The mythical founders of Rome. Numitor, a descendant of Aeneas, was deposed from the rule of Alba Longa by his younger brother Amulius, who not only killed Numitor's sons but forced his only daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal Virgin so that no children might be born of her. But he reckoned without the gods, for Mars lay with the girl and she bore him twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Flinging her into prison, Amulius ordered the babies to be thrown into the River Tiber, but the basket in which they lay floated safely to the shore near a fig tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, later held to be sacred. Here a she-wolfe, hearing the infants' cries, came and suckled them, and a woodpecker fed them scraps of food. Both creatures were sacred to Mars. The royal shepherd, Faustulus, chanced by and saw the she-wolf tenderly licking the babies as if they were her own young. Guessing the boys' royal parentage, he took them home, and he and his wife Acca Larentia brought them up as their own. They grew into fine, strong young men who often led a band of young shepherds on daring exploits. One day Remus was captured and handed over to Numitor to be punished. Numitor suspected that Remus and his brother might be his lost grandsons and had his suspicions confirmed by Faustulus. Romulus and Remus, with the help of their loyal band of young men, attacked the palace and killed the usurper Amulius. Numitor once more became king.
      The brothers now decided to found a city of their own. They chose a site not far from Alba Longa, and near the Tiber where they had been cast out to die. But now they quarrelled as to who should name the city and become its king. Since they could not known which twin was the elder, they left it to the gods to send a sign, with Remus taking up a position on the Aventine Hill and Romulus on the Palatine. Remus first saw six vultures, then Romulus saw twelve. Each of them was named king by their own followers, Remus on the grounds of priority, Romulus of quantity. In the brawl that followed, Remus was slain. In another version of his death, Remus spoke slightingly of the new city walls and jumped over them, at which he was killed either by Romulus or by his henchman Celer. Romulus declared in anger, 'So perish anyone else who shall leap over my walls.' Now he was left alone to found the city, which he called Rome after himself.
      The city flourished. People flocked to live there, many of them outlaws and fugitives to whom Romulus willingly gave sanctuary, since they made Rome the stronger. Unfortunately, the Romans were both feared and scorned by their neighbors and were refused marriage with the local women. Romulus overcame this problem by holding a great festival and inviting the families of the local tribes, including the Sabines. They came, but in the midst of the festivities the Romans drove off the men and carried away their daughters ('the Rape of the Sabine Women'). At first the girls were terrified, but Romulus reassured them and their captors wooed them with words of love, so they soon accepted their new situation. Their fathers and brothers, meanwhile rallied to win them back by force. Various small raids against Rome were unsuccessful, but finally the Sabines attacked in force under their king, Titus Tatius. They took the Roman citadel through the treachery of the commander's daughter, Tarpeia, and battle ensued between Sabines and Romans. At this the Sabine Women ran out into the thick of the fighting, begging their husbands and fathers not to kill each other. So Romans and Sabines made peace, agreeing to merge into a single federation, with Rome as their capital and Romulus and Titus Tatius their joint rulers. Soon afterwards Titus Tatius was killed in a quarrel with the people of Lavinium.
      Romulus ruled for some forty years, during which time Rome grew and prospered. At the end of his life he left the earth in a mysterious fashion. He was holding a muster of troops in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) when a storm blew up, and amid claps of thunder he was enveloped in a cloud so thick that he disappeared from view. When the cloud dispersed, he had vanished. The senators who had been nearest him declared that he had been caught up into heaven, and the soldiers, who loved Romulus, hailed him as a god. He was thereafter worshipped as the deity Quirinus. But according to Livy, there was a rumor that he had been murdered and torn to pieces by the senators, envious of his power.
      The wolf appears on early Roman coins. The famous bronze she-wolf in the Capitoline Museum at Rome dates to the fifth century BC, while the suckling twins were added in the sixteenth century. (Jenny March, Classical Mythology [Cassel & Co: London, 1998])