Gartrell, Amber; (2024) A Divine Right to Rule? The Gods as Legitimators of Power. In: Betjes, Sven and Hekster, Olivier and Manders, Erika, (eds.) Tradition and Power in the Roman Empire. (pp. 11-26). Brill: Leiden, The Netherlands.

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Abstract

Rome’s very first political competition was resolved by calling upon the gods to adjudicate the dispute; the victor then went on to claim the highest position of power in the state. From that moment on, the support of the gods became a way to break into or to climb structures of power and legitimise claims to that power. This first competition was between Romulus and Remus over the foundation of their city: where it should be located, what it should be called, and who should rule over it.1 When Romulus received a sign of twelve vultures to his brother’s six, the city was founded on the Capitoline and named Rome after its first king, whose position of supreme power had thus been legitimised by this display of divine support.2 Not all ancient authors accepted this claimed legitimacy at face value, however. Plutarch’s account includes a variant in which Romulus lied, claiming the appearance of twelve vultures after Remus announced his six, only to be retroactively proven correct when the twelve vultures then appeared.3 A question of the authenticity of claims for divine support is thus present in accounts of the first use of this technique: should these be understood as genuine expressions of religious belief or cynical political manipulations?

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