002- Youthful Indiscretions

Romulus and the foundational myths of early Rome are narrated as a mixture of political invention, warfare, and moral ambiguity. After founding the city he attracted society’s outcasts — fugitives, escaped slaves, debtors and criminals — then organized them into Rome’s first army (approximately 3,000 foot soldiers and 300 cavalry) and a Senate of 100. Because Rome initially lacked women, Romulus engineered the notorious abduction of the Sabine women at a festival; ensuing conflicts ended only when the women themselves interposed and negotiated union between the communities.

The episode traces the institutional fixes that result: addition of 100 Sabine senators, division into three tribes and a Comitia Curiata made of 30 curiae, and a standing force that would standardize at about 6,000 men. Romulus co-ruled with Titus Tatius until Tatius’s death in Lavinium, spent roughly 40 years campaigning against neighboring towns, and then vanishes amid a storm — a legendary exit the narrator contrasts with Livy’s suggestion of senatorial murder. The host closes by arguing Romulus is a convenient myth that compresses many founders’ deeds into one figure and observes that Rome’s rise owed more to force and institutional consolidation than moral virtue.