Romulus

Romulus,

a prime character in Roman mythology; but which of the legends concerning this alleged founder and earliest king of their city was regarded as genuine by the Romans is wholly uncertain, since our information is based on very modern sources. The following tradition had, however, become quite generally established in the flourishing period of Roman literature: Two brothers belonging to the royal family descended from AEneas and reigning in Alba, who were named Numitor and Amulius, divided their inheritance so that Numitor received the throne and Amulius the treasure. Amulius, however, soon dethroned his brother, and made a vestal of his daughter Ilia, or Rhea Silvia, in order to guard against offspring on her part. She was, however, approached by the god Mars, and gave birth to the twins Romulus and Remus, whom Amulius caused to be exposed by means of a servant on the overflowed banks of the Tiber. They were nourished by a she wolf and a bird, until found by the shepherd Faustulus, who bore them to his house and reared them with the assistance of his wife, Acca Larentia. On arriving at manhood, they dethroned and killed Amulius and reinstated their grandfather Numitor. After this they founded a new city (Rome); but in the progress of the work a quarrel broke out between them, and Remus was slain by his brother's hand. Romulus now reigned alone in the new state, and after his death was venerated as a god under the name of Quirinus, because of the declaration of Julius Proculus that Romulus had appeared to him in superhuman form. A bronze group of the wolf suckling the twins is still preserved in the Capitoline Palace, and constitutes one of the most eminent relics of ancient Roman art.