Rome Before Rome: The Legends That Shaped the Romans

Historian Matyszak (A Walk Through Ancient Rome) provides an appealing and deft compendium of fables, legends, and tall tales that ancient Romans believed about their own civilization. Some of what Matyszak conveys is well known, though surprising in its details, like the story of Romulus and Remus. As Matyszak notes, it was Romulus’s spotting of 12 flying vultures that determined the gods favored his proposed location for a city over that of his twin brother Remus. Throughout, Matyszak aims to show how Rome’s legends not only served as metaphors or lessons but yielded real historical consequences, as when Caesar came to power based on a legend that he was descended from a Trojan hero. Later, Brutus killed Caesar because of a different legend that his own ancestor had once rescued Rome from a tyrant. “Not only can we not understand Romans without understanding their legends,” Matyszak writes, “but we cannot understand Western culture either.” Full of intrigue, romance, and human struggle, and marvelously illustrated in a two-tone black and ochre palette, this is a delight. (May)