How myth and mythology define civilisational Values

It was April 21, 753 B.C. This was almost 400 years before Alexander the Great and the epitome of Greek civilisation. It was also 750 years before Christ's birth and the rise of Christianity. On a pleasant and breezy spring day, with birds flying south and the sun emerging after winter, the story of Rome and its founder, Romulus, began.

On this day, the first brick of the Roman civilisation was laid. This civilisation, named after its founder Romulus, became synonymous with empire. It swept across the known world and gave laws, institutions, structures, and knowledge that still impact modern Western civilisation. Through modern European Empires, like the British Empire, it spread to the rest of the world. Rome was a guiding beacon, and all roads, as the saying goes, led to it. But how did Rome achieve greatness? How did it rise from a humble city populated by outcasts, misfits, and brigands to a shining beacon of civilisation? The answer might lie in the legend of the founder of Rome, Romulus, and the legend of its founding. The ruthless cunning of the founder and the violent origins of the city might be able to explain Rome's rise to power.

Livy, a famous Roman historian, wrote about Romulus in his book "Ab Urbe Condita" (From the foundation of the city). Romulus was considered a mysterious and mythical figure. He was purportedly descended from Aeneus, a Trojan hero who fled Troy with loyal followers after its sack. Aeneus landed in Italy and introduced refined Greek culture to the Latins, a general term for the people who spoke the Latin language and occupied lands that would later on form the heartland of the Roman Empire. Romulus was Aeneus's descendent, but he was not granted the luxuries of high birth. Instead, his life deviates from the usual trope of noblemen of high birth whom the annals of history would record as kings and conquerors and alternatively as villains and wretches.

According to Livy, Romulus’s mother, Rhea Silvia, was a vestal virgin who was chosen by the God of War Mars to give birth to Romulus and his twin brother Remus. The myth of virgins giving birth by divine endowment isn’t new and has appeared in many early civilisations. Mary giving birth to Jesus is another instance of this myth.

Romulus and Remus, though, were abandoned by their mother and raised by a she-wolf before being adopted by a shepherd. Being raised by a she-wolf is almost implausible if one applies rationale, but it adds to the legend of Romulus and lays the foundations of Rome as a city for the rugged and the hardy. If the founder of the city was raised in the wild on a bare and cragged Palatine hill, all Romans must imitate him in being strong in the face of adversity and survivors who can weather storms.

This legend gave Romans the guiding principle by which their civilisation would flourish- rugged, incessant, and disciplined martial vigour that even the legendary founder of Rome would cherish. Romulus survived a difficult childhood and possessed strong survival instincts. The city he was supposed to have built and the civilisation stemming from it survived for a thousand years by aping this very survival instinct that became ingrained from its early days in the Roman psyche.

But while civilisations can endure through survival instincts, it is ruthlessness that leads to Empire. Rome's future ruthlessness may have been inspired by its founder Romulus. Legend has it that Romulus and his twin brother wanted to build a city, but they disagreed on the location. Romulus wanted to build the new city on Palatine Hill, while Remus wanted to build it on Aventine Hill. They decided to let Augury play the mediator in the dispute. They’d both submit to fate’s choice. Both went to their respective locations and awaited a signal from fate. Remus saw six vultures fly over him, a sign of fortune, but Romulus saw twelve, and Romulu’s location of Palatine Hill was chosen. However, soon, the twins' relationship soured when Remus criticized the city's walls. In a fit of rage, Romulus killed him, committing the most famous fratricide in myth and legend.

To today’s modern sensibilities such unbridled violence, and murder over trifles is unthinkable. The ancient Romans though glorified Romulus, a man who ruthlessly killed his own brother to achieve his dream. They believed that only someone with such drive and purpose could accomplish greatness. The Julii lineage, which Romulus is said to have established, would become known for ruthlessness. Julius Caesar, a descendant of Romulus, swept aside the republic, and his adopted son and grand nephew, Augustus Caesar, crushed all opposition to his rule as the Roman emperor or as he liked to call himself, First Citizen. This ruthlessness that was present in Rome's mythical foundations, drove the city to expand, conquer, and crush its enemies and became the defining characteristic of Rome. This ruthlessness, a mark of Roman might, transformed it from a city of outcasts to one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. Rome's ideals and march to greatness inspired many later European Empires, such as the British and French Empires, who created mammoth Empires by being ruthless and unforgiving. The story of Romulus, it would seem, failed to remain a myth, but occupied the collective consciousness of Romans and following them other European Empires for years to come.

The characteristics of civilisations, therefore, are influenced by myths and legends. One infamous episode in Roman Mythology is the Rape of the Sabine. Rome, then primarily comprising men who weren’t what you’d call suitable matches by virtue of them being a motley crew of outcasts, misfits, herders and ruffians, needed more women to ensure its future, so Romulus invited the neighbouring Sabine tribe to the Cosualia festival (A celebration of the God Consus, the God of grains.) His plan was to steal and forcefully capture their women, and marry them to Roman men. The women were taken from their families at the festival, as planned.

The Sabines were outraged and wanted their daughters back, so they declared war on Rome. However, the napped women who, by now, had children with Roman men intervened and a tenuous peace was agreed upon. The Sabines and Romans then formed an alliance and combined to create a new Rome.

Despite the accord with the Sabines, the rape of the Sabine remains a testament to Romulus and the early Roman people’s ruthlessness and remains etched in history as an episode that defined the foundational values of Rome- victory at any cost and aggrandisement at the expense of others. This kind of unrepentant ruthlessness characterised Roman expansionism. Rome did not care for its enemies and showed no mercy. Giving quarter meant a quick death by sword rather than crucifixion, something that happened to slaves who revolted against Rome in the Servile wars under Spartacus.

Rome's civilisation was built on a foundation of legendary tales of ruthlessness, unforgiving brutality, and martial vigour as their primary values. Despite their profound philosophy, administrative policies, and engineering advancements, the Romans fought every year, going on either offensive or defensive campaigns, dividing the year into seasons of peace and war. This ruthlessness and martial vigour allowed them to defeat most of their enemies and spread their way of life from Britain to Syria. No wonder, Roman philosophers and politicians like Cato the Elder and Cicero romanticised the image of the stoic and intrepid soldier who isn't a slave to desire but can ruthlessly conquer enemies as much as his own weaknesses. In a world where war was ever-present, for Rome, it was not simply a means to an end, but a constant companion of Rome’s existence.