To take a break from writing this week, I've gathered a few legends and histories of how the famed city of Rome was named in antiquity.
The first legend is the least popular one, the story of a woman named Roma who travelled to the distant shores of the Tiber river with a band of Trojan survivors from the Trojan War. In this legend, the women want to stay, while the men want to move on. Roma led the women in burning the remaining Trojan ships and stranding the survivors, who went on to found a city in Roma's name.
The second story is more widely believed. It's the story of two brothers, Romulus and Remus. They were orphaned as infants, and raised by wolves from then on. According to this legend, the brothers were the sons of Rhea Silvia, daughter of a king of the region next to what would eventually become Rome. When Rhea's uncle took the throne from her father, the new king forced her to become a vestal virgin to prevent her from having children that would threaten his claim to the throne. However, she was pregnant with the twin sons of Mars and gave birth to them, naming them Romulus and Remus. The new king ordered them drowned in the Tiber River, but they survived and were eventually found by a she-wolf who raised them until the brothers were adopted by a shepherd.
When they were grown, they founded a settlement at the site they were saved by the wolf. One day, the brothers got in a petty argument and Romulus killed Remus, renaming the city Rome after himself.
A more recent tale (in relative terms, anyway) comes from Virgil. He was a poet born in the year 70 BC and best known for his epic, The Aeneid, a poem about the Trojan War. According to Virgil, Rome was founded by the Trojan prince The Aeneid was named for, Aeneas. An important issue to note is that Virgil lived under the rule of Emperor Augustus, who claimed to be a descendent of the fabled war hero. In some legends, Romulus and Remus are descendants of Aeneas. In others, Aeneas founds Rome himself.
These are the three most popular theories on the origin of Rome's name. There are countless others out there, some we know—and some we don't as they are lost to history. Coming up next: more posts about writing!