Rome- Roman LocationLocation · Landmark"The Eternal City"

The She-Wolf

Romulus and Remus were grandsons of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, through their mother Rhea Silvia. Numitor's brother Amulius had seized the throne, killed Numitor's sons, and forced Rhea Silvia into Vesta's service so she could bear no heirs. Mars visited her there. She bore twins.

Amulius ordered the infants drowned in the Tiber. The river deposited the basket at the foot of the Palatine Hill, where a she-wolf found them and suckled them in her den, the Lupercal cave. A woodpecker, also sacred to Mars, brought them food. The shepherd Faustulus found the twins and raised them with his wife Acca Larentia. When they grew to manhood, they learned their true identity, killed Amulius, and restored Numitor to his throne.

The Furrow on the Palatine

Rather than remain in Alba Longa, the twins resolved to found a new city at the site where they had been saved. They disagreed over where to build and which brother should rule. They turned to augury. Remus, watching from the Aventine, saw six vultures first. Romulus, watching from the Palatine, then saw twelve. Each claimed victory: Remus by priority, Romulus by number.

Romulus marked out the city's sacred boundary on the Palatine with a plough on April 21, 753 BCE. Remus mocked the furrow and leapt over it. Romulus killed him. "So perish anyone who crosses my walls," he said. In Livy's telling, Romulus's follower Celer may have struck the blow, but the result was the same: Rome was founded in its first brother's blood.

The Sabine Women

The new city had men but no women. Romulus's followers were refugees, fugitives, and adventurers. When neighboring peoples refused intermarriage, Romulus invited the Sabines and their families to a festival honoring Neptune. At a signal, the Roman men seized the young women from among the guests.

The Sabines marched on Rome under their king Titus Tatius. The battle raged in the valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline until the Sabine women themselves ran between the armies. They begged their fathers and husbands to stop, saying they would rather die than become widows and orphans on either side. The armies laid down their weapons. Romans and Sabines merged into one people, with Romulus and Titus Tatius ruling jointly.

Numa and Lucretia

After Romulus was taken up to heaven, the Sabine Numa Pompilius became king and gave Rome its religious institutions. He received guidance from the nymph Egeria, who met him in a sacred grove outside the city. He established the calendar of festivals, the college of pontiffs, and the worship of Vesta, whose sacred fire Aeneas had carried from Troy.

Six kings followed Romulus. The last, Tarquinius Superbus, fell when his son Sextus raped the noblewoman Lucretia. She called her father and husband, told them what had happened, and drove a knife into her own chest. Lucius Junius Brutus held up the bloody blade and swore to drive the Tarquins from Rome. The Romans expelled the king and established the Republic, swearing never again to submit to one man's rule.