Remus’s Family Tree

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Family

• Acca Larentia(parent),Faustulus(parent),Romulus(sibling)— Marriage · Adopted

  Faustulus and Acca Larentia adopted and raised the infant twins Romulus and Remus after Faustulus discovered them being nursed by the she-wolf at the Lupercal.

• Mars(parent),Rhea Silvia(parent),Romulus(sibling)— Consort

  Mars visited the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia and fathered the twins Romulus and Remus, who would go on to found Rome.

Allied with

• Numitor,Romulus

  Numitor revealed the twins' true parentage to Romulus and Remus, and together they conspired to overthrow the usurper Amulius and restore Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa.

• Romulus

  Before their fatal dispute, Remus and Romulus cooperated as twin leaders, raiding cattle, gathering followers among the Palatine shepherds, and jointly overthrowing the usurper Amulius.

Guarded by

• Lupa

  The Lupa nursed the infant twins Romulus and Remus at the Lupercal cave after they were cast into the Tiber, keeping them alive until the shepherd Faustulus discovered them.

Enemy of

• Amulius

  Amulius ordered the infant Remus and his twin Romulus drowned in the Tiber to eliminate rival claimants. The twins survived and returned as young men to kill Amulius and restore Numitor.

• Romulus

  Remus and Romulus quarreled over the site of their new city and the interpretation of the augury. Remus claimed priority with six vultures seen first; Romulus claimed superiority with twelve seen later.

Slain by

• Romulus

  Romulus killed his twin brother Remus during a dispute over where to found their city. Remus leaped over the newly plowed sacred boundary in mockery, and Romulus struck him down.

  ⚠ Ovid's Fasti 4.843 names Celer, one of Romulus's followers, as the actual killer. Livy 1.7 and Plutarch's Life of Romulus 10 attribute the killing directly to Romulus.

Slew

• Amulius

  Romulus and Remus killed their great-uncle Amulius, the usurper who had deposed their grandfather Numitor and ordered the twins drowned as infants.

Associated with

• Romulus,Tiber

  The infant Remus and his twin Romulus were cast into the flooding Tiber River on Amulius's orders but survived when their basket came to rest at the foot of the Palatine Hill.

• Alba Longa

  Remus and his twin Romulus were born in Alba Longa to the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, descendants of the city's royal line founded by Aeneas's son Silvius.

• Aventine Hill

  Remus chose the Aventine Hill as his preferred site for the new city and took his augury there, seeing six vultures before Romulus saw twelve on the Palatine, sparking the fatal dispute.

• Jupiter

  Remus and Romulus sought Jupiter's will through augury to settle their founding dispute. Remus saw six of Jupiter's sacred vultures from the Aventine, but Romulus claimed victory with twelve.

• Lemures

  After Romulus killed Remus, the slain twin's restless shade haunted the living. The Romans instituted the Lemuria festival — originally 'Remuria' according to Ovid and Varro — to placate Remus's ghost and all the wandering dead it had joined among the Lemures.

• Picus

  A woodpecker sacred to Picus brought food to the infant Remus and his twin Romulus alongside the she-wolf's milk, as both creatures of Mars watched over his sons.