Between Myth and Materiality: The Origins of Rome 800-500 BCE

Early Rome’s architectural and urban monumentality and complexity have seen increased attention in recent scholarship.

The recent rediscovery and promotion of a “tomb of Romulus” in the Roman Forum created a frenzy and renewed interest in both Rome’s mythical foundation story and the archaic city in general.

Ancient authors often wrote about the idyllic roots of Rome, and much of our understanding of farming and rearing animals rested on these testimonies. However, the recurring literary tropes of the poetic herdsman or the farmer/statesman cannot stand alone in explaining Archaic foodways.

The Romans in both the Republic (as far back as we can reliably trace) and Empire made a familiar and highly effective spectacle out of the fasces—an assemblage of wooden rods, typically about a meter and half long, bound by leather straps together with a single-headed ax.

The scholarly and popular memory of the archaic kings of central Italy largely focuses on personality and traditional narratives that may be linked to the constructs of founding heroes. These men and their legendary exploits, famously narrated by later first millennium B.C.