consuls who were running Rome, the Senate created praetors to assist the