Latins (Italic tribe) Romulus What can you tell me about Romulus? Romulus himself was the subject of the famous legend of the suckling she-wolf (lupa) that kept Romulus and his twin Remus alive What was this legend about? alive in a cave on the Palatine Hill (the Lupercal) after they had been thrown into the river Tiber on the orders of their wicked uncle, Amulius. What was a significant aspect of the article that stood out to you? Mainstream scholarly opinion regards Romulus as an entirely mythical character, and the legend fictitious. What was their opinions about it? Romulus was a name fabricated to provide Rome with an eponymous founding hero, a common feature of classical foundation-myths; Was Romulus popular? I don't know.
is there anything significant that Romulus did during his time?
Did Romulus do anything significant in his time?
Romulus himself was the subject of the famous legend of the suckling she-wolf (lupa) that kept Romulus and his twin Remus alive in a cave on the Palatine Hill (the Lupercal) after they had been thrown into the river Tiber on the orders of their wicked uncle, Amulius. The latter had usurped the throne of Alba from the twins' grandfather, king Numitor, and then confined their mother, Rhea Silvia, to the Vestal convent. They were washed ashore by the river, and after a few days with the wolf, were rescued by shepherds. Mainstream scholarly opinion regards Romulus as an entirely mythical character, and the legend fictitious. On this view, Romulus was a name fabricated to provide Rome with an eponymous founding hero, a common feature of classical foundation-myths; it is possible that Romulus was named after Rome instead of vice versa. The name contains the Latin diminutive -ulus, so it means simply "Roman" or "little Roman". It has been suggested that the name "Roma" was of Etruscan origin, or that it was derived from the Latin word ruma ("teat"), presumably because the shape of the Palatine Hill and/or Capitoline Hill resembled a woman's teats. If Romulus was named after the city, it is more likely that he was historical. Nevertheless, Cornell argues that "Romulus probably never existed... His biography is a complex mixture of legend and folk-tale, interspersed with antiquarian speculation and political propaganda". In contrast, Andrea Carandini, an archaeologist who has spent most of his career excavating central Rome, advanced the theory that Romulus was a historical figure who indeed founded the city in c. 753 BC, as related by the ancient chroniclers, by ploughing a symbolic sacred furrow to define the city's boundary. But Carandini's views have received scant support among fellow-scholars. In contrast to the legend of Aeneas, which was clearly imported into the Latin world from an extraneous culture, it appears that the Romulus legend of the suckling she-wolf is a genuine indigenous Latin myth. The wolf was an emblem widespread among the Italic peoples. Aside from Rome, the wolf was also the ethnic emblem of the Samnites, the fierce pastoralists of the mountains of southern Italy. CANNOTANSWER
They were washed ashore by the river, and after a few days with the wolf, were rescued by shepherds.
The Latins (Latin: Latini), sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome (see Roman people). From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans as Old Latium (in Latin Latium vetus), that is, the area between the river Tiber and the promontory of Mount Circeo  southeast of Rome. Following the Roman expansion, the Latins spread into the Latium adiectum, inhabited by Osco-Umbrian peoples.

Their language, Latin, belonged to the Italic branch of Indo-European. Speakers of Italic languages are assumed to have migrated into the Italian Peninsula during the late Bronze Age (1200–900 BC). The material culture of the Latins, known as the Latial culture, was a distinctive subset of the proto-Villanovan culture that appeared in parts of the Italian peninsula in the first half of the 12th century BC. The Latins maintained close culturo-religious relations until they were definitively united politically under Rome in 338 BC, and for centuries beyond. These included common festivals and religious sanctuaries.

The rise of Rome as by far the most populous and powerful Latin state from  600 BC led to volatile relations with the other Latin states, which numbered about 14 in 500 BC. In the period of the Tarquin monarchy ( 550–500 BC),  Rome apparently acquired political hegemony over the other states. After the fall of the Roman monarchy around 500 BC, there appears to have been a century of military alliance between Rome and the other Latin states to confront the threat posed to all Latium by raiding by the surrounding Italic mountain tribes, especially the Volsci and Aequi. This system progressively broke down after roughly 390 BC, when Rome's aggressive expansionism led to conflict with other Latin states, both individually and collectively. In 341–338 BC, the Latin states jointly fought the Latin War against Rome in a final attempt to preserve their independence. The war resulted in 338 BC in a decisive Roman victory. The other Latin states were either annexed or permanently subjugated to Rome.

Name etymology 

The name Latium has been suggested to derive from the Latin word latus ("wide, broad"), referring, by extension, to the plains of the region (in contrast to the mainly mountainous Italian peninsula). If this is true, then Latini originally meant "men of the plain".

Origins 

The Latins belonged to a group of Indo-European-speaking (IE) tribes, conventionally known as the Italic tribes, that populated central and southern Italy during the Italian Iron Age, which began around 900 BC. The most widely accepted theory suggests that Latins and other proto-Italic tribes first entered Italy in the late Bronze Age proto-Villanovan culture, then part of the central European Urnfield culture system. In particular various authors, such as Marija Gimbutas, had noted important similarities between the proto-Villanovan culture, the South-German Urnfield culture of Bavaria-Upper Austria and Middle-Danube Urnfield culture. According to David W. Anthony proto-Latins originated in today's eastern Hungary, kurganized around 3100 BC by the Yamna culture, while Kristian Kristiansen associated the proto-Villanovans with the Velatice-Baierdorf culture of Moravia and Austria. This is further confirmed by the fact that the subsequent Latial culture, Este culture and Villanovan culture, which introduced iron-working to the Italian peninsula, were so closely related to the Central European Urnfield culture (c. 1300–750 BC), and Hallstatt culture (which succeeded the Urnfield culture), that it is not possible to tell them apart in their earlier stages. Furthermore, the contemporary Canegrate culture of Northern Italy represented a typical western example of the western Hallstatt culture, whose diffusion most probably took place in a Celtic-speaking context.

Similarly, several authors have suggested that the Beaker culture of Central and Western Europe was a candidate for an early Indo-European culture, and more specifically, for an ancestral European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European", ancestral to Celtic, Italic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic branches. All these groups were descended from Proto-Indo-European speakers from Yamna-culture, whose migrations in Central Europe probably split off Pre-Italic, Pre-Celtic and Pre-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European.

Leaving archaeology aside, the geographical distribution of the ancient languages of the peninsula may plausibly be explained by the immigration of successive waves of peoples with different languages, according to Cornell. On this model, it appears likely that the "West Italic" group (including the Latins) were the first wave, followed, and largely displaced by, the East Italic (Osco-Umbrian) group. This is deduced from the marginal locations of the surviving West Italic niches. Besides Latin, putative members of the West Italic group are Faliscan (now regarded as merely a Latin dialect), and perhaps Sicel, spoken in central Sicily. The West Italic languages were thus spoken in limited and isolated areas, whereas the "East Italic" group comprised the Oscan and Umbrian dialects spoken over much of central and southern Italy. The chronology of Indo-European immigration remains elusive, as does the relative chronology between the Italic IE languages and the non-IE languages of the peninsula, notably the Etruscan, which is considered related to the Raetic spoken in the Alps. Other examples of non-IE languages in Iron Age Italy are the Camunic language, spoken in the Alps, and the unattested ancient Ligurian and Paleo-Sardinian languages. Most scholars consider that Etruscan is a pre-IE survival, a Paleo-European language part of an older European linguistic substratum, spoken long before the arrival of proto Indo-European speakers. Some scholars have earlier speculated that Etruscan language could have been introduced by later migrants. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus preserves the tradition that the Tyrrhenoi (Etruscans) originated in Lydia in Anatolia, but Lydians spoke an Indo-European language, completely different from the Etruscan language. Despite, a possible support for an eastern origin for Etruscan may be provided by two inscriptions in a language closely related to Etruscan found on the island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean sea (see Lemnian language), some scholars believe that the Lemnian language might have arrived in the Aegean Sea during the Late Bronze Age, when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries from Sicily, Sardinia and various parts of the Italian peninsula. Other scholars, however, argue that the presence of a language similar to Etruscan in Lemnos was due to Etruscan commercial adventurers arrived from the west shortly before 700 BC. The archaeological evidence available from Iron Age Etruria shows no sign of any invasion, migration, or arrival of small immigrant-elites from the Eastern Mediterranean who may have imposed their language. Between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, Etruria shows above all contacts with Central Europe and the Urnfield culture, as there is great consensus that the subsequent orientalizing period was an artistic-cultural phenomenon not exclusively Etruscan, also spread to other areas of Italy and the Greek world, and that can be better explained by trade and exchange rather than by migrations. Genetic studies on samples of Etruscan individuals, both on mitochondrial and autosomal DNA, are also against an eastern origin of the Etruscans and have supported a deep, local origin. A 2019 Stanford genetic study, which has analyzed the autosomal DNA of Iron Age samples from the areas around Rome, has concluded that Etruscans were similar to the Latins from Latium vetus. According to British archeologist Phil Perkins, "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".

Language 

The tribe spoke the Latin language (specifically Old Latin), a member of the western branch of the Italic languages, in turn a branch of the Indo-European (IE) family of languages in Europe

The oldest extant inscription in the Latin language is believed to be engraved on the Lapis Niger ("Black Stone") discovered in 1899 in the Roman Forum, dating from around 600 BC: in the mid-Roman kingdom, according to the traditional Roman chronology, but more likely close to its inception. Written in a primitive form of Archaic Latin, it indicates that the Romans remained Latin-speakers in the period when some historians have suggested that Rome had become "Etruscanised" in both language and culture. It also lends support to the existence of the Kings of Rome in this era, whom some historians regarded as mythical: the inscription contains the word recei, the word for "king" in the dative singular in archaic Latin - regi in classical Latin,  or to the rex sacrorum, rather than the political king of Rome.

Material culture 

There is no archaeological evidence at present that Old Latium hosted permanent settlements during the Bronze Age. Some very small amounts of Apennine culture pottery shards have been found in Latium, most likely belonging to transient pastoralists engaged in transhumance. It thus appears that the Latins occupied Latium Vetus not earlier than around 1000 BC. Initially, the Latin immigrants into Latium were probably concentrated in the low hills that extend from the central Apennine range into the coastal plain (much of which was then marshy and malarial, and thus uninhabitable). A notable area of early settlement were the Alban Hills, a plateau about 20 km (13 mi) SE of Rome containing a number of extinct volcanoes and 5 lakes, of which the largest are lacus Nemorensis (Lake Nemi) and lacus Tusculensis (Lake Albano). These hills provided a defensible, well-watered base. Also the hills on the site of Rome, certainly the Palatine and possibly the Capitoline and the Quirinal, hosted permanent settlements at a very early stage.

The Latins appear to have become culturally differentiated from the surrounding Osco-Umbrian Italic tribes from c. 1000 BC onwards. From this time, the Latins exhibit the features of the Iron Age Latial culture found in Etruria and the Po valley. In contrast, the Osco-Umbrian tribes do not exhibit the same features of the Latins, who thus shared the broadly same material culture as the Etruscans. The variant of Villanovan found in Latium is dubbed the Latial culture. The most distinctive feature of Latial culture were cinerary urns in the shape of miniature tuguria ("huts"). In Phase I of the Latium culture (c. 1000–900 BC) these hut-urns only appear in some burials, but they become standard in Phase II cremation burials (900–770 BC). They represent the typical single-roomed hovels of contemporary peasants, which were made from simple, readily available materials: wattle-and-daub walls and straw roofs supported by wooden posts. The huts remained the main form of Latin housing until about 650 BC. The most famous exemplar was the Casa Romuli ("Hut of Romulus") on the southern slope of the Palatine Hill, supposedly built by the legendary founder of Rome with his own hands and which reportedly survived until the time of emperor Augustus (ruled 30 BC - AD 14).

Around 650 BC began a period of urbanisation, with the establishment of political city-states in Latium. The most notable example is Rome itself, which was originally a group of separate settlements on the various hills. It appears that they coalesced into a single entity around 625 BC, when the first buildings were established on the site of the later Roman Forum.

Social culture

Relics of Indo-European culture 

According to the mainstream Kurgan hypothesis, the earliest Indo-Europeans were a nomadic steppe people, originating in the Eurasian steppes (southern Russia, northern Caucasus and central Asia). Their livelihood was based on horses and herding. In the historical era, the same socio-cultural lifestyle was maintained, in the same regions, by peoples descended from the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIEs) known to the Greco-Romans as Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans, whose languages belonged to the Iranian branch of IE. On the basis of common steppe-nomadic features in the cultures of the various Indo-European peoples in the historical era, scholars have reconstructed elements of proto-Indo-European culture. Relics of such elements have been discerned in Roman and Latin customs. Examples include:
 The kinship-system of PIEs is considered by anthropologists to best fit the so-called "Omaha" system, i.e. a patrilineal exogamous society, i.e. a society in which descent is recognised through the father's line and spouses are taken from outside the kinship-group. This is certainly the case with Roman society.
 Supreme sky-god: It has been securely reconstructed that the chief god of PIEs was a male sky-god, known as "Father Sky", from which descends the chief Latin god, Jupiter, deriving from archaic "Dieus - pater" ("sky-father"). PIEs also venerated a god of thunder and lightning. Among the Latins, this deity appears to have been merged with the sky-god, as Jupiter was ascribed the power to hurl thunderbolts. Among others, Jupiter was ascribed the epithets Jupiter Tonitrans ("Jupiter the Thunderer"), Jupiter Pluvius ("Jupiter the Rainmaker"), and Jupiter Fulgurator ("Jupiter the Thunderbolt-Flinger")
 Fire-worship: A central feature of PIE life was the domestic hearth. It is thus considered certain that PIEs worshipped fire. The best-known derivative is the fire-worship of the ancient Iranian religion (see Zoroastrianism). The Romans kept a perpetual sacred fire burning in the Temple of Vesta, who was the goddess of the hearth. To symbolise the hearth, it is the only Roman temple which was round, instead of square.
 Horse-sacrifice: Originally a nomadic steppe-people, the life of PIEs was centred on horses. The sacrifice of horses was probably practised to consecrate kings. The Indic asvamedha ritual involves the sacrifice of a stallion and the ritual copulation with its corpse by the queen, followed by the distribution of the horse's parts. The Romans practised a ritual known as the October Equus, whereby the right-hand horse of a victorious team in a chariot-race was sacrificed to Mars, the god of war. Its head was severed and fought over by two teams of people, and its tail hung from the Regia (the old royal palace in Rome).
 Swastika symbol: This symbol, the hooked cross (crux uncinata in Latin), was widely used by IE-speaking peoples in both Europe and Asia (especially in India: the term swastika is Sanskrit). According to one theory, it was invented, and used as an ethnic emblem, by the Proto-Indo-Europeans, although it is also a documented symbol of the Stone Age Vinča culture of SE Europe (c. 5500 - 4500 BC), which was probably pre-Indo-European (although it may have been used as a hieroglyph, rather than a cultural symbol, by the Vinca people). Whatever its origin, it was widely adopted by the Indo-Europeans, among whom it probably symbolised the Sun (which was seen as a wheel rolling across the sky) and/or the Sky and was thus closely associated with their male supreme Sky-god. Among the Romans, it was not traditionally associated with the sky god Jupiter. It became associated with the sky god in Celtic southwest Gaul, where numerous dedications to Jupiter have been discovered adorned with swastikas. In the later empire (4th century onwards), when pagan symbolism lost favour due to the advance of Christianity, it came to represent the Universe, or eternal life.

Latin communal tribal cults 

Despite their frequent internecine wars, the Latin city-states maintained close culturo-religious relations throughout their history. Their most important common tribal event was the four-day Latiar or Feriae Latinae ("Latin Festival"), held each winter on the sacred mons Albanus (Monte Cavo, Alban Hills, SE of Rome), an extinct volcano. The climax of the festival was a number of sacrifices to Jupiter Latiaris ("Jupiter of Latium"); the sacrificed meat was shared by the representatives of the Latin communities. These elaborate rituals, as did all Roman religious ceremonies, had to be performed with absolute precision and, if any procedural mistakes were made, had to be repeated from the start. The Latin Festival continued to be held long after all Latium Vetus was integrated into the Roman Republic after 338 BC (from then on, the Roman consuls presided over them) and into the Roman imperial era. The historian Livy, writing around AD 20, ascribed Rome's disastrous defeat by the Carthaginian general Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC to the impiety of the consul Gaius Flaminius, who, in his eagerness to join his army at its assembly-point of Arretium, omitted to attend the Latin Festival.

Latin cultural-religious events were also held at other common cult-centres e.g. the major common shrine to Diana at Aricia. This may be the sacred grove to Diana which a fragment of Cato's Origines recorded dedicated, probably c. 500 BC, by various Latin communities under the leadership of the dictator of Tusculum, Egerius Baebius. Cornell argues that the temple of Diana reportedly founded by the Roman king Servius Tullius on the Aventine hill at Rome was also a common Latin shrine, as it was built outside the pomerium or City boundary. There was also an important Latin cult-centre at Lavinium. Lavinium hosted the cult of the Penates, or Latin ancestor-gods. Cornell suggests that the "Sanctuary of the 13 altars" discovered in the 1960s at Lavinium was the site of the Penates cult. Since each of the altars differ in style and date, it has been suggested that each was erected by a separate Latin city-state.

Latins in the Roman origin myth

Aeneas 
Under the ever-growing influence of the Italiote Greeks, the Romans acquired their own national origin myth sometime during the early Republican era (500–300 BC). It was centred on the figure of Aeneas, a supposed Trojan survivor of the destruction of Troy by the Achaean Greeks, as related in the poet Homer's epic the Iliad (composed c. 800 BC). The legend provided the Romans with a heroic "Homeric" pedigree, as well as a (spurious) ethnic distinctiveness from the other Latins. It also provided a rationale (as poetic revenge for the destruction of Troy) for Rome's hostilities against, and eventual subjugation of, the Greek cities of southern Italy, especially Taras (mod. Taranto) in the period ending 275 BC.

The figure of Aeneas as portrayed in the Iliad lent itself to his adoption as the Roman "Abraham": a mighty warrior of (minor) royal blood who personally slew 28 Achaeans in the war, he was twice saved from certain death by the gods, implying that he had a great destiny to fulfil. A passage in Homer's Iliad contains the prophecy that Aeneas and his descendants would one day rule the Trojans. Since the Trojans had been expelled from their own city, it was speculated that Aeneas and other Trojan survivors must have migrated elsewhere.

The legend is given its most vivid and detailed treatment in the Roman poet Virgil's epic, the Aeneid (published around AD 20). According to this, the Latin tribe's first king was Latinus, who gave his name to the tribe and founded the first capital of the Latins, Laurentum, whose exact location is uncertain. The Trojan hero Aeneas and his men fled by sea after the capture and sack of their city, Troy, by the Greeks in 1184 BC, according to one ancient calculation. After many adventures, Aeneas and his Trojan army landed on the coast of Latium near the mouth of the Tiber. Initially, King Latinus attempted to drive them out, but he was defeated in battle. Later, he accepted Aeneas as an ally and eventually allowed him to marry his daughter, Lavinia. Aeneas supposedly founded the city of Lavinium (Pratica di Mare, Pomezia), named after his wife, on the coast not far from Laurentum. It became the Latin capital after Latinus' death. Aeneas' son (by his previous Trojan wife, a daughter of king Priam of Troy), Ascanius, founded a new city, Alba Longa in the Alban Hills, which replaced Lavinium as capital city. Alba Longa supposedly remained the Latin capital for some 400 years under Aeneas' successors, the Latin kings of Alba, until his descendant (supposedly in direct line after 15 generations) Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC. Under a later king Tullus Hostilius (traditional reign-dates 673–642 BC), the Romans razed Alba Longa to the ground and resettled its inhabitants on the mons Caelius (Caelian Hill) in Rome.

There is controversy about how and when Aeneas and his Trojans were adopted as ethnic ancestors by the Romans. One theory is that the Romans appropriated the legend from the Etruscans, who in turn acquired themselves the legend from the Greeks. There is evidence that the Aeneas legend was well known among the Etruscans by 500 BC: excavations at the ancient Etruscan city of Veii discovered a series of statuettes portraying Aeneas fleeing Troy carrying his father on his back, as in the legend. Indeed, the Bulgarian linguist Vladimir Georgiev argued that the original Etruscans were in fact descendants of those Trojan refugees and that the Aeneas legend has a historical basis. Georgiev disputes the mainstream view that Etruscan was not Indo-European: he argues that Etruscan was closely related to the Indo-European Hittite and Lydian languages. Georgiev's thesis hasn't received support from other scholars. Excavations at Troy have yielded a single written document, a letter in Luwian. But as Luwian (which certainly is closely related to Hittite) was used as a kind of diplomatic lingua franca in Anatolia, it cannot be argued conclusively that Luwian was the everyday language of Troy. Cornell points out that the Romans may have acquired the legend directly from the Italiote Greeks. The earliest Greek literary reference to Rome as a foundation of Aeneas dates to c. 400 BC. There is also much archaeological evidence of contacts between the cities of archaic Latium and the Greek world e.g. the archaic sanctuary of the Penates at Lavinium, which shows "heavy Greek influence in architectural design and religious ideology", according to Cornell.

But whatever the origin of the legend, it is clear that the Latins had no historical connection with Aeneas and none of their cities were founded by Trojan refugees. Furthermore, Cornell regards the city of Alba Longa itself as probably mythical. Early Latial-culture remains have been discovered on the shore of the Alban lake, but they indicate a series of small villages, not an urbanised city-state. In any case, traces of the earliest phase of Latial culture also occur at Rome at the same time (c. 1000 BC), so archaeology cannot be used to support the tradition that Rome was founded by people from Alba Longa. If Alba Longa did not exist, then nor did the "Alban kings", whose genealogy was almost certainly fabricated to "prove" Romulus' descent from Aeneas. The genealogy's dubious nature is shown by the fact that it ascribes the 14 Alban kings an average reign of 30 years' duration, an implausibly high figure. The false nature of the Aeneas-Romulus link is also demonstrated by the fact that, in some early versions of the tradition, Romulus is denoted as Aeneas' grandson, despite being chronologically separated from Aeneas by some 450 years.

Romulus 

Romulus himself was the subject of the famous legend of the suckling she-wolf (lupa) that kept Romulus and his twin Remus alive in a cave on the Palatine Hill (the Lupercal) after they had been thrown into the river Tiber on the orders of their wicked uncle, Amulius. The latter had usurped the throne of Alba from the twins' grandfather, king Numitor, and then confined their mother, Rhea Silvia, to the Vestal convent. They were washed ashore by the river, and after a few days with the wolf, were rescued by shepherds.

Mainstream scholarly opinion regards Romulus as an entirely mythical character, and the legend fictitious. On this view, Romulus was a name fabricated to provide Rome with an eponymous founding hero, a common feature of classical foundation-myths; it is possible that Romulus was named after Rome instead of vice versa. The name contains the Latin diminutive -ulus, so it means simply "Roman" or "little Roman". It has been suggested that the name "Roma" was of Etruscan origin, or that it was derived from the Latin word ruma ("teat"), presumably because the shape of the Palatine Hill and/or Capitoline Hill resembled a woman's breasts. If Romulus was named after the city, it is more likely that he was historical. Nevertheless, Cornell argues that "Romulus probably never existed... His biography is a complex mixture of legend and folk-tale, interspersed with antiquarian speculation and political propaganda".

In contrast, Andrea Carandini, an archaeologist who has spent most of his career excavating central Rome, advanced the theory that Romulus was a historical figure who indeed founded the city in c. 753 BC, as related by the ancient chroniclers, by ploughing a symbolic sacred furrow to define the city's boundary. But Carandini's views have received scant support among fellow scholars.

In contrast to the legend of Aeneas, which was clearly imported into the Latin world from an extraneous culture, it appears that the Romulus legend of the suckling she-wolf is a genuine indigenous Latin myth.

Political unification under Rome (550–338 BC) 
The traditional number of Latin communities for the purposes of the joint religious festivals is given as 30 in the sources. The same number is reported, probably erroneously, as the membership of the Romano-Latin military alliance, labelled the "Latin League" by modern scholars. But it appears that c. 500 BC there were just 15 independent Latin city-states in Latium Vetus, including Rome itself (the other 15 were annexed by the former as they expanded, especially Rome). The size of the city-state territories in c. 500 BC were estimated by Beloch (1926):

The table above shows the tiny size of Latium Vetus - only about two-thirds the size of the English county of Kent. Rome was by far the largest state, controlling some 35% of the total land area. The next four largest states ranged from just under half the size of Rome down to a fifth of the size; the remaining ten ranged from a tenth of the size down to less than a twentieth.

From an early stage, the external relations of the Latin city-states were dominated by their largest and most powerful member, Rome. The vast amount of archaeological evidence uncovered since the 1970s has conclusively discredited A. Alföldi's once-fashionable theory that Rome was an insignificant settlement until about 500 BC, and thus that the Republic was not established before about 450, and possibly as late as 400 BC. There is now no doubt that Rome was a unified city (as opposed to a group of separate hilltop settlements) by c. 625 BC and had become the second-largest city in Italy (after Tarentum, 510 hectares) by around 550 BC, when it had an area of about 285 hectares (1.1 sq mile) and an estimated population of 35,000. Rome was thus about half the size of contemporary Athens (585 hectares, including Piraeus) and far larger than any other Latin city.

The size of Rome at this time lends credence to the Roman tradition, dismissed by Alföldi, that in the late regal period (550–500 BC), traditionally the rule of the Tarquin dynasty, Rome established its political hegemony over the other city-states of Old Latium. According to Livy, king Tarquin the Proud bound the Latin city-states into a military alliance under Roman leadership. Reportedly, Tarquin also annexed Pometia (later Satricum) and Gabii; established control over Tusculum by a marriage alliance with its leader, Octavus Mamilius; and established Roman colonies at Signia and Circeii. He was engaged in besieging Ardea when the revolt against his monarchy broke out. Rome's political control over Latium Vetus is apparently confirmed by the text of the first recorded Romano-Carthaginian treaty, dated by the ancient Greek historian Polybius to 507 BC, a date accepted by Cornell (although some scholars argue a much later date). The treaty describes the Latin cities of Lavinium and Ardea, among others, as "Roman subjects". Although the text acknowledged that not all the Latin cities were subjects of Rome, it clearly placed them under Rome's hegemony, as it provided that if Carthage captured any Latin city, it was obliged to hand it over to Rome's control. Rome's sphere of influence is implied as extending as far as Terracina, 100 km to the south.

The fall of the Roman monarchy was probably a more lengthy, violent and international process than the swift, bloodless and internal coup related by tradition. The role in the revolution played by the Etruscan Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium, who led an invasion of Roman territory at the time of the revolution, was probably distorted for propaganda reasons by later Roman chroniclers. Livy claims that Porsenna aimed to restore Tarquin to his throne, but failed to take Rome after a siege. Tacitus suggests that Porsenna's army succeeded in occupying the city. The fact that there is no evidence of Tarquin's restoration during this occupation has led some scholars to suggest that it was Porsenna who was the real agent in the expulsion of Tarquin, and that he aimed to replace him as king of Rome. Any danger of an Etruscan takeover of Rome was removed by Porsenna's defeat at Aricia in 504 BC.

There followed a war between Rome and the other Latin city-states, which probably took advantage of the political turmoil in Rome to attempt to regain/preserve their independence. It appears that Tusculum and Aricia took the lead in organising an anti-Roman alliance. One ancient source names Egerius Baebius, the leader of Tusculum, as the "Latin dictator" (i.e. commander-in-chief of the Latin forces). It appears that Baebius dedicated a sacred grove to Diana at lucus Ferentinae (a wood near Aricia) in c. 500 BC in the presence of representatives of Latin states, including Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Lavinium, Cora, Tibur, Pometia and Ardea. This event was probably contemporaneous with, and connected with, the launch of the Latin alliance. The Latins could apparently count on the support of the Volsci Italic tribe. In addition, they were joined by the deposed Roman king Tarquin the Proud and his remaining followers.

The Romans apparently prevailed, scoring a notable victory over the Latin forces at Lake Regillus sometime in the period 499-493 BC (the exact year is disputed among scholars).

Instead of restoring their previous hegemony, the Romans apparently settled for a military alliance on equal terms with the Latins. According to the sources, the foedus Cassianum was a bilateral treaty between the Romans on one side and the other Latin city-states combined. It provided for a perpetual peace between the two parties; a defensive alliance by which the parties pledged mutual assistance in case of attack; a promise not to aid or allow passage to each other's enemies; the equal division of spoils of war (half to Rome, half to the other Latins) and provisions to regulate trade between the parties. In addition the treaty probably provided for overall command of the allies' joint forces to alternate between a Roman and a commander from one of the other Latin city-states each year. As the nature of the Tarquinian hegemony over the Latins is unknown, it is impossible to tell how the terms of the Cassian treaty differed from those imposed by the Tarquins. But it is likely that Tarquin rule was more onerous, involving the payment of tribute, while the Republican terms simply involved a military alliance. The impetus to form such an alliance was probably provided by the acute insecurity caused by a phase of migration and invasion of the lowland areas by Italic mountain tribes in the period after 500 BC. The Latins faced repeated incursions by the Hernici, Aequi and Volsci, whose territories surrounded Latium Vetus on its eastern and southern sides.

The new Romano-Latin military alliance proved strong enough to repel the incursions of the Italic mountain tribes in the period 500–400 BC. During the succeeding century, after Rome had recovered from the catastrophic Gallic invasion of 390 BC, the Romans began a phase of expansionism. In addition to the establishment of a series of Latin colonies on territories annexed from the mountain tribes, Rome annexed a number of neighbouring Latin city-states in steady succession. The increasing threat posed by Roman encroachment led the more powerful Latin states, such as Praeneste, to attempt to defend their independence and territorial integrity by challenging Rome, often in alliance with their erstwhile enemies, mountain-tribes such as the Volsci. Finally, in 341 BC, all the Latin city-states combined in what proved to be a final effort to regain/preserve their independence. The so-called Latin War ended in 338 with a decisive Roman victory, following which Rome annexed most of Latium Vetus. A few of the larger Latin states, such as Praeneste and Tibur, were allowed to retain a degree of political autonomy, but only in a subordinate status as Roman socii ("allies"), tied to Rome by treaties of military alliance.

Aftermath

Genetic studies
A genetic study published in Science in November 2019 examined the remains of six Latin males buried near Rome between 900 BC and 200 BC. They carried the paternal haplogroups R-M269, T-L208, R-311, R-PF7589 and R-P312 (two samples), and the maternal haplogroups H1aj1a, T2c1f, H2a, U4a1a, H11a and H10. These examined individuals were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of 30% steppe ancestry. Two out of six individuals from Latin burials were found have a mixture of local Iron Age ancestry and ancestry from an Eastern mediterranean population. Among modern populations, four out of six were closest to Northern and Central Italians, and then Spaniards, while the other two were closest to Southern Italians. Overall, the genetic differentiation between the Latins, Etruscans and the preceding proto-Villanovan population of Italy was found to be insignificant.

Examined individuals from the city of Rome during the time of the Roman Empire (27 BCE – 300 CE) bore almost no genetic resemblance to Rome's founding populations, and were instead shifted towards the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. The Imperial population of Rome was found to have been extremely diverse, with barely any of the examined individuals being of primarily European ancestry. It was suggested that the observed genetic replacement of the city's founding populations was a result of heavy migration of merchants and slaves from the populous urban centres of the Middle East and Greece. During late antiquity, after the Imperial era, Rome's population was drastically reduced as a result of political instability, epidemics and economic changes. In this period, more European ancestry is evident in Rome; its inhabitants started to again approximate present-day Italians, and can be modeled as a genetic mixture of Imperial-era inhabitants of the city of Rome and populations from central or northern Italy. In the following Early Medieval period, invasions of barbarians brought further European ancestry into Rome, resulting in the further loss of genetic link to the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. By the Middle Ages, the people of Rome again genetically resembled European populations.

Physical appearance
As regards to the data on the pigmentation of eyes, hair and skin, the following results were obtained from the study on ancient DNA of the 11 individuals of the Iron Age/Republican period, coming from Latium and Abruzzo, and the 27 individuals of Medieval/Early Modern period, coming from Latium.

For Iron Age/Republic period, the eye color is blue in 27% of the examined and dark in the remaining 73%. Hair color is 9% blond or dark blond and 91% dark brown or black. The skin color is intermediate for 82%, intermediate or dark for 9% and dark or very dark for the remaining 9%.

By contrast, the following results were obtained for Medieval/Early Modern period: the eye color is blue in 26% of the examined and dark in the remaining 74%. Hair color is 22% blond or dark blond, 11% red and 67% dark brown or black. The skin color is pale for 15%, intermediate for 68%, intermediate or dark for 10% and dark or very dark for the remaining 7%.

See also 
 Ancient peoples of Italy
 Valle Latina

References

Sources

Ancient sources 
 Dio Cassius Roman History (c. AD 250)
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities (c. 10 BC)
 Homer Iliad (c. 800 BC)
 Livy Ab urbe condita (c. AD 20)

Modern sources 

 Alföldi, Andreas (1966): Early Rome and the Latins
 
 
 Encyclopædia Britannica 15th Ed. (1995): Micropædia: "Latium"

Further reading
Barker, Graeme. Landscape and Society: Prehistoric Central Italy. London: Academic Press, 1981.
Bietti Sestieri, Anna Maria, Ellen Macnamara, and Duncan R Hook. Prehistoric Metal Artefacts From Italy (3500-720BC)In the British Museum. London: British Museum, 2007.
Bradley, Guy Jolyon, Elena Isayev, and Corinna Riva. Ancient Italy: Regions without Boundaries. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 2007.
Brown, A. C. Ancient Italy before the Romans. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1980.
Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Ridgway, David. Ancient Italy In Its Mediterranean Setting: Studies In Honour of Ellen Macnamara. London: Accordia Research Institute, University of London, 2000.
Whitehouse, Ruth. Underground Religion: Cult and Culture In Prehistoric Italy. London: Accordia Research Centre, University of London, 1992.

External links 
 Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans

 
Ancient Italic peoples
Ancient Italian history
History of Rome
Latial culture
Romulus is a fictional comic book supervillain appearing in books published by Marvel Comics, in particular those featuring Wolverine. He is the leader of the Lupines, a species resembling humans that he claims evolved from canines instead of primates through convergent evolution. A shadowy character whose origin and motives remain a mystery, he is shown to have orchestrated most major events in the life of Wolverine, manipulating and controlling him for most of his life.

Publication history
Created by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Simone Bianchi, the character first appeared obscured by shadow in Wolverine vol. 3 #50 (March 2007), and made his first full appearance in Wolverine: Origins #39 (August 2009).

Fictional character biography
Romulus is first seen in several flashbacks that Wolverine experiences, later explained by Wild Child to have been induced by Romulus himself. He is shown leading the Lupines in prehistoric and barbaric times, being an emperor in Ancient Rome, as well as being the main force behind Weapon X.

In the present, Romulus restored Feral and Thornn's feline look after their depowerment on M-Day, augmented Wild Child's powers greatly, and seemed to have erased all humanity from Sabretooth causing the latter's death at the hands of Wolverine (later it was revealed Sabretooth was a clone). Romulus did all of this to reveal himself to Wolverine.

Romulus was also the one who took Daken from his dead mother's womb and raised him as a ruthless killer. Nick Fury revealed to Wolverine that Romulus has been manipulating people from his family's bloodline for centuries, and that he plans for Daken to become the next-generation Weapon X. This was achieved through Tinkerer who bonded the metal from the Muramasa blade to Daken's inner claws. Daken hinted he complied with the process because of his own agenda. Romulus told Daken to kill all the Weapon X experiments that gave them a healing factor with his Muramasa claws. He killed every one except Deadpool.

He appears to have ties with Russian authorities, arranging Omega Red's transfer to a regular Russian prison to set a trap for Wolverine. After Wolverine temporarily subdues Omega Red, he is captured by Wild Child, who reveals that Romulus made Logan and several villains battle each other, his agenda being vaguely described as him needing a successor. Moments after Wolverine uses the Muramasa blade to kill Omega Red, Romulus reveals himself in front of him, prepared for battle with four claws already extended (the three between the knuckles of his fingers and one extending from behind his thumb). Wolverine attacks Romulus but is easily overpowered since he is only using the sword at this point. Romulus slashes and attacks Wolverine from the shadows as he reveals his plans. Telling Wolverine that everything has led up to this moment. Romulus is what Wolverine will become. Pushing Wolverine to the breaking point, he drops the sword and pops his claws, much to Romulus' amusement. However, Wolverine fights back and gains the upper hand and slashes at Romulus' hand, shattering what turned out to be a clawed gauntlet. Seeing that Romulus' claws are fake, Wolverine taunts him saying, "You're not what I'm gonna become... I'm what you've always wanted to be". Hearing this, Romulus blindly attacks Wolverine with his remaining claws only to be slashed open by Wolverine. Seemingly beaten, Romulus tells Wolverine that although he is at the top of the food chain, by making Daken in his own image, he has set the stage for a confrontation between Wolverine and his son. Only the most ruthless will survive. Only the one most like Romulus. Wolverine defeats Romulus, but leaves him alive saying that he will return when he is ready to finish the job. As Wolverine turns his back, Romulus seizes the opportunity to knock Wolverine unconscious with his own sword. Romulus then leaves, but not before telling Wolverine to keep the Muramasa blade: he will need it. After his confrontation with Wolverine he coordinates a successful assassination in Tokyo from what seems to be his base of operations, a European-style castle. It is here that Romulus first begins to doubt his own understanding of Wolverine's actions.

Wolverine decides to confront Romulus one last time, using the help of various other heroes and his son Daken. In the end, as Daken is about to kill Romulus, Logan has Cloak teleport him into the Dark Force dimension. For a second Wolverine thinks he should behead Romulus, just like he did with Creed, but in the end he decides to leave him stranded in the Dark Force dimension.

However, thanks to Sabretooth's blackmailing life of Dagger, Romulus gets free from his prison. After a losing fight against Romulus, a mysterious woman with long red hair appears and tells Wolverine that the answers that he seeks are at the Weapon X facility. Following his fight with the Sabretooth clones, the mysterious woman appears to Wolverine again. She calls herself Remus and informs him that Romulus is her twin brother. She aids Wolverine in his struggle against Romulus and Sabretooth all while providing Wolverine with information about Romulus. She reveals to Wolverine that Romulus' claim about certain mutants evolving from canines rather than apes (referring to the Lupine) is untrue which Wolverine had long since guessed. She further reveals that the whole "Lupine Sapiens" story was all just an elaborate hoax by her brother intended to be a ruse for his real goal of creating a master race of natural mutants artificially enhanced by a new type of adamantium created using vibranium illegally mined from Wakanda, using Wolverine as a template.  After tracking Romulus to his stronghold somewhere in Italy, Wolverine brutally attacks and incapacitates Sabretooth before confronting Romulus. Wolverine finds Romulus immersed within a tank very similar to the one Wolverine was held in during the days of the Weapon X Program. Wolverine breaks open the tank and savagely assaults Romulus with his claws. He gouges away much of the right side of Romulus' face, revealing that the bones beneath have been bonded with adamantium. As Romulus heals, Wolverine asks what the purpose is of becoming an imitation of him. Romulus declares that he is not as he once was, as he has "taken the best from both Wolverine and Sabretooth", implying that his animal-like powers were artificially copied from Sabretooth (as his twin sister has none of those traits and her only powers shown is a healing-factor).  He reveals that he now has four adamantium claws from both his hands in exactly the same configuration he used on the gauntlets he wore. As he launches into his attack, Romulus says to Wolverine that having Romulus erase his memory and bond the adamantium to his skeleton was actually his idea rather than something that he was forced to endure as he's believed for so long (however, this assertion remains ambiguous). Romulus and Wolverine resume their battle with Wolverine ultimately proving victorious, resulting in Romulus being remanded to the Raft.

Powers and abilities
Little is known about the full extent of Romulus's powers. As with Wolverine, Romulus' primary power is an accelerated healing factor that allows him to rapidly regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than normal humans. The full limits of this power aren't known, but he has healed wounds that ripped away the flesh from the right side of his face, exposing the bone, within a matter of seconds. Romulus' healing factor also grants him virtual immunity to known diseases and renders him highly resistant to most forms of drugs. It also affords him greatly extended longevity by slowing his natural aging process to an extraordinary degree as he claims to be tens of thousands of years old. However, Romulus is known to mix exaggeration and half truths in order to perpetuate the mystique surrounding him, though Romulus is ancient. Since the appearance of Remus, she has confirmed that Romulus is at least several thousand years of age. While he does show signs of aging, such as his hair turning almost completely white where it was once black, Romulus still has the same physical vitality and overall appearance of his physical prime. Romulus' senses of sight, smell and hearing are also enhanced to unknown superhuman levels. While they constitute a separate power, their efficiency is still somewhat linked to his healing factor. Romulus also possesses some degree of superhuman strength, the limits of which aren't fully known, though it has been shown as sufficient to lift Wolverine by the arm over his head using one hand and hurl him across a room. Romulus' speed, agility, and reflexes are similarly enhanced. His healing factor grants him partial immunity to the fatigue toxins generated by his muscles during physical activity, so he has much greater stamina and endurance than an ordinary human. He can exert himself physically for at least several hours before the buildup of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him. He also possesses a single, retractable claw at the tip of each finger as well as elongated canine teeth. Romulus' claws are extremely sharp and are capable of cutting most known conventional materials and flesh.

Romulus has also displayed some degree of telepathic capabilities during past confrontations with Wolverine. He has been able to enter Wolverine's mind and to manipulate his memories, even going so far as to be able to create false memories or to awaken memories that have been suppressed. However, his telepathic powers are nowhere near the level of Charles Xavier, as Xavier has used his powers to shield Wolverine's mind from Romulus' influence for years.

After his return from the Dark Dimension, Romulus underwent the process of bonding adamantium to his skeleton. As a result, his bones are now virtually indestructible. Romulus has also had four adamantium claws implanted into each arm that have the same configuration as the claws mounted onto his gloves. As with his skeleton, these claws are virtually unbreakable and can cut nearly any known substance. 

Romulus is consistently depicted as being of exceptional stature, surpassing Sabretooth in size. The font used for his words is unique, having a more ancient appearance than those of other characters. Although he often appears naked, he has been shown to wear clothes on several occasions, possibly making use of the fact that only a few living people can recognize him. Romulus has been seen wearing armor over his right knee which has a faint reminder of the adamantium armor worn by Cyber.

His facial features are very similar to both Sabretooth and Wolverine. This is seen in his sideburns, canine fangs, pointy ears, and white eyes. His hair is almost solid white with the exception of his bangs, which are black. Romulus has been seen wearing his hair in a long pony tail in a way similar to Omega Red. Romulus also speaks with a unique accent. According to Wolverine, it sounds part Italian and part Japanese.

Skills
Romulus is extremely intelligent with detailed knowledge of genetics and other areas of science. Romulus also controls a vast criminal empire spread throughout the world and has contacts throughout the criminal underworld. Romulus is also a master manipulator that prefers to work behind the scenes. He is also a formidable hand-to-hand combatant with many thousands of years of experience and knowledge. He also has extensive knowledge of many foreign and ancient cultures as he has alleged to have participated in the rise and fall of many civilizations throughout his existence.

References

External links
 Romulus at Marvel Wiki

Comics characters introduced in 2007
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Fictional life scientists
Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing
Fictional characters with slowed ageing
Marvel Comics mutants
Marvel Comics supervillains
Characters created by Jeph Loeb
Wolverine (comics) characters
Cultural depictions of Romulus and Remus Romulus Augustus ( 465 – after 511?), nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne by his father, the magister militum Orestes, and, at that time, still a minor, was little more than a figurehead for his father. After Romulus ruled for just ten months, the barbarian general Odoacer defeated and killed Orestes and deposed Romulus. As Odoacer did not proclaim any successor, Romulus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor, his deposition marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus is also sometimes used by historians to mark the transition from antiquity to the medieval period.

Very few records survive of Romulus' reign. There are no known policies, laws or inscriptions of significance of the emperor, which leaves the impression that he was a shadowy and relatively inconsequential figure. The nickname 'Augustulus' means "little Augustus" and was a derisive nickname referencing his young age. Romulus' immediate family, including his father and possibly his mother, and maybe both his paternal and maternal grandparents, were from the Roman province of Pannonia, and many of his family members had military backgrounds.

Romulus came to power through usurpation of his predecessor, Julius Nepos (474–475 in Italy) in 475. Nepos fled to Dalmatia and continued to claim the imperial title in exile, which hampered Romulus' legitimacy and ensured that he was never recognised by the eastern Roman emperor Zeno. In 476, the barbarian foederati (ally troops) in Italy demanded Italian lands to settle on, which was refused by Orestes. Under their leader Odoacer, the foederati defeated and killed Orestes and deposed Romulus, whereafter Odoacer became the first king of Italy and accepted emperor Zeno as his nominal suzerain.

Romulus's life was spared by Odoacer, and he was allowed to retire to the castellum Lucullanum, a great fortress in Campania, located in Naples. Little certain information is known concerning Romulus's life in exile. He might have played a role in founding a monastery at castellum Lucullanum in the 480s or 490s, dedicated to Saint Severinus of Noricum. Romulus could have been alive as late as 507 or 511 when Theodoric the Great, Odoacer's successor, wrote a letter to a "Romulus" concerning a pension. Romulus was likely dead before the mid-530s, as accounts of the eastern Roman invasion of Italy at that time do not mention him.

Name 
Romulus Augustus' birth name was simply Romulus. Upon his accession to the imperial throne, he also took Augustus as a proper name, not just a title. The full style used on his coinage was Dominus Noster Romulus Augustus Pius Felix Augustus. Romulus Augustus was often colloquially referred to as 'Augustulus' (meaning "little Augustus") even in his own time, in reference to his youth. "Augustulus" was a derisive nickname and was never in official use; all of Romulus' coins use the names Romulus Augustus. In Greek, his first name Romulus was also changed derisively into the nickname Momylus ("little disgrace").

Background

Geopolitical background 

By the time of emperor Diocletian (284–305), the idea that the Roman Empire had grown so large that it would be better managed by two co-ruling emperors, rather than one, had become established. After various divisions were made throughout the 4th century, the empire was firmly and permanently divided into a western and eastern sphere of imperial administration from the death of emperor Theodosius I (379–395) in 395 onwards. Though modern historians typically use the terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire to describe the new political situation, the Romans themselves never considered the empire to have been formally divided, still viewing it as a single unit, although most often having two rulers rather than one. Over the course of the 5th century, the western empire experienced a period of catastrophic decline. Not only were many of the rulers in the west generally lacking in competence, but they also faced enormous problems. In comparison with the eastern provinces, much of the west was more rural, with fewer people and a less stable economy. An increasing number of Germanic barbarian invasions and settlements throughout the west only added to these issues.

In 410, the Visigoths under Alaric I had sacked Rome and in 455, the last western emperor of Theodosius' dynasty, Valentinian III (425–455), was deposed and murdered. That same year, Rome was sacked again for the second time in less than fifty years, this time by the Vandals. The Roman army became increasingly reliant on barbarian mercenaries and after Valentinian's murder, the most powerful barbarian generals, such as Ricimer ( 418–472), became politically dominant, ruling through proclaiming puppet emperors. In the twenty years between the death of Valentinian and the accession of Romulus Augustus, eight different emperors ruled in the west. By 475, the western empire was in critical condition. Outside of Italy, authority was only exercised in Raetia and some regions of Gaul.

The ruling emperor in 475 was Julius Nepos, who had been in power for less than a year. Nepos had been appointed western emperor in 474 by the eastern emperors Leo I (457–474) and Zeno (474–491), but had little real support in the west. In 475, Nepos named Orestes as a patrician and magister militum ('master of soldiers'; effectively commander-in-chief), replacing the previous holder of that office, Ecdicius. Orestes was a distinguished late Roman figure, once having served as notarius (secretary) to the Hunnic king Attila. As magister militum, Orestes was tasked by Nepos to lead an army against Visigoths and Burgundians, foederati (barbarian allies of the empire) who were rebelling in southern Gaul. The army given to Orestes by Nepos was multi-ethnic, with many foederati soldiers. Listening to the grievances of his troops, among other things learning that Nepos had refused requests for land grants, Orestes betrayed the emperor's orders and marched on Ravenna, the capital of the western empire. On 28 August 475, Orestes entered Ravenna with his army and Nepos escaped across the Adriatic Sea to Salona in Dalmatia.

Ancestry and family 

There is little surviving concrete evidence in regards to Romulus' ancestry beyond Orestes being known to have been a Roman citizen from Pannonia and sparse information on his immediate family. Orestes' father was a Pannonian Roman officer by the name of Tatulus, and Tatulus had at least one other son, Paulus, who served as a comes. The name of Romulus' mother is not known, but it might have been Barbaria. The name Barbaria, otherwise rarely attested, may derive either from the gens (family) Barbii, attested in Roman Pannonia, or it may simply be the feminine version of the name Barbarius, attested from a few Roman individuals in southern Gaul. Romulus' maternal grandfather was a comes, also by the name of Romulus, attested as alive in 449, when he was sent on an embassy to Attila by the general Aetius. Orestes and Romulus Augustus' mother married at some point before 449. It is believed that Romulus' mother, and thus perhaps her immediate family, were, like Orestes, from Roman Pannonia.

It is possible that Romulus Augustus had older siblings, especially given that Romulus was born several years after the marriage of his parents. In ancient Rome, it was customary for the eldest son to be named after his grandfather. That Romulus was not named Tatulus thus indicates that he was not the firstborn boy.

Reign 

After an interregnum in the west lasting two months, Romulus, perhaps as young as ten years old, was proclaimed emperor in Nepos' stead by Orestes on 31 October 475. He was the last emperor to be proclaimed in the west. Why the interregnum since Nepos lasted so long and why Orestes, a high-ranking military official and a Roman by birth, did not take the imperial title for himself is not known. It is possible that Orestes was waiting for some form of formal recognition or response from emperor Zeno in the east, which never came. Romulus would throughout his brief ten-month reign be little more than a figurehead, with his father, who retained the position of magister militum, actually running much of the imperial administration. Zeno never recognised the rule of Romulus as emperor in the west, given that Nepos, invested as emperor by Zeno's predecessor Leo I, still ruled in exile in Dalmatia.

Problems with the Western Roman army, mainly composed of barbarian foederati, had escalated throughout the 470s. The issues the army had with the central government had been what allowed Orestes to depose Nepos. In 476, the barbarian foederati in Italy, composed mainly of the Herules, Scirians and Turcilingians, demanded land in Italy to settle on. Orestes refused. The leader of the foederati was Odoacer, a barbarian officer of undetermined tribal affiliation. Orestes had once worked alongside Odoacer's father Edeko at the court of Attila. On 28 August 476, Odoacer defeated Orestes in battle at Ticinum, captured him and had him executed.

On 4 September, Odoacer captured Ravenna, killing Orestes' deputy and brother Paulus during the fighting. Romulus was captured and deposed, whereafter Odoacer assumed control of Italy as its first king. Odoacer sent Romulus' western imperial regalia to emperor Zeno in the east, and swore allegiance to him, ruling without further imperial successors in the west. According to the 5th-century Eastern Roman writer and historian Malchus, Odoacer may have forced Romulus himself, as his last official act as emperor, to send the imperial regalia and a "letter of resignation" to Zeno, writing that the Roman Empire from this point only required a single emperor, ruling from Constantinople. Though Zeno granted Odoacer the distinction of patrician, he also urged the king to accept Julius Nepos back as emperor in Italy. Though Odoacer nominally accepted Nepos as his sovereign, minting coins in his name, Nepos was never able to reoccupy Italy.

Later life

Life in exile 

Odoacer spared the life of the young Romulus on account of his "youth and beauty". Romulus was granted an annual pension of 6,000 solidi (the normal income of a wealthy Roman senator) and granted an estate in Campania near Naples called the castellum Lucullanum (today called Castel dell'Ovo), originally built by the consul and general Lucius Licinius Lucullus in the 60s BC. Castellum Lucullanum had once served as the retirement villa of Tiberius (14–37), Rome's second emperor. By late antiquity, castellum Lucullanum must have been fortified, and it likely functioned as a small administrative and military centre in Campania. Romulus was accompanied to Campania by a large retinue and some of his surviving relatives.

Romulus may have been alive as late as 507 or 511, when Theodoric the Great, Odoacer's successor as king of Italy, wrote to a "Romulus" to confirm a grant made to him and his mother by Petrus Marcellinus Felix Liberius, the praetorian prefect of Italy, on Theoderic's authority. Per Thomas Hodgkin, who translated the letter in 1886, the identification of Romulus in the letter as Romulus Augustus is strengthened by the name "Romulus" by this point not being very common and by the letter not giving the Romulus in question any titles or honorifics. The absence of titles differentiates the letter from the vast majority of other letters preserved from Theodoric, as if neither the king nor his scribe were quite sure how to address a former emperor. If the Romulus in the letter is the same person as Romulus Augustulus, it is possible that the letter indicates that Romulus and his family had to renegotiate their financial arrangements and pension with the king, seeing as they had been drawn up under the reign of a different king. Given that Romulus is not mentioned in accounts of the later eastern Roman invasion of Italy in the mid-530s, he had likely died some time before the conflict.

Romulus may have played a role in founding a monastery around the remains of Saint Severinus of Noricum at castellum Lucullanum in the 480s or early 490s. A Roman noblewoman by the name of Barbaria, possibly Romulus' mother, also aided in founding the monastery. This monastery became prominent under Pope Gregory I (590–604) and was active until the 10th century.

Legacy 

Very few records survive of Romulus' reign. Any policies that he might have pursued are not known. The scant narrative record and few known coins, in addition to there not being any known inscriptions of significance or laws issued by the emperor, make him a shadowy and relatively inconsequential figure. Ralph W. Mathisen considered him in 1997 to have been the "perhaps even the least significant" of the short-lived emperors near the end of the Western Roman Empire. When not seen as only inconsequential, opinions by historians on Romulus Augustus have been negative. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1788), Edward Gibbon wrote that he "assumed and disgraced the names of Romulus [and] Augustus".

Romulus Augustus is typically regarded as the last Western Roman emperor, or even the last Roman emperor overall, with his deposition seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as a political entity. The deposition of Romulus is also one of the most commonly used dates by historians to mark the transition from antiquity to the medieval period. Romulus being seen as the last emperor over other contenders derives not only from Romulus having been the last emperor proclaimed in the west, but also from the poetic nature of being named after both Romulus, the founder of Rome, and Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Many historians have noted the coincidence that the last emperor combined the names of both the city's founder and the first emperor. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon wrote that "the appellations of the two great founders of the city and of the monarchy were thus strangely united in the last of their successors".Some modern scholars consider Romulus' distinction as the last western emperor to be dubious. In particular, some historians, such as Ralph W. Mathisen and Marjeta Šašel Kos, have pointed to Julius Nepos as the actual last Western Roman emperor. Though he never regained Italy, Nepos continued to rule in Dalmatia, with support from Zeno and with nominal recognition by Odoacer, until he was murdered in 480. Throughout the duration of his brief reign, Romulus was never recognised in Constantinople, with the eastern court instead continuing to recognise Nepos as the legitimate western emperor.

Though none would be widely recognised thereafter, Nepos also was not the last person to claim the western empire. From about 477 to 516, the Moorish dux Masties in North Africa claimed to be an emperor. In Visigothic Hispania, two Roman usurpers rose from the Ebro valley, attempting to claim imperial authority: Burdunellus (496) and Petrus (506).

Romulus Augustus being identified as the last emperor of the western empire is a tradition that began already among eastern Roman historians and writers in the early 6th century. The earliest known writer to consider him as such was Marcellinus Comes (died  534), who wrote the following passage concerning Romulus:

Later Eastern Roman authors continued to regard him as the last emperor of the western empire. Procopius ( 500–after 565) considered Romulus to have been the last legitimate ruler in the west, as did Jordanes (also 6th century).

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

 
5th-century births
6th-century deaths
5th-century Christians
5th-century Roman emperors
5th-century Roman usurpers
Ancient child rulers
Dethroned monarchs
Monarchs who abdicated
Romans from unknown gentes
Rulers deposed as children
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death unknown