Rome before Rome The legends that shaped the Romans

Review by Booklist Review

The history of Rome is legendary, but the legends before Rome became an empire are less well known. This book addresses that knowledge gap engagingly. Matyszak (A Walk through Ancient Rome, 2024) points out that legends, unlike myth and folklore, are grounded in real historical settings and are fundamental to culture. As the book's introduction asserts, "one can learn a lot about a society from its legends." For instance, the myth of the wolf's twins as Rome's founders is perhaps less compelling than the legend of a woman named Roma who spearheaded the burning of sailors' ships to end their wanderings; those sailors realized the location's advantages and named the city after her. Eight chapters chronologically cover major eras that preceded the formal designation of Rome, from its chaos state to Rome's republic. Each chapter also links the past to current contexts. Illustrations and topical sidebars dot the text. A "dramatis personae," a glossary, a bibliography, and an index conclude the volume. The writing is clear and engaging, making this a good fit for the general reader.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The legends that shaped the mindset of ancient Rome. "Legends differ from myths," independent historian Matyszak explains, "in that they focus on human beings in a historical setting…generally accepted as being real." Which is not to say that abandoned infants Romulus and Remus were actually suckled by a she-wolf before they grew up to found Rome; the author notes that luparia, or "she-wolves' den," was the name for a Roman brothel in the time of Livy, the historian who floated the prostitute wet-nurse theory. This scurrilous-details-and-all anecdote is typical of Matyszak's lively approach in his enjoyable retellings of the stories Romans took as their ancient history. They span nearly 1,000 years, from Aeneas fleeing the fall of Troy and settling in Italy, through the rape and suicide of an honorable Roman matron, which ended the monarchy and launched the Roman Republic, to the squabbles between plebeians and patricians that led to grudgingly shared political power, a status quo that endured until civil wars ended the republic. In these and many other instances, the author is careful to note varying accounts--indeed, somewhat too careful, as in the confusing multiple versions of, for example, the background and motives of the Vestal Virgin who betrayed Rome to the Sabines. Matyszak's formidable knowledge of ancient Roman sources is put to better use when he explains the initially enigmatic bribe of "what was on their left arms" that the Sabine warriors promised the vestal: "In a world without banking…most men carried their wealth around with them in the form of gold bracelets"--on the left arm so they didn't hinder the right arm's ability to wield a sword. Aside from their sheer entertainment value, Matyszak reminds readers, these legends are important because they shaped Rome's self-image: The stories told Romans "they were brave, chaste, and honourable, respectful to their gods and beloved by them." Well-informed and well-rendered snapshots of the ancient world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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