The foundation of Rome was explained by the Romans themselves in mythological tales. The first of these tales, the tale of Romulus and Remus, was a popular legend in the day and it is the more well known of the two foundation myths for Rome, exploring twins Romulus and Remus who founded Rome. The lesser known myth of the foundation of Rome is the story of Aeneas, a Trojan warrior who was supposedly the son of the goddess Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In this tale, Aeneas was the lone survivor of the Trojan War, where Greek sacked Troy, and he left the city after its slaughter. It was only when he came to the Italian peninsula and founded Rome, or more specifically, perhaps, the people that would found Rome.
What ever the true origins were, mythological or otherwise, Rome is thought to have been settled as early as 1500 BC. Rome was founded on the Tiber River, giving it better access from the coast to the interior of the peninsula. The city of Rome was founded on hill ground, allowing for it to be more easily defended from attackers. Rome was not founded as a city, but instead as a number of small villages. Eventually these small villages came together to form a whole Roman community. Grave sites and early domesticated vegetation puts the permanent settlement of Rome, or the villages that would come to form Rome, anywhere from 1500 to 1000 BC.
Temples and areas of worship for Aeneas, the Trojan War hero who supposedly founded Rome, is an interesting archeological find. Although it does not confirm the myth that Aeneas founded Rome, it may give some credence to the idea that a singular figure may have been important in founding what in the future would be the greatest empire that the world had seen up until that point. Through time, the two foundation myths formed into one myth for the Roman people, and Romulus and Remus were thought of as the descendants of Aeneas, and that the twins were only able to found the city of Rome after the founding of the “Roman people” by Aeneas.
One of the only things that archeological evidence of early Rome can tell us about its foundation was that indeed Rome began as a small number of villages on the hilly area that would become Rome, and that these villages eventually came together and united into the one society. As a history in general, the lack of conclusive sources about the foundation and early years of the Roman Republic can be problematic in studying it, allowing for the whimsical idea of foundations myths to not be conclusively denounced by history and archeology.
