three. Transitions from

Myth into History I

The Foundations of the City

68

THE MYTH/HISTORY EVENT HORIZON

We move now to a different focus on time, and a different kind of horizon. The
synchronistic charts of time that have been our subject so far enable the observer
to construct webs of connection that are primarily lateral or horizontal. Of course
the synchronism charts play a vital part in constructing a sensation of historical
depth as well, since the whole of past time is mapped out through an expanding
series of lateral synchronisms, and the construction of synchronism is tightly
bound up with the apprehension of empires following each other in succession. But
the fundamental mind-set of the synchronizer is a sideways comparative one, and
the next two chapters will be concentrating on a rather different comparative per-
spective, one that directs the gaze not sideways but forwards and backwards, with
the pivot being the contentious horizon between myth and history. How could that
horizon be plotted by the Greeks and Romans, and what was at stake in making this
demarcation? How does the working of time differ on either side of the divide,
wherever one imposes it? And what kind of similes become necessary when one is
comparing and contrasting across this time divide?
In the present chapter we shall consider the transition from myth to history in
the Greek and Roman historiographical tradition, and our main test case, in the
second half of the chapter, will be the foundation of the city of Rome. This is an
event, or perhaps I should say a concept, that acts as a magnet for ancient and mod-