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ANCIENT ROME : ROMULUS AND REMUS FED BY THE SHE WOLF |
The name of the city, Roma in Latin, comes from Romulus, its legendary founder.
He and his twin brother remus were offspring of Rhea Silvia, a woman of the royal line of Alba Longa, and the god Mars, who had seduced her in a sacred grove, where she was searching for water.
When her uncle Amulius, the king, noticed her mysterious pregnancy, he imprisoned her: and as soon as the children were born, he had them abandoned on the banks of the Tiber river to die.The twins were found by a she wolf, who suckled them until they were discovered by a shepherd ( Faustulus ), who brought them up as his own.
When they were older, Romulus and Remus took to robbery, and on one occasion attacked some of Amulis' shepherds, who were guarding sheep on the Aventine hill. Remus was captured and brought before Amulius and Faustulus chose this moment to explain to Romulus the facts of his birth. After hearing the story, Romulus went straightaway to rescue Remus, murdered Amulius and awarded the now vacant throne of Alba Longa to his grandfather, Numitor.
Romulus and Remus resolved to form their own city where the wolf had rescued them. However a dispute arose between the twins about the exact location. Romulus having received a sign from the gods, started to mark out a boundary around his chosen site on the palatine hill, but Remus jumped over the boundary as it to show how feeble the line of defence was. Romulus saw this as a sacrilege, killed Remus and became sole king of the new city.
Romulus immediate problem was manpower: he needed to populate Rome: so he established there a place to refuge with criminals and runaways from all over Italy could take up residence in safety as the first citizens. This place was called asylum and was located on the Capitol Hill.
Forty years later, after having created the senate, the army, and having divided the population of Rome in 3 tribes, he disappeared from the earth. While he was reviewing his army in the Campus Martius, there was a violent thunderstorm in which he was enveloped in a cloud and vanished from human sight.
Legend says he was taken up to heaven in a chariot by his father Mars. Both Mars and Romulus became identified with the name Quirinus and were sometimes worshipped under that name.
The evidence of graves, huts and walls could be taken to confirm the ancient tradition concerning Rome' foundation. After all, the ancient Romans believed that the Palatine was the initial site of Romulus' s settlement and it was used to sustain the most venerable cults of the Roman people.
If you like to see the original bronzed statue of the she wolf you can visit the Capitol museum in Rome, located on the Capitol Hill.
The image of Romulus and Remus suckled by the she wolf was used by Rome as symbol of its growing power.