Genealogy and history during the Roman Republic

Abstract

The article deals with the legendary genealogies of the Roman aristocratic families. Among them the Fabii were the prominent clan in the political life of the Roman Republic. One of their genealogies goes back to Hercules and guarantees them a divine origin, the other presents them as the companions of Remus and connects the family with the most ancient festival of Lupercalia and the foundation of Rome. Both genealogies at first had nothing in common and developed irrespective of each other until their separate details stopped being interpreted as parts of independent tales in the works of Late Antiquity authors. The origin of the Fabii from Hercules is considered in the paper against the background of the other Roman families’ genealogies, which go back to the Trojan and Greek heroes and the Gods. It is well known that in the I century B.C. there came into being the literary genealogies of the families belonged to the Roman political class, but the starting point of that process goes back to the earlier period, namely, the end of the 4th –beginning of the 2rd century B.C. The Fabii had their own historian – Quintus Fabius Pictor, who made efforts in order to present his ancestors’ activities in the most favourable way. But it is unfair to make him responsible for the reconstruction of his family history from the ancient times. The composition of the legend about Hercules as the forefather of the Fabii was launched at the end of the IV century B.C. and was connected with the political activity of Quintus Fabius Rullianus. To that very time we can also refer the birth of the legend which connects the Fabii with Remus and with the Rome’s foundation tale.