Stupid Ancient History - Foundation of Rome: from Kingship to Republic, 753–440 BC

Dave Midgley and Helen Taylor are Director of Humanities and Head of History respectively at Parrs Wood High School and have been teaching Ancient History at GCSE and A Level for longer than either of them would probably like to admit. James Hill is the Science technician Manager at Parrs Wood, long-suffering accomplice to their various shenanigans and resident non-expert in all things Ancient History.

The Foundations of Rome: from Kingship to Republic, 753-440 BCE

Dr Shushma Malik, from University of Roehampton, provides an overview of how Rome’s foundation story was told through literature, material culture and historical authors in Rome. From the myth of Romulus and Remus to the geography of Rome and its surrounding areas, Sushma charts the development and urbanisation of Rome from myth to reality. What’s more, Sushma explains the relationship between Roman myth and identity, helping teachers explain to GCSE students how important Rome’s origin stories were to her people and how this is reflected in artefacts from Rome itself. This video includes Virgil’s Aeneid, maps of the region, coins and a hand mirror depicting the myths of Early Rome. Recorded as part of the Manchester Classical Association CATB Ancient History Day

The link (left) takes you to The Legends of History videos on the Foundation of Rome including videos on:

Romulus: The Founder of Rome

Numa Pompilius: The Peaceful King of Rome

Tullus Hostilius: The War King

Ancus Marcius: The Conqueror of the Latins

Lucius Tarquinius Priscus: The Elder

Servius Tullius: The Tragic King of Rome and Tarquinius Superbus: The Final King of Rome

Romulus and Remus

[Source: BBC Radio Four - In Our Time]

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romulus and Remus, the central figures of the foundation myth of Rome. According to tradition, the twins were abandoned by their parents as babies, but were saved by a she-wolf who found and nursed them. Romulus killed his brother after a vicious quarrel, and went on to found a city, which was named after him. The myth has been at the core of Roman identity since the 1st century AD, although the details vary in different versions of the story. For many Roman writers, the story embodied the ethos and institutions of their civilisation. The image of the she-wolf suckling the divinely fathered twins remains a potent icon of the city even today. With Mary Beard (Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge), Peter Wiseman (Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter), Tim Cornell (Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester).

The Roman Republic

[Source: BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time]

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.Around 550 BC, Lucretia, the daughter of an aristocrat, was raped by the son of Tarquin, the King of Rome. Lucretia told her family what had happened to her and then in front of them, killed herself from shame. The Roman historian Livy describes what was believed to have happened next:"Brutus, while the others were absorbed in grief; drew out the knife from Lucretia's wound, and holding it up, dripping with gore, exclaimed, "By this blood, most chaste until a prince wronged it, I swear, and I take you, gods, to witness, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and his wicked wife and all his children, with sword, with fire, aye with whatsoever violence I may; and that I will suffer neither them nor any other to be king in Rome!". The King was duly expelled from the city and the Roman Republic was founded and lasted for 500 years. But in what form did this republic evolve, what were its values and ideals and what ultimately caused the end of the world’s first true experiment in constitutional government?With Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University; Catherine Steel, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow; Tom Holland, historian and author of Rubicon: the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic.