4. Study Questions Copy
Try to write your answers first and then compare with the answers provided below. Click on the questions to view the answers.
The Romans appear to be attracted to stories of patriots who put the good of the state over individuals i.e. loyalty to family and friends, or self. You will see this with Junius Brutus, and over and over again in the history of the early and mid-Roman Republic.
It is possible that when the stories of Romulus and Remus were first being created, they may have been borrowing from the stories surrounding Cyrus (or perhaps it was the other way around). There are several common tropes for ancient foundation tropes. For instance, some societies were said to have been founded by individuals who had travelled around the Mediterranean, often to Egypt, collecting esoteric wisdom before returning home to found societies (e.g. Pythagoras, and Lycurgus, who radically reformed Sparta). The same themes and stories are often seen across the myths of different cultures and the same archetypes.
