[HPforGrownups] Re: Remus Lupin's name

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 160685

Christy:

>>Eventually, Romulus murdered 
Remus for his insipid comments. This story is all a myth, but it 
didn't stop the Eternal City from being named Rome, after Romulus.<<

Marion:

Ennius (Annales 1, frag. 47) describes how, to decide who should give his name to the city, Romulus and Remus resorted to augury, that is, taking omens from the flight of birds. The brothers watch from different parts of the Aventine and see different numbers of birds. In the ensuing quarrel, Remus was killed. 
In Ennius account the quarrel is about who has the favour of the gods, rather like Cain and Abel.
Livy and Ovid (and others) have another version: Romulus began to build his city on the Palantine, and when the walls had risen a little way, Remus scornfully leaped over them and was killed by his brother because he had acted as an enemy, for a friend enters a city by the gate. In this version Remus declares himself the enemy of his brother by breaking the sacred bounderies of the city. 
This 'sacredness' of the city bounderies is not to be scoffed at. The Romans had a special order of priests of the City's Bounderies who, for instance, ritually throw a spear over the bounderies when War is declared.
These kind of things *mattered* to the Romans.


Yes, yes, I know. Nothing to do with HP. I'm just a tiny teeny bit anal-retentive when it comes to my beloved Romans and tend to lecture... Sorry...

signing off now...



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