The origin of Rome

Enunciat

Aconia Fabia Paulina was a poet of the 4th century AD who took part in different religious cults. In the epitaph of her husband, a notorious politician and religious authority in Rome, she laments both his absence and the disappearance of pagan values in the face of strong pressure from Christianity.

1.- Read the selected verses of the epitaph and answer the questions:

«Las madres de la ciudad de Rómulo me toman por modelo,

y consideran hermosos a sus hijos, si se parecen a los tuyos.

Ora los hombres, ora las mujeres, desean y aprueban

los honores que tú, maestro mío, me diste.

Perdido ahora todo esto, me consumo, esposa abatida;

feliz sería, si los dioses me hubieran concedido que mi marido

me sobreviviera; pero feliz a fin de cuentas, porque tuya

soy, he sido y seré al punto después de mi muerte».

(Translation into Spanish by Aurora López, 1994. No solo hilaron lana)

a.- What city is she talking about? What relationship does Romulus have with it?

b.- Was the poetess pretigious? What important task as a Roman matron did she carry out?

c.- The ‘honours’ she talks about are the different religious cults that her husband taught her and that she observes. What social groups practice them?

d.- What would she have wished for instead of watching her husband die?

e.- When the poet says: "«porque tuya soy, he sido y seré al punto después de mi muerte”, which of the following motifs is she using? Remember that you have to die, love after death, seize the day, pleasant place, death equalises all. Give your opinion about the idea which is depicted by the motif used.

2.-Recreate the story of the origins of Rome and meet its protagonists.

a.- Organise these actions chronologically, bearing in mind that they go from the fall of Troy to the foundation of Rome. One student will then read the story to the rest of the class, following the storyline.

•          When the twins were born, and so that they could be saved, they were thrown into the Tiber in a basket.

•          Aeneas arrived in the region of Latium where King Latinus ruled and gave him the hand of his daughter Lavinia, who was betrothed to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, whom he had to defeat.

•          Aeneas, son of Venus and Anchises, the husband of Creusa (daughter of King Priam) fled Troy with his father and his son Ascanius.

•          The twins returned the throne of Alba Longa to their grandfather Numitor and on the site of the seven hills they decided to found a city: Romulus on the Palatine and Remus on the Aventine. It was decided that the winner would be the one who saw more vultures.

•          Remus crossed the line with contempt, so his brother killed him and he became the first and only king of Rome. Rome was founded in 753 BC.

•          Ascanius founded the city of Alba Longa on the right bank of the river Tiber. Many of his descendants reigned there, up to Numitor and his brother Amulius.

•          Aeneas stopped in Carthage, where he lived out his love affair with Queen Dido, until Mercury, the messenger of the gods, reminded him that his destiny laid in Italy.

•          Amulius dethroned Numitor and made his niece Rhea Silva a vestal so that she would have no offspring; but Mars, the god of war, conceived the twins Romulus and Remus in Rhea Silvia. 

•          A she-wolf came to the river, found them and brought them to her cave, where she nursed them until a shepherd, Phaustulus, gave them to his wife, Aca Larentia, so that she would raise them.

•           Romulus saw twelve and Remus only spotted six. Romulus drew a square with a plough marking out the future wall (pomerium) on the top of the Palatine Hill and swore that he would kill anyone who dared to cross it.

b.-Create a family tree of the founder of Rome and highlight in colour the gods who appear on it. Would the Romans be proud of their lineage?

c.- In pairs, elaborate a short dialogue between the two brothers since they decide to found a new city. Perform a dramatic reading of it.

Observacions i context

Sappho's poetry resulted in a long list of women who, until the 4th century AD, used their voices in a variety of styles, both in Greek and Latin. 

From Roman times, and mentioning only the poets of whom there is a minimum of evidence, we find Sulpicia 'the elegiac', Melinno, Herennia Procula, Claudia Trofime, Sulpicia 'the satirist', Julia Balbilla, Caecilia Trebula, Damo, Terence, Theosebia and Aconia Fabia Paulina.

The activity is aimed at 2nd of ESO Classical culture in the block of Mythology and religion. It could be adapted to 3rd and 4th of ESO without providing mythological background to the students so that they look up the information and then narrate it. It could also be compared to other foundational myths. 

Descripció

Reading and commentary on a fragment of a poem by Aconia Fabia Paulina, in which she mourns the loss of her husband and the decline of a pagan Rome, the history of which began with Romulus. Chronological display of the main episodes of the legends of Aeneas and Romulus and Remus in order to reconstruct the myth of the foundation of Rome. Creation of the family tree of its protagonists. 

Resposta

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