103- The Silent Tomb?

It's 5th July, 716 BCE. Campus Martius. One way or another, King Romulus of Rome disappears. But how? Did he become a god? Did the Senate do him in? Was there an uprising by the people? Let's pick our way through the different versions of events...

Time period: 716 BCE

Relevant individuals:

• Romulus, 1st King of Rome

Sources for this episode:

• Cassius Dio (1961), Dio's Roman History (Volume I). Translated by E. Cary. London and Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd. and Harvard University Press.
• Dionysus of Halicarnassus (1960), The Roman Antiquities of Dionysus of Halicarnassus. Translated by E. Cary. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Livy (1971), The Early History of Rome. Translated by A. de Selincourt. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Ovid (1968), The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Translated by M. M. Innes. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Pliny's Natural History (TBA).
• Plutarch (1938), Plutarch's Lives (Volume I). London and New York: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. and E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
• Sextus Aurelius Victor (1825), Galerie Romaine, ou les Hommes Illustres de Rome et les Cesars. Translated by A. Caillot. Paris.
• Wiseman, T. P. (1983), The Wife and Children of Romulus. The Classical Quarterly 33(2): 445-452.
• Author unknown, NASA (date unknown), Solar eclipses of historical interest (online) (Accessed 27/10/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), List of solar eclipses in antiquities (online) (Accessed 27/10/2025).