Romulus and Remus
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2013
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romulus and Remus, the central figures of the foundation myth of Rome. According to tradition, the twins were abandoned by their parents as babies, but were saved by a she-wolf who found and nursed them. Romulus killed his brother after a vicious quarrel, and went on to found a city, which was named after him.
The myth has been at the core of Roman identity since the 1st century AD, although the details vary in different versions of the story. For many Roman writers, the story embodied the ethos and institutions of their civilisation. The image of the she-wolf suckling the divinely fathered twins remains a potent icon of the city even today.
With:
Mary Beard Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge Peter Wiseman Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter Tim Cornell Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello the Capitoline Museum in Rome contains a small but magnificent |
| 0:51.8 | room known as the Chamber of the she-wolf. |
| 0:54.0 | Its marble walls are covered in Latin inscriptions and colourful murals and its floor has an elaborate mosaic. |
| 1:00.0 | But the centerpiece is a bronze statue of a wolf suckling two human infants, an image revered by Romans as a symbol of their city. |
| 1:07.5 | A similar object was described by Cicero as adorning the Roman Forum more than 2,000 years ago. |
| 1:14.0 | The statue depicts the most celebrated of Rome's foundation myths. |
| 1:17.5 | The children of the twins, Romulus and Remis, who according to tradition, |
| 1:21.4 | having been left to die, were discovered and fed by the wolf |
| 1:24.0 | and miraculously survived. Roblius went on to give his name to Rome, the city he |
| 1:27.9 | founded, Remus was killed. It's a powerful story and one that encapsulates many of |
| 1:32.4 | the peculiarities of ancient Rome, |
| 1:34.3 | its society and people. |
| 1:36.2 | With me to discuss Romanes and Remus are Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge. |
| 1:43.1 | Peter Wiseman, Emeritus Professor of Classics in Ancient History |
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