Early Rome

I have spent a lot of my life studying what we call early Rome, and that means a lot of things. It means the period predominantly from about 1000 BC to 500 ish BCE. That is the period which is partly covered by the traditional story of Roman kings. The Last King leaves Rome in 509 BCE. So that's what early Rome means. But of course there's something else going on, isn't there? There's a sense of "this is the beginnings of something." And both archaeologically and historically, I believe what we're looking at here is the growth of a community, of a particular kind that will go on, of course, to be one of the most remarkable communities and empires in history.

When people think about the beginnings of Rome, the thing that comes to people's mind is the great story of Romulus and Remus. So twins—Romulus, just the older—and Romulus and Remus found the city of Rome. They have a mythical upbringing, so they are found being suckled by a wolf on the banks of the Tiber after having been exposed by an evil uncle. And they grow up unknown in this village of Rome and then come to power, recognized as descendants of a powerful figure—their uncle was king of Alba Longa. They take over the city of Rome, and then there's a fight between them. Romulus kills his brother Remus in a fight over the importance of the defenses of the city of Rome. So this is a great story. Now, on the whole, not many twins are found being suckled by a wolf, and it gives you the beginnings of the hint that this is a story which is an invented story. It's a fiction. And there are a number of other reasons why we can begin to doubt this. One of them, for instance, is the fact that actually that twin Romulus and Remus story comes quite late into the sources that we have.

What is clear is that from a certain point in time, and that is variously positioned somewhere between the sixth and certainly the fourth century BCE, Romans were very clearly telling a story of two brothers who contested the kingship of Rome, one of whom takes that kingship and with that institutes many of the civic and military constitutional aspects of the city-state, which would evolve in the period after the King's fall, which we call the Republic. Perhaps it's worth saying that what Romulus founded was in fact the res publica of Rome. That's the traditional story, the public thing. That's what a republic is, the public thing, the res publica. So the community, in a sense.

One of the reasons why I find early Rome so interesting is because it is not only a laboratory for thinking through the way that people tell stories, it's also a laboratory for understanding the contribution of archaeology as a discipline. So first of all, the way that archaeology developed has in some ways been illustrated and indeed pioneered through understanding the city of Rome. Early views of the archaeology or the material record of Rome were what you found on the surface, what you discovered in upstanding monuments.

The introduction of stone-built building enables the possibility of high-quality roofing with decoration. In that decorative scheme, or the decorative schemes that we see, are encapsulated some stories about myths which are relevant to the way that Romans were perhaps thinking about their society.

Actually, the Roman story of their kings is of a series of innovators, people who keep on breaking the mold. So from Romulus, who founds the city, the next king is Numa Pompilius, who creates an entire religion for the Romans. Now, that's unlikely to be strictly true, but nevertheless, the Roman story is that they develop a religious tradition. They then claim that religious tradition doesn't change very much, although there are further stages in that development. So quite a lot of what's happening is that you have somebody who brings something in which then is the foundation for the continuity. The Romans tell very good stories about continuity, masking the fact that all the time things are changing.

One of the very interesting concepts which theorists such as Cornelius Castoriadis and others have played with is the notion of the capacity to imagine yourself as other, the capacity to be able to think of change in society, and that notion of social imaginary, images that come up from society and allow for a process of transformation. So, for instance, the way that architectural terracottas portray power and the consequences of the extremities of power and anger—so hubris leading to nemesis, revenge, a pride before fall, etc.—these are all part of a story about the way that power should be constituted and what goes wrong if power is wrongly constituted.

If a tourist wants to find out what early Rome might have looked like and to become a little bit more familiar with this, when they get off the train in Roma Termini Station and they walk out of that rather remarkable station as it is, the first thing that they will see is a very, very large piece of wall, some parts of which date back to the sixth century BC, right in the center of the city. And that's an indication of the fact that the early history of Rome survived even through the period of empire. And if they then wander up the Tiber River valley, as it were, up the Tiber River and find themselves in the Villa Giulia Museum, one of the greatest museums in the world, they will find an exhibition based on the Etruscans, the near neighbors of Rome, at exactly the time when Rome is growing and some part of Rome's own story of growth. So you'll get some of the material record to fill the background of that great piece of wall just outside Termini Station.