Romulus And Remus Analysis

When it comes down to the fight that took place between the brothers, both of them took place for widely differing reasons. In the case of Romulus and Remus, they quarreled over who would ultimately take the throne of Rome. Under the surface, Romulus and Remus both of them want the throne, and proclaim that their signs from god as evidence to why they should be proclaimed king. This is complicated by their being multiple interpretations of why Romulus ended up slaying Remus, with Livy saying that the more common version was that Remus kept jumping over the walls of Romulus’ settlement, and was killed for doing so repeatedly. This interpretation and the other one are both plausible explanations, with the first one being fueled by Romulus and Remus refusing to compromise, and the second one being fueled by Remus’ disrespect for the walls of Romulus’ settlement. This second reasoning, however, falls much more in line with Rome’s mindset as a people, …show more content…
To the target audience of Cain and Abel (which in this case is people of the Christian religion), the story is of the first murder, and is something that many are ashamed of rather than the pride that the Romans felt for Romulus and Remus. When it comes to Cain and Abel, the two major lessons and morals to come from the story are that one must be generous to and place their trust in God, and that one must not be jealous and fearful of losing what one has. Cain was neither of these things, and was jealous of Abel’s reaction out of God, even though he himself was undeserving of the same treatment. In addition, Cain’s quip to God of “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) brings up another takeaway from the story, which is that one should be responsible for his own family. There’s many more messages to obtain out of the story, but the bottom line is that it’s about as far from the Roman ideal as you can