Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome

One: Floods in Ancient Rome: Sources and Topography

One Floods in Ancient Rome: Sources and Topography 10 Floods and the Foundation of Rome ∫ loods and Rome have been linked since the very beginnings of the city.1 From Noah’s flood to the epic of Gilgamesh , floods have figured prominently in the creation stories of many civilizations and religions, and so too, a flood plays a pivotal role in the foundation narrative of the city of Rome. The famous legend of its foundation focuses on the twins, Romulus and Remus, descended from Aeneas through his son, Iulus. According to the well-known tale, Amulius, one of the descendants of Iulus, became king of Alba Longa by expelling his brother, Numitor, and murdering his brother’s sons. His brother’s daughter, Rhea Silvia, was forced to become a Vestal Virgin to ensure that she would have no children who might seek revenge against him. Eventually , however, she became pregnant, claiming that she had been raped by the god of war, Mars. She gave birth to twins, Romulus and Remus. The king wanted the twins eliminated but was afraid to kill the possibly divinely engendered babies directly, so he ordered that they be put in a basket and thrown into the Tiber River to drown. The basket washed ashore, however, and the babies were rescued by a wolf, which nursed them and, together with a helpful woodpecker, looked after them (both animals were associated with Mars). Ultimately, the boys were found by a shepherd, Faustulus, who raised them as his own. They grew up into strong young men who performed various noble deeds, such as suppressing bandits, and when Faustulus eventually revealed the secret of their birth, they sought revenge and overthrew the king of Alba Longa. They then decided to found a new city on the spot where the wolf had discovered them, which became the site of the city of Rome. Almost immediately, however, they fell into an argument over who should be king of the new city, since they were twins and did not know which one was older. In the end, they could not agree, and decided to let the gods choose the king. To do this, each brother went to the top of one of the hills and looked for a sign, Romulus standing on the Palatine Hill and Remus positioning himself on the Aventine. Remus received the first sign when six vultures flew overhead, but shortly afterward twelve vultures flew over Romulus. This left the brothers still arguing, with each claiming the gods had picked him—Remus saying he had received the first omen and Romulus saying he had been granted the better omen. In the end, they could not settle their differences and, growing angry, Romulus solved the problem by murdering his brother. Thus the new city was called Rome after Romulus, and he became its first king.2 This much of the story is well-known, and the image of the shewolf suckling the twins has attained iconic status, but Livy and Plutarch, who provide the fullest versions, stress some additional details which are not as commonly emphasized. The reason that King Amulius’s scheme to drown the boys did not succeed was because the Tiber, swollen with winter rains, was in flood at the time, and the man dispatched with the babies was unable to make his way through the standing pools of water to reach the main riverbed (Livy 1.4.4–6; Plut. Rom. 3.4). Apparently the maximum height of the flood had passed, although the river was still in flood, and these stagnant pools had been left behind by the peak of the flood. Use of the term “stagnant” suggests that the standing waters were slow to recede due to the geography and hydrology of the area and emphasizes the originally marshy nature of the future site of Rome. Plutarch (Rom. 3.4) notes that the man was frightened by the speed and violence of the still-flooding river Floods in Ancient Rome 11 and so, instead of casting the boys into the torrent, which would have overturned the basket or at least carried them far away downriver and even possibly out to sea, he contented himself with putting the basket down in the calmer water at the edge of the flooded region. The basket floated on the waters and, when the flood receded, was deposited under a fig tree near the Lupercal at the...