Gabii - Legend and Legendary History

Legend and Legendary History

The early date of the prehistoric Gabii suggests that the Roman writers could have little traditional memory of its foundation or of who founded it. The surviving traditions are therefore in the legend category; there may or may not be elements of truth in them. The tradition is two-fold: Gabii was founded either by the Latin kings of Alba Longa (according to Vergil and Dionysius of Halicarnassus) and therefore was aboriginal Latin in ethnic descent, or by the Sicels as the Siculi, a substrate population of east Italy expelled by the Italics to Sicily. They became one of the three major indigenous tribes of ancient Sicily, giving their name to it.

The legend of a Siculian foundation of Rome comes from fragments of early Roman annalists, who asserted that the Siculi occupied several cities of Latium before the arrival of the aborigines (Latins): Rome, Tibur, Fescennium, Falerii, Antemnae, Caenina and a few others. Gabii is mentioned as one of them by Gaius Julius Solinus. According to him two Siculian brothers founded it and named it by combining their names, Galatus and Bins. Fanciful etymologies such as the above are not taken seriously but there is a sober case for a Sicilian and Siculian influence on early Latium. For example, the Cloelii claimed to be from Alba Longa and used the cognomen Siculus. Prisons called lautumia were cut into the sides of the early Capitoline Hill. Syracuse used quarries, called latomiai, for a simuilar purpose. Most of the similarities can be attributed to an influence on early Rome from Greek Sicily; however, the case of a Sicul substrate also is possible.

Plutarch relates the legend that Romulus and Remus were raised by Faustulus, the servant of Amulius, in Gabii, where they learned everything from literature to the use of Greek weapons. From there they went on to found Rome.