Rape of the Sabine Women
The Kidnapping of the Sabine Women is a mythological episode that describes the kidnapping of women from the Sabine tribe by the founders of Rome. It has been a frequent theme in painting and sculpture, especially during the Renaissance and after, bringing together examples of the courage and daring of the ancient Romans with the opportunity to depict semi-nude figures in intense and passionate battle.
Historian and comparativist Georges Dumézil has claimed that the episode is a founding myth based on an inherited Indo-European schema that is intended to illustrate the creation of a harmonious and complete society through the integration of the three functions, in which the Sabines add their wealth to the religious and warrior virtues of Romulus and his companions.
History
According to the Roman historian Titus Livy (59 BC-AD 17), the abduction of Sabine women occurred in the early history of Rome, shortly after its founding in the mid-century VIII a. C., and was perpetrated by Rómulo and his followers, predominantly male; after the founding of the city, the population is said to have consisted solely of Latins and other Italic peoples, particularly bandits. Since Rome was growing so steadily compared to its neighbours, Romulus took care to maintain the fortress. from the city. His main concern was that with few women there would be no chance of maintaining the city's population, without which Rome could not last more than a generation. Following the advice of the Senate, the Romans went out into the surrounding regions in search of wives with whom to establish families. The Romans negotiated unsuccessfully with all the peoples they turned to, including the Sabines, who populated the neighboring regions. The Sabines feared the appearance of a rival society and refused to allow their women to marry the Romans. Consequently, the Romans devised a plan to kidnap the Sabine women during the festival of Equestrian Neptune (or Conso). They planned and announced a game festival to attract people from all the nearby cities. According to Livy, many people from Rome's neighboring cities—such as Caenina, Crustumerium, and Antemnas—attended the festival along with the Sabines, eager to see the newly established city with their own eyes. The Sabines were especially willful and went to Rome with their wives and children, preceded by their king. The spectacle of the games began, and Romulus gave a signal by "rising and folding his cloak and throwing it around him again," at which point the Romans seized the Sabine women (each Roman kidnapped a woman) and fought the men. Sabines. In all, thirty Sabine women were abducted by the Romans at the festival. All the women abducted at the festival are said to have been virgins, except for one married woman, Hersilia, who became the wife of Romulus and would later intervene to stop the ensuing war between the Romans and the Sabines. Romulus was quick to implore the outraged captives to accept the Roman men as their new husbands.
The Romans tried to placate women by convincing them that they only did it because they wanted them to be their wives, and that they could not help but feel proud to become part of a people that had been chosen by the gods. The Sabine women put a requirement when it came to getting married: at home, they would only take care of the loom, without being forced to do other domestic work, and they would establish themselves as the ones who governed the house.
Years later, the Sabines, angry at the double outrage of treason and kidnapping of their women, attacked the Romans, who were cornered in the Capitol. In order to penetrate this area, they had a Roman, Tarpeya, who allowed them to enter in exchange for whatever they carried in their arms, referring to the bracelets. Viewing with contempt the betrayal of the Roman her own people, they accepted the deal, but instead of giving her jewels, they killed her by crushing her with their heavy shields. threw those convicted of treason.
When they were going to face each other in what seemed to be the final battle, the Sabine women stood between the two fighting armies so they would stop killing each other because, they reasoned, if the Romans won, they would lose their parents and brothers, and if they won the Sabines, they lost their husbands and children. The Sabine women managed to make them see reason and finally a banquet was held to celebrate the reconciliation. The king of Sabinia Titus Tatius and Romulus formed a diarchy in Rome until the death of Titus Tatius, when Romulus became sole king.
Historical analysis
The motivation for the abduction of the Sabine women was a matter of debate among ancient sources. Titus Livy writes that Rome's motivation for kidnapping the Sabine women was solely to increase the city's population, and claims that no direct sexual assault occurred during the abduction. Tito Livio affirms that Rómulo offered Sabine women freedom of choice, as well as civic and property rights. According to Livio, Rómulo spoke to each of them in person, declaring “that it was all due to her parents' pride in denying their neighbors the right to marry. They would live in an honorable marriage, and would share all their property and civil rights, and—the most precious thing for human nature—would be the mothers of free men." Scholars such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus maintain that it was an attempt to ensure an alliance with the Sabines through the new relationships of women with Roman men. Titus Livy's version is somewhat reinforced by the works of Cicero. In his work De republica, Cicero reiterates Livy's opinion that the plan to kidnap the Sabine women at the feast was made to "strengthen the new state" and "to safeguard the resources of his kingdom." and his people." Unlike Livy, Cicero, and Dionysus, Ovid sees the abduction of the Sabine women as a way for the men of Rome to satisfy their sexual desires and not as an attempt to take wives to produce children for the city Although he mentions the problem of the lack of women in Rome, he does not consider it a factor in the planning of the abduction.
Although it is clear that the story was part of the founding mythology of Rome, its historicity is disputed and many historians consider it unlikely that it happened, or at least that it happened in the way described. Theodor Mommsen (as did other later historians such as Jacques Poucet) believed that the story probably spread during the last years of the IV century a. C., after the Samnite wars, as a narrative that would explain the assimilation of the Samnites to Rome after a mixture of wars and alliances, sending similar events into the distant past. It is probable that the story became relevant again during the period of time in which the coins that represent the event were minted, in the year 89 a. C. They would have been minted during the Social War, a conflict between Rome and its Italian allies over their status and whether they deserved Roman citizenship. A history of Rome's past, in which Rome was in conflict with its neighbours, which displayed a Roman capacity for brutal violence, but ultimately a war had been avoided, once the Sabines submitted to unification with Rome, it was a powerful message to send at such a time to Rome.
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