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Hugh Last on the legendary nature of Rome's origins.
The legends of this period were well known to Romans of the late Republic and Empire, but historical records are few and unreliable. Roman history up to this point seems to have written as a tableau for securing Roman virtues and vices in history for the purposes of political imitation and avoidance on a skeleton history of its people in response to both the world and the local events of the time.
The legends of this period were well known to Romans of the late Republic and Empire, but historical records are few and unreliable. Roman history up to this point seems to have written as a tableau for securing Roman virtues and vices in history for the purposes of political imitation and avoidance on a skeleton history of its people in response to both the world and the local events of the time.
For example, Hugh Last wrote:
:The legends which grew up round the origin of Rome have so slight a value as evidence for the history of the city that they can claim little space: all that is needed is to make their irrelevance plain. The arrival of the Greeks in the western Mediterranean gradually brought Italy within the ambit of Greek myth, and it is on Greek foundations that the whole saga of early Rome is based (p. 363).
Accomplishments attributed to the regal period include the "Calendar of Numa," a precursor to the [[Julian Calendar]], and the Cloaca Maxima, the world's first sewage system.
Accomplishments attributed to the regal period include the "Calendar of Numa," a precursor to the [[Julian Calendar]], and the Cloaca Maxima, the world's first sewage system.