Myths and realities of ancient Rome

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Rome: Day One

Andrea Carandini, translated by Stephen Sartarelli

In  Rome: Day One  Andrea Carandini argues that Rome was the world’s first city state and sets out to prove it. He begins with the founding myth of Rome. He urges readers to look beyond the stories surrounding Romulus and Remus and a she-wolf to consider that Romulus existed and really was the first ‘king’ of the fledgling city. Moreover, he argues that the city of Rome was established in a one-day ceremony on 21 April, c. 750BC and, ‘that Rome’s first day was also Western civilization’s’. He asks the reader to consider ‘What was born on that day? What events of importance for us and for world history followed over the millennia?’ Carandini’s theories are based on his extensive Roman excavations.

Basic facts are established to guide the reader before focusing in depth on remarkable findings. For example:

In Roman calendrical inscriptions one reads the words Roma condita, that is; Rome founded’. The exact year matters little – whether it is 753BC or, as Roman historians maintained, a year between 758 and 725. What matters most is that Rome was born and created as a city and state between 775 and 675BC, during the century to which tradition assigns the reigns of three founding kings: the Latin Romulus and the Sabines Titus Tatius and Numa Pompilius.

Ancient literary texts show why ‘king’ Romulus was favoured over Remus: a question of counting birds. Remus from the rocks of the Palatine counted six birds; and Romulus on the summit of the Aventine counted 12. A fascinating tale is unravelled by Carandini, to reveal where and why this took place. Extracts from ancient literary sources – placed at the back of the book and  forming about a quarter of its content – support Carandini’s interpretation of Rome’s foundation. Here one can read relevant extracts from Ennius’ Annals, Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ The Roman Antiquities, Livy’s The History of Rome and Ovid’s Fasti, to name just a few sources that are included.

Carandini verifies the site of Rome and the areas surrounding it before the city was established. Throughout the text we are led to the archaeological evidence found 13 metres under the present city of Rome, to see for ourselves why and how the city was born. Evidence taken from the rubble shows a pre-urban settlement of around 30 communities, part of whose territory would become the commune of Rome. A ‘salt route’ in the area was vital to the establishment of the city.

Many maps are included throughout, to show how the city was created. From these beginnings we are led to the Palatine, to examine the Palatine Wall, discovered by Carandini and his team. A ceremony probably took place here to set up the city boundaries, which were marked in the soil by a white bull and cow pulling a plough, according to ancient sources.

From here we are taken through the Forum, the Capitol and the Citadel, to explore further findings that Carandini and his team have uncovered. Many excellent drawings provide a useful impression of where the earliest buildings were placed and how they looked. The final chapter studies the ‘Ordering of the Regnum, Or the Constitutio Romuli’, to examine the ordering of time, the ordering of space and men, and the city’s enemies.

Andrea Carandini is professor of archaeology at the University of Rome, La Sapienza, and has for two decades supervised some of the most important archaeological excavations in Rome. The professor has a global reputation for controversial theories and in this book he presents remarkable findings established through years of intensive research. Carandini’s exploration of the ancient city of Rome and what may have happened on ‘Day One’ argues against previous historical research and determines evidence of the history of the city’s birth in the light of his archaeological findings and interpretation of them. It is a convincing argument.

Rome: Day One  by Andrea Carandini, translated by Stephen Sartarelli  is published by Princeton University Press, 2011. 184pp; 62 mono illus, 2 tables, £16.95; $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-691-13922-7