Posted on 11/20/2007 10:08:23 AM PST by Pyro7480
There is also the legend that Rome was founded by Aeneas, a Trojan who fled to what we now call Italy after the sack of Troy. I am not sure how the two legends relate, but would like to know.
Is that the place where all the cats are?
I think Romulus and Remus were supposed to be descendants of Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were supposedly descended from Aeneas.
Within 3 secs of each other. ;-)
LOL. Great minds and all that.
Romulus and Remus were supposedly descended from Aeneas.
Thanks for the information. I have wanted to read Virgil's Aenead for a long time. Maybe I will find time next summer.
“Ancient texts say the grotto known as the “Lupercale”_ from “lupa,” Latin for she-wolf — was near the palace of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, who was said to have restored it, and was decorated with a white eagle.
That symbol of the Roman Empire was found atop the sanctuary’s vault, which lies just below the ruins of the palace built by Augustus, said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine and the nearby Roman Forum.
Augustus, who ruled from the late 1st century B.C. to his death in the year 14, was keen on being close to the places of Rome’s mythical foundation and used the city’s religious traditions to bolster his hold on power, Iacopi said.”
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The Romans were hilarious in that regard. They literally invented their founding mythology, knowing damn well what their origins really were: A minor Latin tribe ruled over by the Etruscans.
Augustus deliberately rewrote and embroidered Rome’s origins. He after all commissioned the writer Virgil (making him an offer he couldn’t refuse) to dream up the Aneid out of whole cloth; inserting the wandering Trojan warrior Aneas and inserting him into Rome’s founding.
Something tells me this “grotto” is of a piece with Augustus’s propaganda.
“I credit the Romulus and Remus legend a little more now that I saw a show on Discovery (I think) about a Russian boy that was an orphan and lived with dogs on the street.”
Check this out, then.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/03/1019441429528.html
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=kamala
The other really cool spot in Rome was the San Clemente church. It’s a 12th Century church, but then you go into the basement and it’s a church from the 4th Century, with frescoes still remaining on the walls. Go down another level and you’re at 1st Century Roman street level, with a series of rooms that were an apartment building, an alleyway, a small Mithraic temple and more. We wandered around that place a long time.
Thank you.
My pleasure. It’s a fun place to visit if you ever get the chance.
I was just in Rome last month. I wish I had gone there.
Just means that you have to go back. We went there on our second visit to Rome.
Is that Sophia Loren as Aldonza/ Dulcinea?
Claims a view into the burial place of St. Peter. We did go through burial sites for many Roman families and looked in the wall where they had escavated under the main altar.
Too Cool!
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