Founding of Rome

Founding of Rome

The most popular and well known story of Rome's founding is the legend of the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. Legend says that they were born of the Roman god of war, Mars, and Rhea Silvia, who was the daughter of Numitor, the king of Alba Longa. Out of fear for his own power, the evil King Amulius who had taken the throne of Rhea Silva's father ordered the twins to be killed. However, instead of being killed the babies were put in a basket and were sent down the TiberRiver and came to rest at the foot of the Palatine hill. As the legend says the two babies were then found by a female wolf who nursed and looked after them until they were adopted by a shepherd couple.

When they got older, Romulus and Remus decided to build a town. They both had different ideas on who should rule it so they decided to leave it up to the divine will of the gods. Romulus went up the Palatine Hill and Remus went up the Aventine Hill in order to view birds flight, which they hoped would be an omen from the gods as to who should be the rightful ruler of this new city. The result of this test was that Romulus saw twelve vultures fly by, but Remus only saw six; so Romulus concluded that the gods had chose him as the ruler of this new city. As Romulus was tracing the outline of the city walls for the newborn city, Remus , in an act of defiance of his brother’s power, jumped over the tracing that was marked on the ground. In rage over his brother’s betrayal, Romulus killed Remus on the spot.

To help his new city grow Romulus provided an place of safety for slaves, murderers and anyone else who had nowhere else to go. To give his new citizens (who were all male) wives he invited the Sabines, a tribe further north of Rome, to a religious festival at the new city. While the Sabines were enjoying the festival, the Romans carried off all the Sabine women and caused a war between the two societies. The Sabines attacked the city and fought against the Romans with a fury. As a chance for peace between the two societies was at it's lowest point, the women intervened and asked for both sides to stop fighting. By now, the captive women had fallen in love with their Roman captors and didn't want to see their fathers and brothers fighting their new husbands.

Because of this, peace was restored between the Sabines and the Romans and they became one united people ruled jointly.