ppoli61

@ppoli611674629039 · 06 Nov 2020

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The Kidnapping of the Sabine Women

#history #legend


The inhabitants of the villages near Rome envied its good position and would have liked to be the only ones to trade with the Etruscans. The Romans, therefore, went down to scuffle in the plains around the Palatine. A little at a time, Rome won all the surrounding villages, and slowly these became part of the Roman territory. Rome's method has always been that of subduing by assimilating, “integrating” we would say today.

Much of what the Romans of the time managed to do they owe to the Etruscans, who we could define as mysterious Tuscans of Asian origin. From them they learned the art of building embankments and sewers such as the maximum Cloaca, wooden bridges such as the Sublicius; they then learned to dye the fabrics for their togas, to build houses and objects. Finally, they also learned to extract salt from the sea and thus the port of Ostia was born.

Building bridges was a magical art known only to a few, who called themselves pontiffs; their leader was called Pontiff maximum and was also responsible for all the priests who prayed to the gods.

The inhabitants of Rome were divided into patricians and plebeians. The patricians descended from the first inhabitants who had grabbed the spoils of war and were therefore richer. The plebeians were the descendants of the inhabitants of the conquered villages. However, there was a shortage of women to procreate with.

The legend tells of how Romulus, to procure women for his colonists, organized public games and invited the Sabines to attend. The Romans kidnapped the Sabine women. Tarpeia, daughter of a Roman, opened the door to the invader. The Romans crushed her under their shields and gave her name to the cliff from which those sentenced to death were thrown.

Livio claims that there was no sexual violence. On the contrary, Romulus offered the girls free choice and promised them full civil and property rights. He himself found his wife Ersilia among these girls.

To avenge the shame, Tito Tazio, king of the Sabines, declared war and marched on Rome. The Sabine women, however, intervened.

«On the one hand they begged their husbands (the Romans) and on the other the fathers (the Sabines). They begged them not to commit a horrible crime, staining themselves with the blood of a father-in-law or a son-in-law and to avoid staining themselves with patricide towards the children they would give birth, children for some and grandchildren for others. [...] If the relationship of kinship that unites you and these marriages are not to your liking, turn anger against us; we are the cause of the war, we are responsible for the wounds and deaths of both husbands and parents. Better to die than to live without one of you, either widows or orphans. "

(Tito Livio, Ab Urbe condita libri, I, 13.)

Thus Romulus persuaded Tazio to merge the Sabine kingdom with the Roman one.

After a long reign, Romulus was kidnapped to heaven and revered as Quirinus.