Every major historian knows about Numa Pompilius. He was sung by many great singers and writers. For example, the French writer Florian wrote a whole poem about Numa Pompilius. But most modern people know at best his name. So it will be useful to eliminate this shortcoming by briefly talking about it.
Who is he?
Each student can easily name the first ruler of Rome. Of course, this is Romulus - the founder of the Eternal City and one of the twins fed by the legendary she-wolf. But who became the second ruler of Rome? This question is much more difficult to answer. In fact, Numa Pompilius was the second ruler of Rome. He carried out numerous reforms aimed both at improving the lives of ordinary people and at increasing the power of the young state, which only a few centuries later would be destined to become great.
Short biography
To begin with, it is worth telling a brief biography of Numa Pompilius. By an amazing coincidence, he was born on the same day that the city of Rome was founded - April 21, 753 BC. His father is Pomponius, a native of a noble family of the Sabines. Numa became the fourth son in the family. Despite his we alth and serious position, Pomponius kept the whole family strict, almost in Spartan conditions.
The first time Numa married very young - his wife was the daughter of the Sabinian king Tatius, who ruled with Romulus. Alas, the young wife died shortly after the wedding. After that, Numa did not get along with women for a long time, but later married Lucretia. She bore him four sons - Pina, Pomp, Mamerka and Kalp. It is believed that it was from these names that noble Roman families later descended (although this fact is highly doubtful).
Also, Numa had a daughter - Pompilius. Subsequently, she became the wife of Marcius the First and gave birth to the powerful ruler Anka Marcius.
How he became ruler
As already mentioned, Numa Pompilius came from a we althy, influential family. However, he did not have any rights to the throne of Rome. However, he did not at all strive for power, conquest. He was much more interested in art, a peaceful way of development. But later he had to change his mind.
The fact is that after the death of Romulus, there was no ruler left who would have the right to take his place. As a result, he was replaced by a Senate, consisting of a hundred people. The powers of the ruler were transferred to each patrician for exactly one day, after which he was replaced by the next one. The lack of unity of command had a negative impact on the country - each temporary ruler believed that it was he who would lead Rome and its people to prosperity, and the methods were very different. In addition, the Sabinesthe Senate was much smaller than the Romans, which caused dissatisfaction with the first, threatened to escalate into a split and a civil war.
Therefore, after long discussions in the Senate, it was decided to choose a single ruler. Moreover, he had to come from the people of the Sabines in order to compensate for their small number in the government. The choice fell on Numa Pompilius, whose biography after this incident changed dramatically. On the one hand, he was an extremely educated, calm, reasonable and pious person. On the other hand, Numa has never been a supporter of the forceful solution of issues. The Sabines hoped that it was he who would force the warlike Romans to curb their ambitions, learn to find a peaceful solution to the issue.
For a long time, Numa Pompilius refused to rule, not wanting to occupy such an important post. Only after lengthy persuasion from his father and the prefect of Rome, Marcius I, did he change his mind, agreeing to become the ruler.
Reign Achievements
As further events showed, he changed his mind not in vain. It was under Numa Pompilius that Rome began to grow rich, rapidly gain power.
Not warlike, devoid of ambition, Numa turned out to be a good strategist, a wise ruler. Coming from a peasant district, he was used to solving all issues slowly, as thoroughly as possible. This has definitely benefited the country.
To begin with, he counted all the lands belonging to Rome, conducted a survey - not a single piece of land was left unaccounted for,was not without a master. Of course, such an economic approach rather quickly affected the state of the state economy.
The next step, he established workshops for artisans, dividing them by occupation. Each workshop now had its own meetings and rituals. This turned out to be an even smarter reform that united the people.
Before this, there was no unity in Rome. The people were divided into calm, industrious Sabines and warlike, ardent Romans. In addition, part of the people called themselves the citizens of Romulus, while others were called the people of Tatius. This at any moment could lead to civil war and the death of the young state.
And to prevent this from happening, Numa came up with a completely new way of dividing, not causing such a serious confrontation, mixing two close peoples. He divided all masters and free people by profession into eight major workshops, which included dyers, shoemakers, musicians, potters, coppersmiths and others. The remaining crafts, smaller and unable to form their own workshop, were united into a common ninth.
For each workshop, King Numa Pompilius established the appropriate holidays, indicated the patron gods who should be honored accordingly. As a result, two yesterday's enemies - a Sabine and a Roman - discovered that they are both coppersmiths and can learn a lot from each other, and there is absolutely no reason for enmity.
At the same time, he seriously changed the existing pantheon of gods worshiped by the locals. For example, he appointed Termina as one of the main ones -god of borders and boundaries. Thus, the wise ruler managed to avoid unnecessary conflicts between landowners - no one wanted to incur the wrath of powerful gods. Fidessa, the goddess of peace, honest labor, began to be revered very highly. This is what Rome most needed to prosper. Finally, he also created the cult of the goddess Vesta, the patroness of the hearth. Few people know, but it was Numa Pompilius who founded the order of the Vestal Virgins - women who serve the powerful goddess.
However, he also did not forget about the old gods. Moreover, the ruler established the position of a priest. They were supposed to make sacrifices to Jupiter, Mars and other famous gods.
Nume was not alien to a certain symbolism. For example, he chose the place for his second palace very carefully. As a result, the residence was built between two Roman hills - the Quirinal (where the Romans mostly lived) and the Palatine (the place where the Sabines lived). Thus Numa pointed out that the king is equally close to both great nations, is completely impartial, despite the fact that he himself comes from the Sabines.
The humanity of the ruler
Humanity, not characteristic of most rulers of that cruel time, glorified Numa almost more than his other reforms. There were even legends about Numa Pompilius. For example, that he was familiar with the nymph, the messenger of Jupiter, who taught him wisdom and gave valuable advice. We will talk about this a little later.
But no matter what the myths say, the ruler turned out to be really humane. For example, he once announcedhuman sacrifices that were brought to Jupiter, objectionable to the father of the gods. As a result, people stopped being killed on the altar. Instead, only a part of them was brought, and specifically - hair. Of course, many ordinary people breathed a sigh of relief - it is much easier to give your hair to the great Jupiter than to lie down on the altar, sprinkled with the blood of your predecessors.
Created calendar
The calendar created by the ruler deserves special mention.
Before he came, the Roman calendar consisted of 10 months. The year began in March and ended in December. The names of most of the months are familiar to us, but instead of July and August, there were others - quintilis and sextilis. Subsequently, they were renamed in honor of Gaius Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus.
However, Numa, having an idea about the life and way of life of the peasants, knew perfectly well that ten long months of 35-36 days were not very convenient. That is why he decided to reform and change the calendar. He shortened all existing months to 28-31 days, dividing the freed days into two winter months, which he called January and February. The first was named after the god Janus, and the second - in honor of Phoebus.
Subsequently, the calendar was slightly modified and refined - this is how the Julian calendar, adopted by Julius Caesar himself, appeared. It existed in our country until the beginning of the twentieth century, it was replaced by the Gregorian only after the revolution.
Death of the king
Despite numerous reforms, Numa Pompilius managed to avoid serious conflicts among assistants and gainrespect for the common people. Therefore, unlike many reformers, he lived a long life. He died of old age at the age of 80. It happened in 673.
Long before his death, the ruler wrote an order about what exactly should be done with his body. According to the tradition of his ancestors, he bequeathed to burn himself and put the ashes in a stone chest.
It is known that during his lifetime Pompilius was also a writer and a philosopher. He wrote about a dozen books on religion and philosophy. Numa bequeathed these books to be buried with him, which was done by the descendants honoring his will.
Subsequently, the burial place was found. In 181 BC, two stone caskets were found on the Janiculum hill during earthworks. In one, judging by the inscriptions made in Latin and Greek, the ashes of the ruler were kept. And the second contained all the books he had written. The casket turned out to be very hermetic - for half a thousand years the manuscripts have not decayed. Alas, the local praetor ordered to burn them, fearing that the thoughts set forth in the works could harm the religious order that existed at that time.
Legends of the ruler
Myths about Numa Pompilius are quite numerous. For example, one of them is associated with the burial and its books. It is not known where such rumors came from, but much later, in the Middle Ages, information appeared among alchemists that the Roman ruler had found the secret of a philosopher's stone that could turn ordinary metals into gold. There was even a version that the manuscripts were burned specifically forin order to hide this secret that the king of Rome wanted to take with him to the grave.
But much more interesting is the legend of Numa Pompilius and the nymph Egeria.
The story of their acquaintance has two options. In one of them, they met at the moment when the young man was mourning the death of his first wife. Suffering from mental pain, he went to the Alban mountains so that no one would see his suffering. There he met a nymph.
According to another version, this happened much later, when Numa ruled Rome for the seventh year.
A terrible epidemic broke out in the city (perhaps the plague), and people were dying in their families. The king did not know what to do - local doctors could not do anything, and the prayers of the priests did not help.
Retiring into the forest to consider the situation, Numa suddenly saw a shield that fell at his feet. It was brought to him by the nymph Egeria, and Jupiter personally handed over the shield. The only way to save the city was to use this shield. The nymph advised to make eleven exact copies and hang them on the walls in a temple built in honor of the goddess Vesta. Every year in March (the month dedicated to the god of war Mars), these shields were to be removed and a sacred military rite should be held with them. The observance of the ritual promised to protect Rome from disease.
Of course, this is just a beautiful legend, but after that, in the city for many years there was a brotherhood of Salii priests who performed the ritual every year.
There is also a legend that later Numa visited Egeria at night, coming to her sacred grove. She opened her willpeople and gods, prompted what laws should be passed, what reforms should be carried out. According to legend, it was the nymph who told the ruler that Jupiter would be content with the hair of people instead of human victims.
References in literature and cinema
Of course, such an important ruler, who did so much for his city and people, is not completely forgotten. Many writers and poets dedicated poems to him, talked about his great deeds:
- An example of this is the poetic novel by the French writer Florian "Numa Pompilius", which tells about the life and accomplishments of the Roman king.
- Titus Livy gave him an important place in the book "History of Rome from the founding of the city".
- The writer Schwegler, in his "Roman History", published in German in 1867, spoke in detail about this ruler.
But with the cinema Numa Pompilius was less fortunate. He only appears in one movie, Romulus and Remus. The film was released back in 1961, and Italian Sergio Corbucci became its director. The role of the ruler went to Enzo Cherusico. Perhaps it was precisely such a low popularity in the cinema that led to the fact that very few of our contemporaries know about this worthy ruler.
Conclusion
This is the end of the article. Now you know who Numa Pompilius was, how he became a ruler and what made him famous. Agree that such lessons of history should not be forgotten!
