Astrotheology in Antiquity
In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus are twin brothers whose story tells the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus. The origins of the different elements in Rome’s foundation myth are a subject of ongoing debate. They may have come from the Romans’ own Italic origins, or from Hellenic influences that were included later. Definitively identifying those original elements has so far eluded classicists. Roman historians dated the founding of Rome around 753 BCE. If the mythology serves to commemorate the year of foundation then they, the historians, or most definitely wrong.
For those new to my work, I try to connect myths, legends and most dominantly scripture to planetary motions as observed, or even calculated, in antiquity. This insight allows us to trace back dates by careful study of the literature and observing the heavens at the proposed time. Their correlation should be such that it needs little explanation.
Read more | Astrotheology in the Gospel — the recording of Jesus of Nazareth’s birth, Astrotheology in the Old Testament — calculating the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks, Astrotheology in the Book of Revelations — the sign of the Son of man in heaven
Reckoning by Olympiads
Quintus Fabius [Pictor] sets the founding of Rome in the first year of the eighth Olympiad. The sophist Hippias was the first writer to publish a list of victors of the Olympic Games, and by the time of Eratosthenes, it was generally agreed that the first Olympic games had happened during the summer of 776 BC. Varro would expand the chronology of Fabius Pictor by adding four years and place the foundation of Rome in the fourth year of the sixth Olympiad or 753/752 BCE. This date has become canonical.[1][2]
The first year of the eighth Olympiad would be 748/747 BCE. Adding four years could mean 752/751 BCE, why did Varro add an additional year? Varro perhaps mistakenly widened the margins instead of narrowing them. From 753/752 until 748/747 BCE is a potential 6 year difference on the high end and a four year difference on the low end.
The Olympiads are counted from summer until summer. The Parilia festival, which is the festival that commemorate the founding of Rome, is held in April. Therefore the Parilia festival in the first year of the seventh Olympiad would take place in 752/751 BCE.
Accounts from antiquity
The following accounts I have gathered from surfing the internet.
· Antimachus of Teos was an early Greek epic poet. According to Plutarch, he observed a Solar eclipse in 753 BC, the same year in which Rome was founded.[3]
· Plutarch reports the calculation of Varro’s friend Tarutius that 771 BC was the birth year of Romulus and his twin..[4]
· Tarutius was a close friend of both Marcus Terentius Varro and Cicero. At Varro’s request, Tarutius took the horoscope of Romulus. After studying the circumstances of the life and death of the founder of Rome, Tarutius calculated that Romulus was born on March 24 (when the date is correctly translated from the Egyptian calendar) in the second year of the second Olympiad (i.e. 771/770 BC). He also calculated that Rome was founded on 4 October 754 BC.[5]
· “Again: if it matters under what aspect of the sky or combination of the stars every animate being is born, then necessarily the same conditions must affect inanimate beings also: can any statement be more ridiculous than that? Be that as it may, our good friend Lucius Tarutius of Firmum, who was steeped in Chaldaic lore, made a calculation, based on the assumption that our city’s birthday was on the Feast of Pales (at which time tradition says it was founded by Romulus), and from that calculation Tarutius even went so far as to assert that Rome was born when the moon was in the sign of Libra and from that fact unhesitatingly prophesied her destiny” ((De Divinatione, II.47, 98))[6]
· In ancient Roman religion, the Parilia is a festival of rural character performed annually on 21 April, aimed at cleansing both sheep and shepherd. It is carried out in acknowledgment to the Roman deity Pales, a deity of uncertain gender who was a patron of shepherds and sheep.[7]
· The traditional date for the founding of Rome, 21 April 753 BC, is due to Marcus Terentius Varro (1st century BC). Varro may have used the consular list (with its mistakes) and called the year of the first consuls “ab urbe condita 245,” accepting the 244-year interval from Dionysius of Halicarnassus for the kings after the foundation of Rome. The correctness of this calculation has not been confirmed, but it is still used worldwide.[8]
· Dionysius himself provided calculations showing that Rome was founded in 751 BC, starting with the Battle of the Allia, which he dated to the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad, 388/7 BC, then added 120 years to reach the date of the first consuls, Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus, 508/7 BC, then added the combined total of the reigns of the Kings of Rome (244 years) to arrive at his own date, 751 BC.[9]
· In Livy’s version, Remus simply died after jumping over Romulus’ wall, which is thought to be a sign from the gods of Rome’s power and fate. According to St. Jerome, Remus was killed for his mockery by one of Romulus’ supporters, either Fabius or Celer, who killed Remus by throwing a spade at his head. Afterwards, Romulus mournfully buries his brother, bestowing upon him full funeral honours. However, most sources would convey that Romulus killed Remus. Remus’ death and founding of Rome are dated by Livy to April 21st, 753 BCE.[10]
· Dionysius claims that the twins, Romulus and Remus, were born to a vestal named Ilia Silvia (sometimes called Rea), descended from Aeneas of Troy and the daughter of King Latinus of the Original Latin tribes, thus linking Rome to Trojans and Latins both. Dionysius lays out the different accounts of her pregnancy and the twins’ conception, but declines to choose one over the others.[11]
· The Lupercal (from Latin lupa “female wolf”) was a cave at the southwest foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome, located somewhere between the temple of Magna Mater and the Sant’Anastasia al Palatino. In the legend of the founding of Rome, Romulus and Remus were found there by the she-wolf who suckled them until they were rescued by the shepherd Faustulus.[12]
Whether the twins’ myth was an original part of Roman myth or a later development is the subject of an ongoing debate. The tales of the lupercal and the fratricide are often overshadowed by that of the twins’ lineage and connections to Aeneas and the deposing of Amulius. However it is the twins’ birth, lupercal and fratricide by which we can trace back the myths chronology.
Solving the problem by astrotheology
Tarutius listed the birth of Romulus and Remus in 771/770 BCE, consider that he had the years correct but not the actual dates. Tarutius, was steeped in Chaldean lore, it is interesting to look into his account from an astrotheological perspective.
Births happen during a new moon. The twins are always represented by Mars and Mercury, the same would be true for Jacob & Esau in the Old Testament. In the latter example Esau is Mars and Jacob is Mercury, the hermetic. Mercury is known as a messenger and one who mocks authority, the motive described by St. Jerome is fitting. They were the sons of Rhea, a vestal virgin.
What is described here is Mercury and Mars during a new moon in the sign of Virgo in 771 BCE.
Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf in a cave, the lupercal, from which the festival Lupercalia is derived. Lupercalia is a February festival.
Mars has a synodic period is 780 days. Mercury and Mars came together in Virgo in 771 BCE for their birth, they met near Pisces in 770 BCE at the end of the Piscean month, just before a 13th month (an intercalary month). The she-wolf Venus gives suck symbolized by a waning Moon.
Sidenote: from my research a cave is often represented by Pisces.
Then, after a full synodic period they met in Libra in 769 BCE. Libra happens to house the constellation called Lupus and Centaur near the Milky Way. It is said that Romulus and Remus were found along the banks of the Tiber River by the shepherd Faustulus as they were being suckled by the she-wolf.
Faustulus had and withheld knowledge about the twin’s lineage. As a typology he carries wisdom and thus can be equated to the constellation Centaur as it depicts Chiron. Chiron himself, after having been born, was abandoned by his mother Philyra out of shame and disgust. Chiron, effectively orphaned, was later found by the god Apollo, who took him under his wing. Faustulus thus plays the role of Apollo in relation to Chiron.
The above set of pictures doesn’t include Lupus and Centaur as they have moved below the horizon. The next picture indicates their distance to the constellation Libra.
It is evident that the founding year of Rome is disputed, and although it seems that 753 BCE is favorable, astrotheology sides with 751 BCE. We will be looking for a full moon in Libra near the Parilia festival of April 21st as mentioned by Tarutius, and solar eclipse in the same year as supposedly witness by Antimachus of Teos, recounted by Platarch.
Not only was there a moon in Libra on the 19th of April, 751 BCE, it was a partial lunar eclipse! The month of Nissan by the Hebrew calendar, is the month of Aries, symbolized by the sacrificial lamb. Coincidentally, on this day Mercury and Mars make a conjunction in Aries!
Let me remind the reader that the Parilia feast aimed at cleansing both sheep and shepherd, perhaps by the shedding of innocent blood… or jumping over a new years’ wall. Chaldean/Hebrew/Etruscan lore…
The next full moon after the lunar eclipse is still within the eclipse season. Although not visible from Antimachus’ location in Teos, modern day Izmir (West Turkey).
It started to become visible south from the relatively nearby Caspian sea, modern day Tehran (about 2600 km), which is just north east of the Egyptian kingdom at the time. Second hand knowledge could have made it to the west.
Tarutius calculated that Romulus was born on March 24 (when the date is correctly translated from the Egyptian calendar).
Additionally it is a triple conjunction in the sign of Taurus with the Sun, Moon and Mercury. Therefore by a different recount one could say this is were Remus died, not as a sacrificial lamb, but as a sacrificial bull, a Tauroctony. Condoning idolatry or mockery?
Final thoughts
By taking an astrotheological perspective it becomes obvious that the Parilia festival of 751 BCE is the festival that defines the death of Remus. This perspective is the same as was used by the Chaldeans. The same techniques of story telling were used by the Hebrews, as emphasized in my previous works.
In the same way that the birth of Abraham synchronizes the Old Testament around a very close alignment of the naked-eye planets in February 1953 BCE, Abraham is said to have come from Ur, the land of the Chaldeans.
A lot of emphasis was made on the story as a foundation story. The myth itself could perhaps have served as a tool to synchronize the inhabitants’ calendar, because this year had an intercalary month by Hebrew standards.
References
[1] Wikipedia: Hippias — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippias
[2] Olympiad — https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/olympiad/
[3] Wikipedia: Antimachus of Teos — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimachus_of_Teos
[4] Wikipedia: Romulus — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus
[5] Wikipedia: Lucius Tarutius Firmanus — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Tarutius_Firmanus
[6] The foundation horoscope of Rome — https://heavenastrolabe.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/the-foundation-horoscope-of-rome/
[7] Wikipedia: Parilia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parilia
[8] Wikipedia: Ab urbe condita — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab_urbe_condita
[9] Wikipedia: Founding of Rome — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_Rome
[10] Ancient History: Romulus and Remus — https://www.ancient.eu/Romulus_and_Remus/
[11] Wikipedia: Dionysius of Halicarnassus — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus
[12] Wikipedia: Lupercal — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercal
[13] Wikipedia: Antikythera Mechanism — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
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