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Home , Amulius, Ancient Rome, Founding of Rome, King of Rome, Mars (mythology), Numitor

Ottoman Turks seized the city in 1453 CE and made it the capital of their empire. After the establishment of modern , the capital moved to , and was renamed Istanbul in 1930. B. Background The Legend of and Remus probably began a small, unimpressive village of farmers and , but in later days the Romans liked to tell a different story. Like many other people all around the world, they developed legends about their founders—stories that are not historically accurate but were important to the people who told them. The legendary story about the linked the Romans to the gods and also to the ancient Trojans. Central to the mythology of the ancient was the . describes some key episodes in this war, including the exploits of the hero , in his epic poem the . Homer’s other epic poem, the , tells of the wanderings and adventures of another Greek warrior, , on his way back to after the Trojan War. As Rome grew and prospered, it, too, need- ed a to explain and glorify its origins. The Roman com- posed the to fulfill this need. Virgil lived many years later, during the time of the , when Rome had already grown powerful. He had almost completed his great epic poem when he died in 19 BCE. Virgil’s epic begins with the fall of and the end of the Trojan War. The Teaching Idea poem tells the story of , a great Trojan hero descended from the , who wanders the Mediterranean looking for a new home and has many Have students retell the legend of adventures reminiscent of Odysseus. At last, Aeneas reaches and the gods by making a film- reveal the glorious future of Rome to him. Aeneas marries the daughter of the strip (or cartoon strip) of the events in of (an ancient region of ), and their son founds Alba the story. Give each student a strip of Longa, which would be the forerunner of Rome. paper, 4 inches high by 14 inch- es long. Have students divide the This epic story of Aeneas, in turn, provides the setting for the legend of strip into 2-inch boxes; they will need Romulus and Remus. According to the legend, Romulus and Remus were twins to draw six lines. In each box they descended from Aeneas. Their grandfather, , was one of the of Alba should draw a scene from the story Longa, and their father was the war god . (It was not uncommon for the and use speech bubbles like those in Greek and Roman gods to have romantic relationships with mortal women.) The comic strips to add words to the twins’ grandfather, Numitor, was driven from power by his brother, , just story. before the twins were born. When the children were born, the wicked Amulius had them put them in a reed basket and set adrift on the River. Amulius thought the boys would drown. He did not want them to live, lest they should grow up and challenge his rule. But the twins were lucky. The basket did not sink; instead, it lodged on the riverbank, where the boys were discovered by a mother . The mother wolf sensed that the babies were hungry and nursed the babies along with her own cubs. They survived and were raised by a herdsman. When they grew up, Romulus and Remus took revenge on Amulius and restored their grandfather Numitor as king. According to the legend, the twins then founded Rome at the spot along the Tiber where they had been rescued. The year of Rome’s founding is traditionally set at 753 BCE. The two brothers argued and Romulus killed Remus. Romulus

History and : World 125 CK_3_TH_HG_P091_145.QXD 4/11/05 10:56 AM Page 126

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became the first and ruled for many years until he mysteriously - appeared in a storm. After his death, Romans believed that Romulus’s father, the god Mars, took him up to the heavens in his . Later Romans worshipped Romulus as the god . Some Roman of later years showed Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf. This image became an important Roman symbol. 39 as the of the Romans The area in which Rome was established was known as Latium. The people spoke a language known as Latin. As the expanded through Italy and beyond, the Latin language spread as well. It spread through the Roman legions (as the units were called) and through Roman and Teaching Idea officials. While Greek was the lingua franca, or common language, of the Eastern Roman Empire, Latin became the dominant language of the Roman Empire. Use the Core Knowledge Sequence to find some Latin phrases commonly used Latin itself developed over the years, and eventually it helped create several in English speech. (Students will study new . As soldiers came in contact with inhabitants in other areas, such Latin phrases in Grade 7.) You can also as France () and (Iberia), new languages developed. They were based find Latin phrases on paper money, on a mix of native languages and Latin. These languages are known as the seals, and similar places. Make a languages and include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and short list of the Latin phrases, and ask Romanian. The word Romance from the word Roman. Although English is students if they know the definition or not a Romance language (it’s a Germanic language), a great many English words the context in which the phrase is are based on Latin. Many of them came into English through Old French, which used. Challenge students to use these is a Romance language. The Normans who invaded and conquered in 1066 phrases as they have conversations CE spoke French, and many of the words in their vocabulary eventually entered with each other. For example, you English. Other English words were borrowed from Latin later on. might encourage a student to seize the Many important literary works were written in Latin. Virgil wrote his day or enjoy the present by saying, in Latin. Other Latin include the mythological stories collected in ’s “!” , the prose of Julius , the of and , the of , and the letters of . Later on, Latin became the language of the Christian : it was the lan- guage used by church fathers like St. Augustine and St. . Latin continued to be important even after it ceased to be spoken as the everyday language. In the and the , many religious and scholarly works were writ- ten in Latin because it was assumed that educated people in many countries would be able to read Latin, whatever their native language might be. Roman Originally, the Romans were farmers who worshipped spiritual forces associ- ated with and agriculture. While there were national deities, the and Penates were specific spirits associated with each family. The Lares were thought to protect the home and the good fortune of a family, whereas the Penates were believed to protect its storeroom. , the spirit of hearth and home, was con- sidered the guardian of the ’s family. The Romans also adopted and adapted the deities of the Greeks. The Greek god , the chief of the Greek deities, became the Roman god , chief of the Roman deities. , the wife of Zeus, became , the wife of Jupiter. metamorphosed into Venus, and Hermes, the Greek messenger, into

126 Grade 3 Handbook