1. The Birth of Rome Lesson 20: Ancient Rome part 1 From: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=haaren&book=rome&story=_contents

2. The Aeneid

3. According to one legend, Rome was founded on April 21, 753 BC by twin brothers descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas.

4. The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC (29–19 BCE) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.

6. When Troy was sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who then traveled to Italy.

8. After a brief, but fierce storm sent up against the group at Juno's request, and several failed attempts to found cities, Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage after six years of wanderings.

9. Aeneas had a year long affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido, who proposed that the Trojans settle in her land and that she and Aeneas reign jointly over their peoples.

12. However, the messenger god Mercury was sent by Jupiter and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose (to begin a new kingdom of Trojans). Forced to choose between love and duty, Aeneas reluctantly sailed away.

13. When Dido learned of this, she ordered her sister Anna to construct a pyre, she said, to get rid of Aeneas' possessions, left behind by him in his haste to leave.

14. Standing on it, Dido uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against descendants of Aeneas. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first met and then falling on the pyre.

15. Aeneas settles down in Latium.

16. There were many powerful cities in this land which had been there for hundreds of years.

17. The people were called "Latins". They raised cattle, sheep, and goats and farmed the land to produce wheat, grapes, and olives.

19. There Aeneasmarries the daughter of the local Latin king. That provokes a battle with her former boyfriend. Aeneas would win the battle. From the survivors he creates the new Latin tribes.

20. Three hundred years later, in the eighth century BC, a descendent of Aeneas, King Numitor of Alba Longa, gets deposed by his older brother, Prince Amulius. Amulius would kill all of Numitor's male children, and force Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal Virgin.

21. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of the goddess Vesta.Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's presence was symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples. Her closest Greek equivalent is Hestia.

22. Vestal Virgins were sworn to celibacy for a period of thirty years. Amulius assigned Rhea Silvia to this position to ensure the line of Numitor had no heirs. • However, Rhea Silvia conceived and gave birth to twins, claiming that the god Mars had discovered her in the forest and seduced her.

23. When Amulius learned of the birth he imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered a servant to kill the twins. But the servant took pity on the boys, put them in a basket and let them float down the Tiber river. He hoped someone would find and care for them.

24. Down the river they floated until they came to rest at the foot of a hill. There a wolf found the crying orphans and cared for them.

26. Later, a shepherd, Faustulus, found the children and took them home to raise as his own. He named them Romulus and Remus.

27. Romulus and Remus

28. Years later, the Romulus and Remus decided to build a city. This would be a city where others who were homeless, as they once were, could come to live.

29. But the brothers argued over where to build the city. One night Romulus and Remus agreed to watch for an omen, a sign from the gods, to settle their argument.

30. At dawn , Remus saw six vultures flying overhead. However, as the sun rose higher in the sky, Romulus saw 12 vultures.

31. The brothers quarreled and began fighting over the meaning of the vultures in the sky, and in a rage, Romulus killed Remus.

33. Romulus then began to build his city on the spot he had chosen. This was on the hill where the tiny basket containing the two babies had come to rest years before. He named his new city after himself-Rome.

34. Romulus founded Rome in the year 753 B.C. After he had built his city he had some difficulty in getting people to live in it. He had only a few followers and was not able to obtain any more. He decided, therefore, to make Rome a place of refuge, to which people who had got into trouble in other countries might come for safety.

35. To the north of Romewere the Etruscans. South of Rome was ruled by Greeks who came from Greece to settle land in Italy.

36. And so when those who had committed crime in other places, and had to flee to escape punishment, found out that Romulus would give them a refuge, they came in large numbers to his city. People also came who had been driven from home by enemies, or had run away for one reason or another. It was not long, therefore, until Rome was full of men.

37. The Rape of the Sabines

38. But the Romans were much troubled about one thing. A great many of them had no wives, and they could not get any, because the women of the neighboring tribes would not marry them, for the Romans had a bad name.

39. Romulus was very anxious that his people should have good wives, but how they should get them greatly puzzled him for a long time. At last he hit upon a plan and began at once to carry it out.

40. He sent messengers to the cities all around to announce that on a certain day a great festival in honor of the god Jupiter would be held on the plain in front of Rome.

41. There were to be games, combats, horse-racing, and other sports. The people were invited to attend the festival and also to take part in the contests for the prizes.

42. When the festival day came a multitude of men and women from far and near assembled before the walls of Rome. Hundreds of pretty girls were there in fine dresses.

43. A great many came from the Sabine tribe. This was a tribe of warriors that lived on a mountain near Rome. Suddenly Romulus blew a loud blast upon a horn. Then, quick as a flash, the Romans seized the girls and bore them off to Rome.

48. The Sabines were greatly enraged at this, and their king, Titus Tatius, raised a large army and at once began a war against the Romans. The war went on for three years, but the Sabines were so strong that Romulus could not defeat them in the field. He therefore withdrew his army into the city.

49. King Tatius quickly marched after him, resolved to take Rome or perish in the attempt. Now Romulus had erected a strong fortress on a hill near the Palatine, to keep invaders from Rome. The hill was called the Saturnian Hill, and the fortress was in charge of a brave Roman captain, who had a daughter named Tarpeia.

50. When the Sabines reached this fortress they could go no further. They marched up and down seeking for a spot where they might force an entrance, but they could find none. There was a small, barred gate in the fortress, and through this gate Tarpeia came out to get water. King Tatius saw her. He at once stepped forward and said:"Fair maiden, open the gate and let us in. lf you do you shall have for your reward anything you ask