Ovid explores the
creation, deities, history,
and rituals of Rome in
his poems, Fasti and
Metamorphoses.The Thebaid, by
Statius, depicts the
assault of Argos’s
champions on the
city of Thebes.Apuleius’s
Metamorphoses,
known as The Golden
Ass, tells the story of
Cupid and Psyche.Under Emperor
Constantine, Rome
begins to transition
to Christianity as
its official religion.Plutarch pens 23
biographies of
legendary Greeks
and Romans
in Parallel Lives.Origin stories
Much of the mythology that can
be called authentically Roman—
such as the tale of Romulus and
Remus—concerns the founding
of Rome. Virgil’s epic poem, the
Aeneid, consciously modeled on the
Greek works of Homer, explains
how the Trojan prince Aeneas fled
the sack of Troy and traveled to
Italy to found a new nation.
Another myth, recorded by
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, told of
a fleet of warships from Achaea
(Greece) that was sailing back from
Troy with some captured Trojan
women. Its triumphant journey was
interrupted when a storm forced
them onto the Italian coast. The
Acheans hauled up their ships for
the winter, and in the spring, just
as they were preparing to leave, the
Trojan women made their move.Fearing they would be sold into
slavery, they set fire to the ships,
making them unseaworthy. The
Achaeans were therefore forced to
settle there in Italy rather than
return to Greece.
Whichever myth they favored,
the Romans were proud to trace
their culture back to that of ancient
Greece, via the victorious Achaeans
or the defeated Trojans. One
account, by Hellanicus of Lesbos,
even unified the two: in this version,
Aeneas traveled to Italy alongside
Odysseus and named the city of
Rome after Romê (or Rhome), the
Trojan woman who had encouraged
the others to burn the ships.Other influences
Roman mythology was also colored
by the influence of deities and cults
from lands beyond Italy and Greece;it absorbed the stories of the Great
Mother, Cybele, from Anatolia; of
the Egyptian god Isis; and of Syrian
deities like Jupiter Heliopolitanus.
As the poet Juvenal wrote in his
Satires, “The Syrian Orontes has
been disgorging into the Tiber for
a good while now.” One god who
gained a huge following among
Roman soldiers was Mithras. His
origins may have been Persian,
but the cult of the bull-slayer was
distinctively Roman.
Ruling over a vast empire, the
Romans kept extensive records,
which helps to explain why so
much of their mythology has
survived. Art and literature—
poems, letters, and satires—
preserved and transformed Greek,
Etruscan, and eastern myths in
vivid reimaginings that still
influence Western artists today. ■ANCIENT ROME
8 CE
CA. 80 CE CA. 158–180 CE 476 CE
CA. 100 –120 CE 306–337 CE
95
Germanic leader
Odoacer deposes
Emperor Romulus,
and the Roman
empire falls.The Eastern Roman
(or Byzantine)
Empire, formed in
330 CE, falls to the
Ottoman Turks.1453 CE
US_094-095_Ancient_Rome_Chapter_2_Intro.indd 95 05/12/17 4:16 pm