yodidac quod scripsi, scripsi
taberna
en es ca de
tag

roman empire.

iii entries

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period
monarchy xi early republic xxxiii
kind
all xliv people v battles vi concepts xi institutions vii events xv
tag
roman republic xxiii history of rome xi early republic xi ancient rome x roman law vi roman politics iv samnite wars iv class struggle iii roman empire iii gauls iii sack of rome iii

entries

concepts mythic origins · 1st century bce

the greatest lie of the roman empire

aeneas troianvs

rome did not tell its own story as a daughter of italy, but of troy. how the most powerful empire of antiquity anchored its legitimacy in the myth of prince aeneas, and how augustus and virgil's aeneid turned that genealogy into state propaganda.

monarchy
events c. 750 bce

the seizure of the sabines

raptvs sabinarvm

to stave off rome's extinction, romulus engineered a mass deception against the neighbouring tribes. the rape of the sabines as a founding myth of the forced assimilation of peoples, and of how two enemy communities ended up fused into one.

monarchy
events c. 650 bce

the duel that changed rome

horatii et cvriatii

rome and alba longa staked the future of their cities on a duel to the death of three against three. the legend of the horatii and the curiatii and the mythic origin of the provocatio, the citizen's right to appeal to the people.

monarchy