The story of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, is one of the ancient world‘s most famous and enduring foundation myths. Featuring a Vestal Virgin mother, a divine father, an attempted infanticide, and a miraculous rescue by a she-wolf, the tale is a colorful mix of history and mythology. As a historian, I find it a fascinating window into how the Romans saw themselves and their place in the world.
The Story of the Twins
The basic outline of the Romulus and Remus myth is as follows: The twins‘ mother, Rhea Silvia, was the daughter of Numitor, king of the Latin city of Alba Longa. However, Numitor‘s throne was usurped by his brother Amulius. To solidify his rule, Amulius forced Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, a priestess sworn to celibacy.
Despite this, Rhea Silvia conceived the twins. In the most common version of the story, the war god Mars visited her while she slept and fathered Romulus and Remus. Accounts differ as to whether he seduced her or took her by force. The historian Livy is more prosaic, suggesting Rhea Silvia was simply raped by an unknown man.
Regardless of how they were conceived, when the twins were born Amulius saw them as a threat. He ordered them placed in a basket and set adrift on the River Tiber. However, the river-god Tiberinus took pity on them. He caused the river to gentle, allowing the basket to come ashore safely at the base of the Palatine Hill. There, the twins were found and suckled by a she-wolf (lupa in Latin), the animal sacred to their father Mars.
The twins were eventually discovered and raised by a shepherd named Faustulus and his wife. They grew into strong, intelligent young men and natural leaders. After learning of their true heritage, they overthrew Amulius and restored their grandfather Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa.
The Founding of Rome
The climax of the Romulus and Remus myth comes when the twins decide to found a new city of their own, but quarrel over where to build it. Romulus favors the Palatine Hill, while Remus prefers the Aventine Hill.
According to Livy, Romulus and Remus agree to settle their dispute through augury – a divination ritual involving birds. Each takes up a position on his favored hill and watches the sky. Remus sees six auspicious birds, but Romulus soon sees twelve. Their followers argue over whose signs are more favorable.
In a fit of anger, Remus mockingly leaps over the half-built walls of Romulus‘s new settlement, saying "Will these walls protect your city?". An enraged Romulus replies "Thus perish whoever else shall leap over my walls!" and kills his brother. Romulus goes on to found the city, naming it Roma after himself.
Other versions have Remus being killed by one of Romulus‘s followers, either Fabius or Celer, rather than by Romulus himself. In any case, Remus‘s death serves as an origin for Rome‘s "pomerium", the sacred boundary not to be crossed by enemies. His death is an ill omen indicating the new city will achieve greatness through fratricide and violence.
After founding Rome, Romulus proves himself a capable leader and warrior-king. He establishes the Roman Legions and Senate, and leads wars against neighboring peoples to populate his city with captured women. He reigns for nearly 40 years before vanishing in a storm. Some say he ascended to the heavens to become the god Quirinus.
Divine Paternity Debate
A key point of contention in the Romulus and Remus myth is the identity of the twins‘ father. The idea that they were sons of Mars is by far the most popular and symbolically resonant version. Having the god of war as progenitor gave the Romans a claim to divine favor for their military prowess and conquests. It implied their wars were divinely sanctioned, even inevitably successful.
Mars also embodied Roman virtues of courage, strength and duty. His paternity linked Romulus and Remus to these ideals from birth. Plutarch wrote that Mars fathered the twins because "the Roman state was to be warlike and bold".
However, some versions of the myth give Hercules, the demigod son of Jupiter, as the twins‘ father instead. Dionysus of Halicarnassus wrote that Rhea Silvia encountered Hercules in the grove of Mars rather than the god himself. Being a son of Hercules would still give Romulus a divine heritage and link him to the supreme god Jupiter.
More prosaically, Livy and Plutarch both acknowledge a version where the twins were simply the product of Rhea Silvia being raped, possibly by a mortal man. This less grand origin evidently had some currency, but was far less popular and evocative than divine paternity.
The She-Wolf Motif
Nearly as famous as Romulus and Remus themselves is the she-wolf who nurses them after their abandonment. The Lupa Romana became an iconic symbol of Rome, depicted in countless works of art. The Capitoline Wolf statue featuring the goddess wolf suckling the twins is one of the best-known images from the ancient world.
Wolves were sacred to Mars, making the she-wolf a fitting guardian for his offspring. Romans saw the wolf as embodying martial qualities of ferocity, cunning and courage that they prized in themselves. The she-wolf‘s adoption of Romulus and Remus also paralleled myths like Zeus being nursed by the goat Amalthea, hinting at their future greatness.
On a symbolic level, the savage she-wolf nursing helpless human children is a perfect encapsulation of Rome – a warlike, untameable people destined to conquer and nurture the world. Later Romans looked back on the she-wolf as the first personification of the Roman state and its ideals.
Myth and History
To a modern historian, the fantastical tale of Romulus and Remus seems to contain little or no actual history. Divine parentage, monstrous fosters, and larger-than-life dramatics all mark it as mythical rather than factual. Archaeology tells us Rome began in the 8th century BCE as a collection of small Iron Age villages that gradually grew together, not as a grand city founded by a hero-king.
However, that is not to say the myth has no historical value. It provides a window into how the Romans thought about their origins and identity. They traced their lineage from gods and heroes, seeing themselves as divinely favored for greatness. The violent death of Remus encapsulated Rome‘s belief that it was destined to achieve power through force of arms.
Elements of the myth may also reflect dimly remembered real events and cultural traits from Rome‘s early days. The theme of warring twins could point to early political conflicts between Latin and Sabine tribes. Exposure of unwanted infants was practiced in many ancient cultures. Even Romulus‘s mysterious disappearance parallels how some early Roman kings met strange fates, like Tullius Hostilius being struck by lightning.
Legacy and Meaning
The Romulus and Remus myth was retold and reinterpreted countless times in Roman culture. Virgil‘s Aeneid traces the twins‘ ancestry to the Trojan hero Aeneas, legitimizing Rome as heir to the glories of Troy and Greece. Livy used the myth to explore Rome‘s transition from monarchy to republic. Ovid focused on the tragic, almost Gothic horror of elements like Rhea Silvia‘s fate.
The myth had a major impact on later cultures as well. The motif of abandoned noble children raised by animals appears in medieval romances like Valentine and Orson. Romulus‘s city walls and Remus‘s death are echoed in stories like Bel and the Dragon. The she-wolf and twins icon spread as far as Zhoukoudian in China.
For modern historians and classicists, the Romulus and Remus myth is a subject of ongoing study and debate. Scholars have analyzed it from countless angles – as a political allegory, a religious origin myth, an archetypal hero story, a cultural memory of Rome‘s beginnings. Like so many great myths, it resists any single, simple interpretation.
Ultimately, the tale of Romulus, Remus, and their divine father Mars is a testament to the mythmaking power of ancient Rome. It took the likely true story of Rome‘s gradual evolution from humble villages and transformed it into a sweeping, supernatural epic. The real history may have been lost to time, but the myth the Romans crafted to replace it has far outlasted the civilization that created it.
