The Classical Past: Rome

Founding Rome

According to legend, Romulus founded Rome on April 21, 753 BC. Romulus and his twin brother Remus were sons of the god Mars. Their ambitious great-uncle usurped their grandfather’s throne and ordered the deaths of Romulus and Remus. A she-wolf rescued and nurtured the twins, as illustrated on this coin. The she-wolf became an icon for the city of Rome.

Romulus and Remus also claimed descent from the Trojan hero Aeneas, who was the son of Venus (known as Aphrodite in Greece). This connection gave Venus special status among the deities of Rome.

To the last days of the empire, Roman citizens acknowledged the central authority of the government—and every inhabitant of the empire understood his position within the hierarchy. Roman engineers may have constructed roads throughout the Roman world, but every road led back to Rome.

The ideal Roman citizen was disciplined, courageous, dutiful, practical, and loyal to Rome, and Roman leaders cultivated public images that conformed to these characteristics. While Greek artists had celebrated the ideal human form, Roman artists excelled at portraits designed to project specific ideas about the subject’s authority and status. An official portrait template was developed for each emperor to convey his lineage and power. In this portrait, Caligula wears a toga, the official garment of a Roman citizen. The toga was painted in antiquity and the color signified his important rank. The toga would have been either all purple, or white with a purple border.  Each communicated a different message.

The image of the emperor was also disseminated on coins that were minted and circulated throughout the provinces. This denarius features a portrait of the emperor Augustus. Statues of the emperor were often placed in temples. Statues and portraits on coins were the only way most people in the Empire saw what their leader looked like.

This follis (coin) was issued by Constantine the Great who, in 313 AD, issued the Edict of Milan, a proclamation that granted tolerance to all religions, including Christianity. Some years later, in 330 AD, he moved the capital of Rome to Byzantium, which was later renamed Constantinople in his honor.

Professions

In the early days of the Republic, many Romans were farmers. Although rich soil was scarce throughout the Italian mainland, the Tiber River valley produced a variety of crops including grapes and olives, and grain grew particularly well along the Po River. Later, citizens and freedmen often turned to specialized professions, such as wine and olive oil production, shipbuilding, and the sale of luxury goods and commodities.

In this 1st-century marble relief, a potter works at his trade while his wife makes bread, a staple food in ancient Rome. 

Warfare

The army was the means by which Rome expanded and controlled its territory, and military service served as a critical step in acquiring political power. Mars, the god of war, is featured on this coin issued by Emperor Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus.

Dress

This bust is a portrait of Agrippina, the Emperor Caligula’s mother. Roman women usually wore tunics. If they were married, they also wore long pleated dresses called stolas over their tunics. You can see these on the woman holding bread in the Relief of a Potter and his Wife.  Elaborate hairstyles like Agrippina’s showed wealth and status. 

Roman Baths

A central feature of a Roman city was the public bath complex, visited daily by all classes and ages. Water for these architectural wonders was supplied by aqueducts, a Roman invention. An image of women bathing decorates the back of this Roman mirror.

The public and private Roman belief systems were varied and complex. Each Roman home had a lararium, a kind of miniature temple dedicated to the lares, the household gods that protected the home and family. Offerings to lares were made in gratitude for this protection.

The Romans also worshipped many gods in public temples and at festivals. Offerings were dedicated at the temples, and each temple housed a cult image of the god or goddess it served.

This larger-than-life head of Dionysus may have come from one of his cult temples. In Rome, Dionysus (also called Liber Pater or Bacchus) was a god of fertility, wine, and theatre.

As Roman territory expanded, many foreign religions gained popularity among Romans. 

The cult of the Apis Bull, which originated in Egypt, was one such religion. The bull was associated with Osiris, the god of the underworld and vegetation.

Mithras was an ancient Indo-Iranian god whose cult became extremely popular in the Roman military beginning in the 2nd century AD. Small groups of male initiates gathered in cavelike shrines to worship in front of images like this relief that shows Mithras slaying the bull.

Spectacle

Romans had a taste for theatrical spectacles, including gladiatorial combats, staged naval battles, animal hunts, and chariot racing. Rome had four racing companies that were named for the colors their charioteers wore: red, white, blue, and green. This denarius shows a four-horse chariot.

Poetry

Romans also produced poetic masterpieces, including Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a work about interactions between mortals and gods. In one poem, Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and handcrafts, transforms a woman into a spider for daring to compare her skill as a weaver with Minerva’s. 

This Byzantine weight shows Minerva wearing the helmet of a warrior.

Theatre

The comedies of Plautus are among the earliest Roman literary works to survive in their complete form. Plautus adapted many Greek plays, creating farces with stock characters who made scathing comments on current events. 

Many Roman comedies included scenes with mimes, who might have resembled these South Italian funerary pieces.

In the 18th century, the philosophers, artists, and writers of the Enlightenment celebrated a rebirth of Classical themes and images. This Neoclassical painting shows Cornelia, the embodiment of Roman female virtue. 

Across the Atlantic, Roman influences appear often in American culture. This exquisite 19th-century neoclassical sculpture by William Wetmore Story was inspired by the story of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. 

The signs and symbols of Rome have become the emblems of Western institutions and nations. This sculpture of Zeus Serapis is surmounted by an eagle—a powerful symbol of Roman strength. Western rulers, from Russian Tsars and German Kaisers to the founders of the United States, have incorporated the eagle into their insignias to associate themselves with Rome. 

Closer to home, Virginia’s state capital is crowned with a Roman-style dome, the U.S. Senate is named for its Roman precursor; and the seal of the United States bears the Latin words e pluribus unum (out of many, one), which were penned by Virgil in ancient Rome.