Romulus and Remus are twin sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia.

Being illicit and also next in line to the throne of Alba Longa, they were stuffed into a basket by their jealous great uncle Amalius and pitched it into the turbulent river Tiber.

The twins were washed ashore where they were rescued and suckled by a female wolf who had recently lost her cubs.

They thrived and were discovered by a Royal Gamekeeper, Faustulus before they had time to develop any werewolf tendencies. They were taught table manners and turned out to be bright lads who did well and decided to go into the building trade in a big way. Starting by planning a new city.

Sadly they could not agree on the exact location and Romulus drew the first ever picket line denying his brother to cross it. This cause a bad strike as Remus immediately crossed the line which had only been drawn in the dust. So Romulus struck him. It was a very bad strike because Remus fell fatally injured.

Undeterred, Romulus carried on. When completed he decided to call it Rome after himself. Having no established inhabitants this New Town seemed to attract dropouts, scoundrels and runaway slaves with a marked shortage of women.

Romulus came up with the idea of holding some Games — always a good way to draw crowds from afar. This was to be used as cover to abduct some ladies. The Sabines accepted the invitation, and didn’t care for these Games at all as they were losing from the start. This led to an all out war, but Romulus promised Jupiter a temple to gain a sneaky victory.

Eventually there was peace and coalition between the Romans and Sabines, and Rome grew. Romulus made himself king and ruled for 33 years until he was carried off to Heaven by Mars during a solar eclipse to become a deity called Quirinus.

Or did he? Another version said he was nothing but a self-seeking scumbag and he was torn to bits in secret by senators and the remains and stains carefully obliterated. ‘Romulus? Um, we think he’s gone on holiday — there’s no sign of him anywhere.’

Share this page Cite this article

Article last revised on September 09, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

Permissions page

---