How Can Historians Make Use Of The Stories That The Romans

How can historians make use of the stories that the Romans told about their founders and foundations? Abstract. There are two distinct stories regarding the foundation of ancient Rome, with claims to two founders. The story of Romulus and Remus describes the literal foundation of the city where as the Aeneid addresses the origins in the foundations of the Roman people being descended from Aeneas. In regards to their use to historians, though there is debate as to the legitimacy of historical facts, looking beyond the actual story and noting the difference between versions particularly in Romulus and Remus can give clues of Roman society during the time of it being written. The information contained within the stories of foundation reflects the needs of the Romans citizens and the influences of the era. Introduction. Through the study of past evidence, historians become capable of creating educated interpretations of the past based on such evidence and previous knowledge. Difficulty in interpretation does not come from insufficient evidence, with an abundance of preserved historical works from writers, Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus for example, but the unreliable nature of literary tradition (Cornell, 1986) resulting in differentiated opinions of the usefulness of ancient evidence particularly with the incompatible stories of Roman foundation. The usefulness of stories from Romans can become increasingly valuable though there are some historians of the opinion theShow MoreRelatedAssessment of Livy’s â€Å"the History of Rome†783 Words   |  4 Pagesancient historians who wrote 142 books of Roman history called the Ab Urbe Condita (Gill, 2013). This essay seeks to assess the work of Livy if it qualifies as a work of history; the assessment will be based on two points namely, unbiased telling of the story and use of myths in ancient history. 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