The Myth of Remus in the 1st Century BC

Abstract

In the author’s view, the figure of Remus, one of the divine twins and founders of the ‘eternal city’, is unjustly neglected in modern Greek and Roman studies; few academic works deal with him in any depth. In antiquity, however, the figure of Remus long remained quite prominent, especially in the 1st century BC – in the tumultuous era of civil wars, the fall of the Republic, and the establishment of the Principate. Furthermore, his image underwent significant changes during that century. The civil war of the first decades of the 1st century BC was marked by an antagonism between two ideological and political currents — the optimates and populares. Both actively sought to use Remus to their advantage. For the optimates, he was a symbol of discord, one of the initiators of the ‘first civil war’, who opposed his blood brother Romulus, the founder of Rome sanctified by augural and fecial law. The populares perceived Remus as a hero and champion, a patron of the plebs and a model to be emulated. In this period, his image merged with that of another plebeian hero — the legendary king Aventinus. The brothers were even separated geographically: Romulus was associated with the Palatine Hill, and Remus with the Aventine. The establishment of monarchy in Rome caused a sharp change in the role of Remus. In the ideology of Augustus, the brothers were reconciled. Remus was now Romulus’ companion, a symbol and guarantor of peace. The legend of the founding of the City as though prefigured the appearance of a second conditor and the onset of a golden age. The figure of Remus now became synonymous with both Romulus and Rome itself (and his name even came to be associated with the Palatine as well). At the same time, the way Remus was perceived by the contemporaries of Augustus in fact helped spark a dynastic struggle in the house of the first princeps. Augustus himself wanted to appear as Romulus, and portrayed his closest lieutenant and to some extent co-ruler Mark Agrippa as Remus. After Agrippa’s death, Augustus tried to keep up such dynastic duality by using stepsons and adopted sons, but this policy failed with his death and the rise to power of Tiberius, who would not tolerate rivals or welcome new ‘Remi’.