The phrase "…citizens of every description, from contemporaries of Romulus to the present day" is an allusion to a line from Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse «Eugene Onegin» (Chapter 1, Stanza VI), where the narrator observes that Onegin had no taste for digging through the chronological dust of world history, but kept the anecdotes of bygone days, «from Romulus down to our own day,» well in memory.
Romulus in History
Romulus was the legendary founder and first king of Rome (reigned roughly 753-716 BC). According to Roman mythology, Romulus and his twin brother Remus were sons of the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia and the god of war, Mars. After their birth the brothers were thrown into the Tiber on the order of King Amulius of Alba Longa, but survived thanks to a she-wolf who suckled them.
Grown to manhood, the brothers founded a city on the bank of the Tiber, but during a dispute over where to found it, Romulus killed Remus. The city was named Rome (Latin Roma) in Romulus’s honor. According to legend, during Romulus’s reign:
- The foundations of the Roman state and its military organization were laid
- The abduction of the Sabine women — women of a neighboring tribe — took place, becoming the cause of a war
- A senate of 100 elders (patres) was established
- The foundations of patrician-plebeian society were laid
The contemporaries of Romulus were the inhabitants of early Rome in the eighth century BC, made up of:
- Patricians — the first Roman citizens and aristocrats
- Plebeians — free citizens of lower standing
- Latins — the Italic peoples inhabiting Latium
- Sabines — an Italic tribe with whom Rome united after a war
- Etruscans — representatives of an ancient civilization that had a significant influence on Roman culture
According to tradition, Romulus was deified after death and worshipped under the name of the god Quirinus.