THE ORIGINS OF ROME R omulus and Remus were alone in the world They lay crying in a basket on the shores of the River Tiber hungry and cold with no one to protect them Yet these abandoned twins were princes with royal blood Their grandfather King Numitor had ruled the city of Alba Longa in the region of Latium But the king’s brother Amulius had seized power He forced Numitor into exile far from the city Amulius wanted to make sure that Numitor had no descendants to claim the throne When the king’s daughter Rhea Silvia gave birth to A wolf cared for infants Romulus and Remus 5
Romulus and Remus Amulius had ordered a servant to drown the newborn infants in the river The servant however could not bring himself to murder two helpless babies So he put them in a basket woven from reeds and sent them down the river After traveling for several hours the basket washed up on the shore near the Palatine Hill As the twin infants lay crying a female wolf padded up to the basket and sniffed them She licked them Then she did something extraordinary She picked the infants up in her jaws one by one and carried them back to her den There she nursed them along with her own wolf cubs The boys grew strong on the wolf’s milk One day a shepherd found them and took them back to his house He and his wife raised them as their own sons Romulus and Remus became shepherds like their adoptive father One day they were grazing their flocks on a hillside Several shepherds who worked for King Amulius 6
The shepherd who found and cared for Romulus and Remus was named Faustulus ordered them away telling them that the hill belonged to the king Romulus and Remus refused to leave A fight broke out The king’s shepherds captured Remus and brought him back to the city Romulus gathered a band of friends They went to rescue his brother They freed Remus and killed King Amulius Numitor returned from exile and became King of Alba Longa once more 7
