Project Description
According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojanprince Aeneas, and who were grandsons of the Latin King Numitor of Alba Longa. King Numitor was deposed by his brother, Amulius, while Numitor’s daughter, Rhea Silvia, gave birth to the twins. Because Rhea Silvia had been raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine.
The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so he ordered them to be drowned. A she-wolf (or a shepherd’s wife in some accounts) saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
The twins then founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over the location of the Roman Kingdom, though some sources state the quarrel was about who was going to rule or give his name to the city. Romulus became the source of the city’s name. In order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem, in that Rome came to have a large male population but was bereft of women. Romulus visited neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables he was refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins with the Sabines.
