67-635: Bretagne may refer to: Bretagne may also refer to Great Britain in relation to the Matter of Britain ( French : matière de Bretagne ). Matter of Britain By century The Matter of Britain ( French : matière de Bretagne ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur . The 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae ( History of
134-813: A King of the Britons , whose daughter, Helena marries Constantius Chlorus and gives birth to a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine the Great , tracing the Roman imperial line to British ancestors. It has been suggested that Leir of Britain, who later became King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr , related to the Irish Ler . Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well: for example Morgan le Fay
201-655: A connection between peoples and their languages, a reconstruction emerges with Indo-European peoples arriving in various waves of migrations during the first and second millennia BC: first a western Italic group (including Latin), followed by a central Italic group of Osco-Umbrian dialects, with a late arrival of Greek and Celtic on the Italian peninsula, from across the Adriatic and Alps, respectively. These migrations are generally believed to have displaced speakers of Etruscan and other pre-Indo-European languages; although it
268-610: A cult to Hercules had been established at the Ara Maxima in Rome during the archaic period. By the early fifth century BC, these stories had become entrenched in Roman historical beliefs. These cults, along with the early – in literary terms – account of Cato the Elder , show how Italians and Romans took these Greek histories seriously and as reliable evidence by later annalists, even though they were speculations of little value. Much of
335-568: A developed necropolis by at least 1000 BC. The combination of the hilltop settlements into a single polity by the later 8th century BC was probably influenced by the trend for city-state formation emerging from ancient Greece . Roman myth held that their city was founded by Romulus , son of the war god Mars and the Vestal virgin Rhea Silvia , fallen princess of Alba Longa and descendant of Aeneas of Troy . Exposed on
402-533: A general melee. Wiseman and some others attribute the aspects of fratricide to the 4th-century BC Conflict of the Orders , when Rome's lower-class plebeians began to resist excesses by the upper-class patricians . Romulus, after ritualistically ploughing the generally square course of the city's future boundary , erects its first walls and declares the settlement an asylum for exiles, criminals, and runaway slaves. The city becomes larger but also acquires
469-633: A local magnate called Latinus and marries his daughter Lavinia , joining the two into a new group called the Latini; they then found a new city, called Lavinium . After a series of wars against the Rutuli and Caere , the Latins conquer the Alban Hills and its environs. His son Ascanius then founds the legendary city of Alba Longa , which became the dominant city in the region. The later descendants of
536-457: A mixing ground between Etruscan , Apennine , and Greek civilizations . It also served as a measure of societal control , with the patricians partially justifying their long dominance of Roman institutions by their supposed descent from Alba Longan nobility and other legendary figures. The Romans took the foundation of their own new cities seriously, undertaking many rituals and attributing many of them to remote antiquity. They long maintained
603-651: A mostly male population. When Romulus' attempts to secure the women of neighbouring settlements by diplomacy fail, he uses the religious celebration of Consualia to abduct the women of the Sabines . According to Livy, when the Sabines rally an army to take their women back, the women force the two groups to make peace and install the Sabine king Titus Tatius as comonarch with Romulus. The story has been theorised by some modern scholars to reflect anti-Roman propaganda from
670-585: A new city at the location where they had been rescued. The twins then come into conflict during the foundation of the city, leading to the murder of Remus. The dispute is variously said to have been over the naming of the new city, over the interpretation of auguries , whether to place it on the Palatine or Aventine Hill, or concerned with Remus's disrespect of the new town's ritual furrow or wall. Some accounts say Romulus slays his brother with his own hand, others that Remus and sometimes Faustulus are killed in
737-525: A single polity. By 1000 BC, a necropolis existed in the Forum for cremation graves. By the early Iron Age c. 900 BC , graves started to be placed into the ground. Other cemeteries appear on the Esquiline , Quirinal , and Viminal Hills by the 9th century, containing pottery, imported Greek wares, fibulae, and bronze objects. Remains from huts on the Palatine have been found that date to
SECTION 10
#1732765895760804-606: A story of Aeneas's son founding the city of Alba Longa and establishing a dynasty there, which eventually produced Romulus. In Livy's first book he recounts how Aeneas, a demigod of the Trojan royal Anchises and the goddess Venus , leaves Troy after its destruction during the Trojan War and sailed to the western Mediterranean. He brings his son – Ascanius – and a group of companions. Landing in Italy, he forms an alliance with
871-466: A theme of special importance for writers trying to find unity in the mixture of their land's Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Roman and Norse inheritance." Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae is a central component of the Matter of Britain. Geoffrey drew on a number of ancient British texts, including the 9th-century Historia Brittonum . The Historia Brittonum is the earliest known source of
938-539: A unified Rome – reflected in the production of a central forum area, public monumental architecture, and civic structures – can be spoken of. By the late Republic , the usual Roman origin myth held that their city was founded by a Latin named Romulus on the day of the Parilia Festival (21 April) in some year around 750 BC. Important aspects of the myth concerned Romulus's murder of his twin Remus ,
1005-520: Is also possible to read the Arthurian literature, particularly the Grail tradition, as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth, a theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others. Founding of Rome The founding of Rome was a prehistoric event or process later greatly embellished by Roman historians and poets. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rome developed from
1072-404: Is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the area of modern Rome from at least 5,000 years ago , but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures any Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites . Traces of occupation have been found in the general region – including Lavinium and the coast near Ardea – going back to the 15th century BC. The area was home to
1139-476: Is now believed to have been constructed between 750 and 700 BC. Religious activity started also in this period on the Capitoline hill, suggesting a connection to the ancient cult of Jupiter Feretrius . Other offerings discovered indicate Rome's connections outside Latium, with imported Greek pottery from Euboea and Corinth . The first evidence of a wall appears in the middle or late eighth century on
1206-503: Is possible that Etruscan arrived also by migration, almost certainly before 2000 BC. The start of the Iron age saw a gradual increase in social complexity and population that led to the emergence of proto-urban settlements in central and northern Italy writ large. These proto-urban agglomerations were normally clusters of smaller settlements that were insufficiently distant to be separated communities; over time, they would unify. There
1273-656: Is the best-known part of the Matter of Britain. It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concerns Camelot , usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of the heroes like Arthur, Gawain and Lancelot . The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail ; some succeed ( Galahad , Percival ), and others fail. The Arthurian tales have been changed throughout time, and other characters have been added to add backstory and expand on other Knights of
1340-645: The Apennine and Proto-Villanovan cultures before the advent of the more regional Latial culture . Archaeological evidence suggests that Rome developed over a long period, but it was definitely occupied by the middle of the Bronze Age . Core samples have shown that the terrain of Bronze-Age Rome differed greatly from what is present now. The area of the Forum Boarium north of the Aventine Hill
1407-590: The Hut of Romulus , a primitive dwelling on the Palatine attributed to their founder, although they had no firm basis for associating it with him specifically. While the Romans believed that their city had been founded by an eponymous founder at a specific time, when that occurred was disputed by the ancient historians. The earliest dates placed it c. 1100 BC out of a belief that Romulus had been Aeneas's grandson. This moved Rome's foundation much closer to
SECTION 20
#17327658957601474-522: The Iliad 's prophecy that Aeneas's descendants would one day return and rule Troy once more. Greeks by 550 BC had begun to speculate, given the lack of any clear descendants of Aeneas, that the figure had established a dynasty outside the proper Greek world. The first attempts to tie this story to Rome were in the works of two Greek historians at the end of the fifth century BC, Hellanicus of Lesbos and Damastes of Sigeum , likely only mentioning off hand
1541-462: The Palatine Hill . Most modern historians doubt the existence of a single founder or founding event for the city, and no material evidence has been found connecting early Rome to Alba or Troy. Most modern historians also dismiss the putative Aeneid dynasty at Alba Longa as fiction. The legendary account was still much discussed and celebrated in Roman times. The Parilia Festival on 21 April
1608-594: The Parilian Festival celebrated annually on April 21. This festival was originally concerned with the purification of shepherds and herds of sheep in the countryside around Rome, but eventually became so associated with Rome's foundation myth that it was restructured as the urban Romaea in AD 121. The association with Romulus may have arisen from the twins' supposed foster parents Faustulus and Acca Larentia , who initially raised them as shepherds. In
1675-508: The Tiber river, Romulus and his twin Remus were suckled by a she-wolf at the Lupercal before being raised by the shepherd Faustulus , taking revenge on their usurping great-uncle Amulius , and restoring Alba Longa to their grandfather Numitor . The brothers then decided to establish a new town but quarrelled over some details, ending with Remus's murder and the establishment of Rome on
1742-412: The fall of Troy , dated by Eratosthenes to 1184–83 BC; these dates are attested as early as the 4th century BC. Romulus was later chronologically connected to Aeneas and the time of the Trojan War by introducing a line of Alban kings , which scholars consider to be entirely spurious. Ancient attempts to date the foundation of the city were based on the length of the republic, counted by
1809-531: The 12th to the 16th century. The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel , whose epic Chanson des Saisnes [ fr ] ("Song of the Saxons") contains the lines: Ne sont que III matières à nul homme atandant: De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant There are only three subject matters for any discerning man: That of France, that of Britain, and that of great Rome. The name distinguishes and relates
1876-529: The 9th or 8th centuries BC, with accelerating development by the early to middle 8th century BC. By this time, four major settlements emerged in Rome. The nuclei appeared on the Palatine, the Capitoline, the Quirinal and Viminal, and the Caelian, Oppian, and Velia. There is, however, no evidence linking any settlement on the Quirinal hill with the Sabines, as is alleged by some ancient accounts. The area of
1943-537: The Capitoline during the period 1700–1350 BC and in the neighboring valley that later became the Roman Forum from 1350–1120 BC. Some 13th century BC structures indicate that the Capitoline was already being terraced to manage its slope. Evidence in the Final Bronze Age around 1200–975 BC is clearer, showing occupation of the Capitoline, Forum, and adjacent Palatine. Excavations near
2010-416: The Forum also was converted at this time into a public space. Burials there discontinued and portions of it were paved over. Votive offerings appear in the comitium in the eighth century, indicating a more central religious cult, and other public buildings appear to have been erected around that time. One of those buildings was the domus publica (the official residence of the pontifex maximus ), which
2077-508: The Greek east or Mesopotamia, inasmuch as the story of virgin birth, intercession by animals and humble stepparents, with triumphant return expelling an evil leader are common mythological elements across Eurasia and even into the Americas. The indigenous tradition of Romulus was also combined with a legend telling of Aeneas coming from Troy and travelling to Italy. This tradition emerges from
Bretagne - Misplaced Pages Continue
2144-563: The Kings of Britain) is a central component of the Matter of Britain. It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France , which concerned the legends of Charlemagne and his companions , as well as the Matter of Rome , which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology and classical history . Its pseudo- chronicle and chivalric romance works, written both in prose and verse, flourished from
2211-524: The Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity , the " Matter of Rome ", and the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens , which constituted the " Matter of France ". King Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain, along with stories related to the legendary kings of Britain , as well as lesser-known topics related to
2278-471: The Palatine even earlier than Romulus and Remus, at some time during the 12th century BC. Modern scholars disregard most of the traditional accounts as myths. There is no persuasive archaeological evidence for either the Romulan foundation or for the idea of an early Greek settlement. Even the name Romulus is now generally believed to have been retrojected from the city's name – glossed as "Mr Rome" by
2345-430: The Palatine, dated between 730 and 720 BC. It is possible that the circuit of the wall marked out what later Romans believed to be the original pomerium (sacred boundary) of the city. The discovery of gates and streets connected to the wall, with the remains of various huts, suggest that Rome had by this time: acquired a defined boundary ... [and] a more sophisticated level of social and political organisation ...
2412-493: The Round Table . The medieval legend of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes; those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters, and the quest for an important Christian relic. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love , such as Lancelot and Guinevere , or Tristan and Iseult . In more recent years,
2479-605: The Secular Games celebrated at Rome's 900th and 1000th anniversaries under Antoninus Pius and Philip I , meanwhile, used dates computed from a foundation a year later in 752 BC. Despite known errors in Varro's work, it is the former date that has become the most repeated in modernity and is still used for computing the AUC calendar era . By the late Republic , the founding had also become closely associated with
2546-415: The Trojan foundation myth instead. Nilsson further speculates that the name of Romos was changed by some Romans to the native name Romulus, but the same name Romos (later changed to the native Remus) was never forgotten by many of the people, so both these names were used to represent the founders of the city. Another story, attributed to Hellanicus of Lesbos by Dionysius of Halicarnassus , says that Rome
2613-412: The absence of further evidence, with the arguments made by Carandini and others appearing to rest on highly tendentious interpretations of what is currently known with certainty from scientific excavations. The Romans' origin myths , however, provide evidence of how the Romans conceived of themselves as a mixture of different ethnic groups and foreign influences, reflecting the reality of Latium being
2680-635: The adjacent year of 752 BC (used by the Fasti and the Secular Games of Antoninus Pius and Philip I ). Despite known errors in Varro 's calculations, it is the 753 BC date that continues to form the basis for most modern calculations of the AUC calendar era . The conventional division of pre-Roman cultures in Italy deals with cultures which spoke Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages. The Italic languages , which include Latin , are Indo-European and were spoken, according to inscriptions, in
2747-423: The best known form of the legend, Romulus and Remus are the grandsons of Numitor , the king of Alba Longa. After Numitor is deposed by his brother Amulius and his daughter Rhea Silvia is forced to become a Vestal virgin , she becomes pregnant – allegedly raped by the war god Mars – and delivers the two illegitimate brothers. Amulius orders that the children be left to die on
Bretagne - Misplaced Pages Continue
2814-482: The brothers' descent from the god Mars and the royal family of Alba Longa , and that dynasty's supposed descent from Aeneas , himself supposedly descended from the goddess Aphrodite and the royal family of Troy . The accounts in the first book of Livy 's History of Rome and in Vergil 's Aeneid were particularly influential. Some accounts further asserted that there had been a Mycenaean Greek settlement on
2881-461: The city to an eponymous founder, usually "Rhomos" or "Rhome" rather than Romulus. One story told how Romos , a son of Odysseus and Circe , was the one who founded Rome. Martin P. Nilsson speculates that this older story was becoming a bit embarrassing as Rome became more powerful and tensions with the Greeks grew. Being descendants of the Greeks was no longer preferable, so the Romans settled on
2948-419: The classicist Mary Beard – rather than reflecting a historical or actual figure. Some scholars, particularly Andrea Carandini , have argued that it remains possible that these foundation myths reflect actual historical events in some form and that the city and Roman Kingdom were in fact founded by a single actor in some way. This remains a minority viewpoint in present scholarship and highly controversial in
3015-609: The early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain. The Scots , for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Pictish and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history. The story of Gabrán mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories. The Arthurian literary cycle
3082-573: The foundation of a settlement on the Palatine hill by Evander (originally hailing also from Arcadia) and Hercules , whose labour with the cattle of Geryon was placed in the Forum Boarium by the Romans. The introduction of Aeneas follows a trend across Italy towards Hellenising their own early mythologies by rationalising myths and legends of the Greek Heroic Age into a pseudo-historical tradition of prehistoric times; this
3149-597: The gradual union of several hilltop villages during the Final Bronze Age or early Iron Age . Prehistoric habitation of the Italian Peninsula occurred by 48,000 years ago , with the area of Rome being settled by around 1600 BC. Some evidence on the Capitoline Hill possibly dates as early as c. 1700 BC and the nearby valley that later housed the Roman Forum had
3216-413: The history of Great Britain and Brittany , such as the stories of Brutus of Troy , Coel Hen , Leir of Britain (King Lear), and Gogmagog . The legendary history of Britain was created partly to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature. According to John J. Davenport, the question of Britain's identity and significance in the world "was
3283-545: The late fourth century BC, but more likely reflects an indigenous Roman tradition, given the Capitoline Wolf which likely dates to the sixth century BC. Regardless, by the third century, it was widely accepted by Romans and put onto some of Rome's first silver coins in 269 BC. In his 1995 Beginnings of Rome , Tim Cornell argues that the myths of Romulus and Remus are "popular expressions of some universal human need or experience" rather than borrowings from
3350-481: The lower Tiber Valley . It was once thought that Faliscan – spoken north of Veii on the right bank of the Tiber – was a separate language, but inscriptions discovered in the 1980s indicate that Latin was spoken more generally in the area. Etruscan speakers were concentrated in modern Tuscany with a similar language called Raetic spoken on the upper Adige (the foothills of the eastern Italian Alps ). When drawing
3417-511: The modern Capitoline Museums suggest the construction of fortifications and some scholars have speculated that settlements also existed on the other hills, especially the Janiculum , Quirinal , and Aventine . The Capitoline currently seems to have been the earliest settled but it is debated whether the settlements on the other hills were independent, colonies of the Capitoline settlement, or formerly separate villages already consolidated into
SECTION 50
#17327658957603484-545: The more easterly bank of the Tiber and provided a ready citadel for defense and for control of the salt production along the river and at its mouth. The other hills and the marshes between them provided similarly defensible points for settlement. Accordingly, thick deposits of manure and ancient pottery shards have been discovered in the Forum Boarium from the middle of the Bronze Age. Current evidence suggests that there were three separate bronze-using settlements on
3551-491: The number of consuls, followed by subtracting of an estimated regal period. Modern scholars, however, largely reject the estimates of the length of the regal period as synthetic calculations. From Claudius 's Secular Games in AD 47 to Hadrian 's Romaea in AD 121, the official date seems to have used the chronology established by Varro in the late 1st century BC, placing Rome's founding in 753 BC. Augustus 's Fasti running to AD 13 and
3618-492: The possibility of a Roman connection; a more assured connection only emerged at the end of the fourth century BC when Rome started having formal dealings with the Greek world. The ancient Roman annalists, historians, and antiquarians faced an issue tying Aeneas to Romulus, as they believed that Romulus lived centuries after the Trojan War, which was dated at the time c. 1100 BC . For this, they fabricated
3685-421: The royal lineage of Alba Longa eventually produce Romulus and Remus, setting up the events of their mythological story. Dionysius of Halicarnassus similarly attempted to show a Greek connection, giving a similar story for Aeneas, but also a previous series of migrations. He describes migrations of Arcadians into southern Italy some time in the 18th century BC, migrations into Umbria by Greeks from Thessaly, and
3752-647: The slopes of the Palatine or in the Tiber River , but they are suckled by a she-wolf at the Lupercal and then discovered by the shepherd Faustulus and taken in by him and his wife Acca Larentia . (Livy combines Larentia and the she-wolf, considering them most likely to have referred to a prostitute , also known in Latin slang as a lupa or she-wolf.) Faustulus eventually reveals the brothers' true origins, and they depose or murder Amulius and restore Numitor to his throne. They then leave or are sent to establish
3819-494: The story of Brutus of Troy . Traditionally attributed to Nennius , its actual compiler is unknown; it exists in several recensions. This tale went on to achieve greater currency because its inventor linked Brutus to the diaspora of heroes that followed the Trojan War . As such, this material could be used for patriotic myth-making just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid . Geoffrey lists Coel Hen as
3886-474: The syncretism, however, may simply reflect Roman desires to give themselves a prestigious backstory: claim of Trojan descent proved politically advantageous with the Greeks by justifying both claims of common heritage and ancestral enmity. By the time of the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC), there were some sixty different myths for Rome's foundation that circulated in the Greek world. Most of them attributed
3953-401: The trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology , usually in highly romanticized, 20th-century reconstructed versions. The work of Jessie Weston , in particular From Ritual to Romance , traced Arthurian imagery through Christianity to roots in early nature worship and vegetation rites, though this interpretation is no longer fashionable. It
4020-408: The use of the Forum as a public space point[s] to the development of [a] shared civil and ritual space[] for the inhabitants of all communities, demonstrating an increasing level of centralisation. Like other Villanovan proto-urban centres, this archaic Rome was likely organised around clans that guarded their own areas, but by the later eighth century had confederated. The development of city-states
4087-440: Was a direct or collateral descendant of Aeneas. Myths of the early third century also differed greatly in the claimed genealogy of Romulus or the founder, if an intermediate actor was posited. One tale posited that a Romus, son of Zeus, founded the city. Callias posited that Romulus was descended from Latinus and a woman called Roma who was the daughter of Aeneas and a homonymous mother. Other authors depicted Romulus and Romus, as
SECTION 60
#17327658957604154-443: Was a seasonally dry plain that simultaneously provided a safe inland port for the era's seafaring ships, a wide area for watering horses and cattle, and a safe ford of the Tiber with shallow and slow-flowing water even if Tiber Island had not yet formed, one of the river's major fords between Etruria and Campania . This advantageous but exposed location was closely flanked by the Capitoline, which at that time rose sharply from
4221-640: Was considered to commemorate the anniversary of the city's founding during the late Republic and that aspect of the holiday grew in importance under the Empire until it was fully transformed into the Romaea in AD 121. The year of the supposed founding was variously computed by ancient historians, but the two dates seeming to be officially sanctioned were the Varronian chronology 's 753 BC (used by Claudius 's Secular Games and Hadrian 's Romaea ) and
4288-470: Was founded by a woman named Rhome, one of the followers of Aeneas, after landing in Italy and burning their ships. That by the middle of the fifth century Aeneas was also allegedly the founder of two or three other cities across Italy was no object. These myths also differed as to whether their eponymous matriarch Roma was born in Troy or Italy – i.e. before or after Aeneas's journey – or otherwise if their Romus
4355-460: Was in part due to Greek historians' eagerness to construct narratives purporting that the Italians were actually descended from Greeks and their heroes. These narratives were accepted by non-Greek peoples due Greek historiography's prestige and claims to systematic validity. Archaeological evidence shows that worship of Aeneas had been established at Lavinium by the sixth century BC. Similarly,
4422-469: Was likely a Greek innovation that spread through the Mediterranean from 850 to 750 BC. The earliest votive deposits are found in the early seventh century on the Capitoline and Quirinal hills, suggesting that by that time a city had formed with monumental architecture and public religious sanctuaries. Certainly, by 600 BC, a process of synoikismos was complete and there had been formed
4489-985: Was often thought to have originally been the Welsh goddess Modron or Irish the Morrígan . Many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century and have been questioned in more recent years. William Shakespeare was interested in the legendary history of Britain, and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeare's plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings, such as King Lear and Cymbeline . It has been suggested that Shakespeare's Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material. These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed 's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland , which also appears in Shakespeare's sources for Macbeth . Other early authors also drew from
#759240