Vires/Robur/OpesandFerociain Livy's Account of Romulus and Tullus Hostilius

Abstract

In a recent article I observed that Livy sees a dialectic at work in Roman history over the course of the reigns of the first four kings. The first king, Romulus, is associated with physical (i.e. military) strength and is devoted to war. His successor Numa is devoted to peace and to the advance of religion, law and the civilizing virtues. The Romulean thesis, having been answered by the Numan antithesis, reasserts itself in the reign of the third king, Tullus Hostilius. This time, devotion to war is even more intense: Tullus isferocior(1.22.2) than Romulus. Excessive devotion to war, however, entailed the neglect of other things: towards the end of his reign, during a plague to which he himself eventually fell victim, Tullus turned to religion, hoping that the gods would end the pestilence if he could balance his Romulean devotion to war with a Numan concern forsacra. But his efforts were too late and inept. It was not until the reign of the fourth king, Ancus Marcius, that a synthesis was achieved. Ancus had amedium ingeniumthat fused the Romulean and Numan tendencies. The adoption of theius fetialeby the Livian Ancus symbolizes this synthesis: theius fetialewas a martial (i.e. Romulean) ritual, but it also acknowledged the Numan claims of religion and right.