ROMULUS & REMUS FOUND ROME
According to the legend, on 21st April 753 B.C., Romulus and his twin brother Remus, found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants.
Romulus and Remus were the sons of Rhea Silvia, the daughter of King Numitor of Alba Longa.
Alba Longa was a mythical city located in the Alban Hills southeast of what would become Rome.
Before the birth of the twins, Numitor was deposed by his younger brother Amulius.
Amulius. forced Rhea to become a vestal virgin, so that she would not give birth to rival claimants to his title.
However, Rhea was impregnated by the war god Mars, and gave birth to Romulus and Remus.
Amulius ordered the infants drowned in the Tiber, but they survived and washed ashore at the foot of the Palatine hill.
Here, they were discovered by a she-wolf.
The she-wolf raised and suckled them, until they were found by the shepherd Faustulus.
Faustulus and his wife cared for the twins, who later became leaders of a band of young shepherd warriors.
After learning their true identity, they attacked Alba Longa, killed the wicked Amulius, and restored their grandfather to the throne.
The twins then decided to found a town on the site where they had been saved as infants.
They soon became involved in a petty quarrel, and Remus was slain by his brother.
Romulus then became ruler of the settlement, which was named “Rome” after him.
In reality, the exact date of Rome’s founding was set by the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, in the first century B.C.
The Romulus and Remus myth originated sometime in the fourth century B.C.
🐺 La Lupa Capitolina “the Capitoline Wolf”.
The wolf-figure is Etruscan, from the 5th century BC.
The figures of Romulus and Remus were added in the 15th century AD by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.
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