In antiquity, borders always had the function of including or excluding people from certain
spaces in order to promote the development of a
cultural identity. The practice of marking the sacred boundary of a city
was not only significant for the physical shape of the city, but
also served as a crystallisation point for the identity of the people living there.
The work focusses on the myth of the foundation of Rome by Romulus.
By digging a moat, Romulus marked the Pomerium - the sacred
border of the city - and defended it from the encroachment of his brother Remus.
This story has been deliberately rewritten
over the centuries. The aim of this work is to fathom the meaning behind it.
The most significant rewriting of the legend goes back to authors of the Augustan
period. In this period, the figure of Romulus underwent a decisive transformation within the framework
of tradition: From the version of the late
Republic, in which Romulus is described as a tyrant without compassion who was capable
of killing his own brother, he became the saviour and protector of the
Romans. From that moment on, Remus was a hostis, who had arbitrarily scaled the
city wall and thus jeopardised the sacred integrity of the Pomerium
. He had thus excluded himself from the Roman community.
In this narrative, Augustus becomes the new founder of Rome: the new
Romulus, who was the only one capable of reuniting the Romans after the
civil wars. By deliberately modifying the
Roman collective memory in relation to the founding of the city,
a way was found to overcome the identity crisis.