Legends and curiosities of history (part 1)

 

Group of sculptures at the Campidoglio, Rome.

One of the main tasks of the history scholars, is to reconstruct, as accurate as possible, the sequence of the events of the past. At the same time, is important to understand their subsequent implications. The great personages, with their acts (for better or worse), have decisively marked those happenings. But is often possible to note something, about the life of them: the profusion of anecdotal or curious stories. As a consequence, certain reasonable doubts may emerge, between the verifiable facts and what should be only taken as a legend. 

Rome, the eternal (part 5).

San Bonaventura Church. Palatine Hill, Rome.
Photo: Jean-Paul GRANDMONT, 2011. Lic. CC BY 3.0

Times would come, when the Roman throne was occupied by Etruscan personages. This might be a hint, that Rome was on a disadvantageous situation, maybe as a result of a military defeat. But, there is no evidence about this, in its historians´ writes. Is well known their trending to manipulate and mythicise the facts, to glorify the past of the city... they attempted to keep its aura of greatness. Hence, their narrations from the early times, are plentiful in fantasy descriptions and Roman virtue lessons.

Rome, the eternal (part 2).

 

The Legend.

Anaeas carrying Anchises. Black figures oinochoe, ca. 520-510 bC.
Photo: Bibi Saint-Pol, 2007. Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

On the banks of the Tiber, something unusual disrupted the monotony of the day. A basket was hardly floating over the turbulent water, till it got stuck at a crook of the river. Curious, the first to get close, was a she-wolf, whose cubs were surely waiting for her. Drooling greedy, stared at two new born babies. For a merciless hunter, it meant the chance of having an easy feast. However, an invisible force stopped the beast, and was stronger than her instinct! Since that moment, stranger as it may seem, the wolf took care of both infants and feeded them as her own cubs. Obviously, the children were under the protection of the gods. But, who were them? Why had someone given them to the waters of the river?