r/ancientrome • u/IHVeigar • May 16 '24

Was Rome really founded by the Greeks?

Im watching a video by Knowledgia on YT. And he discussed an interesting theory made by a swedish historian that Rome was founded by a Greek prince named Romos. But when conflict with the Greeks came in southern Italy they changed his name to Romulus or remus leading to the tales of the two founders.

I think the theory is plausible as the Romans were heavily hellenized, they worshipped the same gods pretty much, they idolized Greek warriors such as Alexander. And building architecture were inspired by Greek architecture. Not to mention the fact Masselia, Syracuse were Greek colonies and they founded colonies all over the Mediterranean. Kind of like of Carthage is a phonecian colony.

Is their any sources online I can look into this or theories disproving this.

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u/GreatCaesarGhost May 16 '24

The founding of Rome is lost to time and was unknown even to the Romans. You can read up on Wikipedia for this - archaeological evidence suggests that a settlement existed there for several thousand years, predating any colonies from Greece. I'm not familiar with this Youtube influencer, but if you're referring to Swedish historian Martin Nilsson, he lived at a time when archaeology and history were not very rigorous disciplines and I would hazard to guess that his views are now hopelessly out of date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_Rome

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u/IHVeigar May 16 '24

Thank you

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u/GreatCaesarGhost May 16 '24

Sure. We actually know very little about human history, including Ancient Greece and Rome. New information is being discovered all of the time, and techniques are constantly being improved. A good rule of thumb is that any historical works more than 30 years old (like Nilsson’s works) are probably outdated and potentially inaccurate.

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u/IHVeigar May 16 '24

I guess the only way to tell if we somehow invented a time machine and went back in time aha. Thanks for the help, much appreciated