Romulus and Remus

I've just published a new article on Romulus and Remus, basically giving an account of Livy's version of the story and briefly exploring the relevance it would have had to Livy, who had seen Rome suffer through years of civil war.

It's an interesting story that I might like to explore in more depth, at some point - why would a civilisation have, as their founding myth, the story of one brother killing another? It is remniscient of the story of Cain and Abel of course but also of the Romans' relish of the idea of their own nastiness. Their early history is full of stories of heroic men who put loyalty to the city above family ties, such as the Horatii, who killed their sister because she loved an enemy of Rome. By killing Remus, as he disrespected the walls of the city, in essence invading, Romulus was setting a precedent of protecting the city's boundariesat all costs.

I wonder if the killing of Remus could also be interpreted as a sacrifice to propitiate the gods at the founding of the city, or so that his spirit would be embedded as protector  - an idea that seems to lie deep in many ancient belief systems (or else I've been reading too much Peter Ackroyd on London or Alan Moore on Northampton.

I've started to read a book on the myth by T. P Wiseman Remus: A Roman Myth and I'll come back with a review.

The Bona Dea Scandal

Just written an article about the Bona Dea Scandal

An escapade by the young P.Clodius Pulcher, the aristocrat who, a couple of years later would become a radical tribune of the people. The individualism of the period of the Late Republic does fascinate me; men and women seem to have been able to do and say fairly much what they wanted, with little in the way of repercussions.
This is in contrast to the greater social control exercised by Augustus a generation later, with his marriage legislation which made people's personal lives became a matter for the criminal courts and his successor Tiberius, with his tribe of informers that made people afraid to criticise the powers-that-be. I wonder if anyone has written about Augustus' daughter Julia, politicising her promiscuity (always a loaded term!) as the action of an old fashioned, reprobate Republican, refusing to have her personal life legislated for. Something to explore, possibly. Of course the Late Republic was also a time of violence, instability and corruption and politicians used their daughters and sons as pawns in marriage alliances but still things seem more open and equal than under the dead hand of tyranny.