Last time we left of with a fratricide, as Romulus and Remus after helping there grandfather reclaim the throne of Alba Longa ,left to go and found a new city of their own but after arguing who would rule this new settlement Romulus decided to settle the argument and murder his brother.Today we’ll be looking at how Romulus performed as king and how some of the institutions he formed during his reign would form the bedrock of the Roman state for hundreds of years.



So Remus is dead and Romulus finds himself in sole control of the City of Rome, well calling it a city is a stretch at this points it’s an armed camp of bandits at the moment and this was the first problem Romulus faced, who would live in his city? Well Romulus’s solution was to open up the city to everyone and i mean everyone slaves,criminals,fugitives the lowest of the low could now find a fresh start.So now instead of Rome merely being a armed camp, it was now a very large armed camp and of course this is the Romans of course whats the first thing you do when you found a city? Form the first legion of course its part of the charm of the Romans that the first thing they do is form the legions.



This first legion featured 3000 infantry and 300 cavalry but please don’t think of this legion as the heavy infantry version we will see in a few centuries, no this was just a armed mob who would shout and charge at the enemy in battle with no strategy or tactics, that’s right at this point in history the Romans ARE the uncivilized barbarians.Something to note about the army only land owning citizens who met the property qualifications could join something that would last until the days of Marius, this meant in the early days the army were protecting their own lands meaning an army who were loyal to the state rather than one who were loyal to pretty much anyone who would pay them and even then not that much.Next on the agenda was to create a ruling body of 100 men to help govern the city in what would become the first senate, now why 100 men you may ask well as Mike Duncan put in probably because they were only 100 men respectable enough to be able to be trusted in such a position of the authority,the descendants of these men would form the patrician class in Rome whereas everyone else would be known as the Plebeian class.My next blog will talk about how the senate functioned during the Roman Kingdom so I won’t go into any more details for now.



With that problem solved Romulus faced an even bigger problem his whole city was made up of entirely men so without acting Rome would die in a generation, and act he did in what is one the more darker aspects of Roman history.So how would Romulus find women for his settlement? well it’s quite simple he would take them at sword point, to be fair to Romulus this was a last resort as he tried to arrange marriage contracts with nearby settlements but was always told in no uncertain terms their daughters would not be marrying the unwashed scum who inhabited Rome.What happens next is straight out of Game of thrones as the Romans organized a grand festival honoring Neptune and invited all the neighboring tribes including the Sabine’s to this festival, I’m sure you can see where this is going, while the festival was underway Romulus gave a signal and his hidden men attacked captured the women and killer or drove off their fathers and brothers.Romulus was able to pacify the Women by telling them they would be well treated by the Roman men who will want to work off the guilt of what they’ve done but the Romans still had to deal with the repercussions of their actions and defeated each of the Caenina, Antemnates and Crustumini armies who sought revenge.Just a quick point when the Romans conquered a tribe they would relocate their people to Rome and then send Roman citizens to colonize the conquered areas, this ingenious idea is fundamentally what allowed the Romans to control Italy so effectively.



The rape of the Sabine women

Finally it was the Sabine’s turn to seek their revenge and after mustering their forces they bribed the daughter of the Roman solider in charge of the cities defenses to let them into the city were they took the citadel, this forced the Romans into a pitched battle with neither side gaining the upper hand which was only stopped by the Sabine women throwing themselves between the two armies and begging the two sides to make peace.This moved the two sides and a peace was agreed between Romulus and Tatius the Sabine king, with this power sharing agreement 100 extra Sabine men were added to the senate doubling it’s rank, also in this joint rule the first assembly was held with presumably the first magistrates elected.The Legions were also doubled in size to 6000 men a number which would stay the same till the end of the empire.



This power sharing agreement lasted for a number of years before Tatius was slain in a riot at Lavinum supposedly in retribution after he assaulted an envoy from the city.Romulus probably delighted at this news took no action which infuriated the Sabine’s but with Romulus’s now absolute power they wisely held their tongues.The rest of Romulus life is mainly him fighting and expanding the growing power of Rome mainly at the expense of the Etruscan’s to the north.His death is the most interesting thing left to talk about though as after reigning 37 years he was out one day inspecting the troops and in a whirlwind storm he was just taken by the clouds and vanished, Most likely he was murdered by the Senators as Livy writes or even likelier Romulus was a fictious character designed to give the Romans a Divine ancestry.



True or not no one can deny Romulus was a inspirational figure to many Romans and the ideal he set out was what would define the Roman constitutions and Ideals for the next few centuries.Next time i will be talking about how the Roman Senate functioned during the monarchy and then on to talk about the remaining 6 kings of Rome.



See you next time !!

