THE ANCIENT CITY

My name is Ma’Kaylah Walker. I am applying to The Context Travel Program because I think it will be an excellent experience for me to learn about the rich cultural history of Rome. I am very interested in learning about other cultures and I know that spending time actually seeing, touching and exploring a place is the best way to learn about a culture. I am looking forward to visiting Underground Rome: The Hidden City Walk. It seems very interesting that this part of the city was covered up but still exists for people to tour and learn about Rome’s history. While researching about Rome’s history I found the most interesting period to me is the founding of the city.  I enjoyed researching when Rome was founded because the legend of how Rome began is intriguing and it’s political institution piqued my interest.

There is a legend about how the city of Rome was founded by twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. My favorite version of the legend says that the twins were the descendants of the original emperor of Alba Longa.  Romulus and Remus were born to the emperor’s daughter Silvia.  Their father was Mars, the God of War.  He did not want the twins and put them in the river when they born.  The twins were found by a she-wolf until a shepherd found them and took Romulus and Remus as his sons. The shepherd and his wife raised the children. When Remus and Romulus became adults the shepherd told them who they really were. Romulus and Remus would eventually overthrow their great-uncle Amulius who had taken the throne from their grandfather.  Their grandfather was returned to the throne.  Romulus and Remus decided to establish their own city and eventually Rome was founded.

Politics of Ancient Rome interest me because I see similarities between their government then and United States government now. The Romans did not have a constitution but their levels of government were similar to our current executive, legislative, and judicial branches government. The Roman government has served as a layout for the American government.

The legends and government of Ancient Rome are only two of the many reasons I am interested in learning about Roman history. The myths and legends tell stories that date back to the beginning of Rome. It is amazing how Ancient Roman tactics and politics are still being used in the modern day world today.  I look forward to learning more about these two topics and all of the other interesting facts about Rome.

BY Ma'Kaylah Walker