Latin 1Amagistra Kelleher

Latin 1AMagistra Kelleher

Romulus and Remus

For many years the city of Alba Longa, which Aeneas founded, flourished under the rule of kings. However, one king had two sons, Numitor and Amulius, who fought over the right to rule Alba Longa. Eventually Amulius overthrew Numitor and took control of the city. Although Amulius had power, he was still nervous that one day Numitor’s daughter, Rhea Silvia, would have children who would rise up against him.

In order to prevent Rhea Silvia from having children, Amulius forced her to join the Vestal Virgins. These women were priestesses who never married or had children and lived only among other women. Nevertheless Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Amulius was furious and threw Rhea in jail and took her babies from her and ordered a servant to drown the babies in the river. When the servant went out to the river he couldn’t bring himself to kill the babies so he placed them in a basket and floated them down the TiberRiver.

Romulus and Remus floated down the river and landed on the bank of the Tiber near a forest. While the boys had been saved from drowning, they were still in great danger from wild animals and starvation. Luckily a she-wolf discovered the boys and rather than eating them, she nursed them and kept them safe.

One day soon after a herdsman came upon the baby boys and their protector, the she-wolf. He decided to raise the boys and Romulus and Remus grew up to be strong and manly young men. They roamed the countryside saving people from persecution and injustice. Eventually they learned the truth about the birth, but rather than attacking Amulius they decided to found a new city near the TiberRiver, where they had been saved as babies.

Romulus and Remus began constructing the city but kept arguing about how things should be built. In order to solve their disputes the twins decided to take an augury. An augury is a religious practice in which people use the flight patterns of birds to determine the will of the gods. Romulus and Remus stood on separate hills and watched the sky for birds. First Remus saw 6 vultures. Then Romulus claimed that he saw 12 vultures. The men that argued over whether the one who saw the birds first should make the decisions or whether the one who saw the most birds should makes the decisions. The quarrel between the two men escalated and finally they began to physically fight. Romulus killed Remus and took control of the city.

However, this is only one explanation of why Romulus killed Remus. Another story tells that when Romulus began to build the walls of the city Remus mocked him and began to jump over his walls to prove how weak they were. Because of this ridicule a fight broke out between the two boys and Romulus killed Remus.

Either way Romulus became the ruler of the city on the TiberRiver, which was named Rome in his honor. The city flourished under Romulus’ rule and the Roman calendar dates everything “from the founding of the city” and begins in the year 753 BC. Romulus and Remus are considered heroes by the Romans and some even believed that they were the sons of the war god Mars. The Romans also respected wolves because of the she-wolf that saved the babies. For this reason the symbol of the early Roman army was a wolf.