1. Cicero, Republic, 2.4, 2.18-2.19 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •homer, chronology of Found in books: Hay, Saeculum: Defining Historical Eras in Ancient Roman Thought (2023) 81, 82| 2.4. Hoc cum omnes adprobavissent, Quod habemus, inquit, institutae rei publicae tam clarum ac tam omnibus notum exordium quam huius urbis condendae principium profectum a Romulo? qui patre Marte natus (concedamus enim famae hominum, praesertim non inveteratae solum, sed etiam sapienter a maioribus proditae, bene meriti de rebus communibus ut genere etiam putarentur, non solum ingenio esse divino)—is igitur, ut natus sit, cum Remo fratre dicitur ab Amulio, rege Albano, ob labefactandi regni timorem ad Tiberim exponi iussus esse; quo in loco cum esset silvestris beluae sustentatus uberibus pastoresque eum sustulissent et in agresti cultu laboreque aluissent, perhibetur, ut adoleverit, et corporis viribus et animi ferocitate tantum ceteris praestitisse, ut omnes, qui tum eos agros, ubi hodie est haec urbs, incolebant, aequo animo illi libenterque parerent. Quorum copiis cum se ducem praebuisset, ut iam a fabulis ad facta veniamus, oppressisse Longam Albam, validam urbem et potentem temporibus illis, Amuliumque regem interemisse fertur. 2.18. Atque hoc eo magis est in Romulo admirandum, quod ceteri, qui dii ex hominibus facti esse dicuntur, minus eruditis hominum saeculis fuerunt, ut fingendi proclivis esset ratio, cum imperiti facile ad credendum inpellerentur, Romuli autem aetatem minus his sescentis annis iam inveteratis litteris atque doctrinis omnique illo antiquo ex inculta hominum vita errore sublato fuisse cernimus. Nam si, id quod Graecorum investigatur annalibus, Roma condita est secundo anno Olympiadis septumae, in id saeculum Romuli cecidit aetas, cum iam plena Graecia poetarum et musicorum esset minorque fabulis nisi de veteribus rebus haberetur fides. Nam centum et octo annis postquam Lycurgus leges scribere instituit, prima posita est Olympias, quam quidam nominis errore ab eodem Lycurgo constitutam putant; Homerum autem, qui minimum dicunt, Lycurgi aetati triginta annis anteponunt fere. 2.19. Ex quo intellegi potest permultis annis ante Homerum fuisse quam Romulum, ut iam doctis hominibus ac temporibus ipsis eruditis ad fingendum vix quicquam esset loci. Antiquitas enim recepit fabulas fictas etiam non numquam August. C.D. 22.6 incondite, haec aetas autem iam exculta praesertim eludens omne, quod fieri non potest, respuit. | 2.4. When all had signified their approval, he continued . What State's origin is so famous or so well known to all men as the foundation of this city by Romulus ? He was the son of Mars (for we may grant that much to the popular tradition, especially as it is not only very ancient, but has been wisely handed down by our ancestors, who desired that those who have deserved well of the commonwealth should be deemed actual descendants of the gods, as well as endowed with godlike qualities), and after his birth they say that Amulius, the Alban king, fearing the overthrow of his own royal power, ordered him, with his brother Remus, to be exposed on the banks of the Tiber. There he was suckled by a wild beast from the forest, and was rescued by shepherds, who brought him up to the life and labours of the countryside. And when he grew up, we are told, he was so far superior to his companions in bodily strength and boldness of spirit that all who then lived in the rural district where our city now stands were willing and glad to be ruled by him. After becoming the leader of such forces as these (to turn now from fable to fact), we are informed that with their assistance he overthrew Alba Longa, a strong and powerful city for those times, and put King Amulius to death. ** 2.18. And the case of Romulus is all the more remarkable because all other men who are said to have become gods lived in ruder ages when there was a great inclination to the invention of fabulous tales, and ignorant men were easily induced to believe them; but we know that Romulus lived less than six hundred years ago, at a period when writing and education had long been in existence, and all those mistaken primitive ideas which grew up under uncivilized conditions had been done away with. For if, as we learn from the annals of the Greeks, Rome was founded in the second year of the seventh Olympiad, ** the life of Romulus fell in a period when Greece already abounded in poets and musicians, and when small credence was given to fables, except in regard to events of a much earlier time. For the first Olympiad ** is placed one hundred and eight years after Lycurgus began to write his laws, though some, deceived by a name, think that the Olympiads were instituted by this same Lycurgus. But Homer, according to the least estimate, lived about thirty years before Lycurgus. ** 2.19. Hence it is clear that Homer lived a great many years before Romulus, so that in the lifetime of the latter, when learned men already existed and the age itself was one of culture, there was very little opportunity for the invention of fables. For whereas antiquity would accept fabulous tales, sometimes even when they were crudely fabricated, the age of Romulus, which was already one of culture, was quick to mock at and reject with scorn that which could not possibly have happened. |
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