"... Roma, from whom this city was so called, was daughter of Italus and Leucaria; or, by another account, of Telephus, Hercules's son, and that she was married to Aeneas, or ... to Ascanius, Aeneas's son. Some tell us that Romanus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, built it; some, Romus the son of Emathion, Diomede having sent him from Troy; and others, Romus, king of the Latins, after driving out the Tyrrhenians, who had come from Thessaly into Lydia, and from thence into Italy."
Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and the mortal Anchises, left the burning city of Troy with his son Ascanius. After many adventures, which the Roman poet Vergil describes in the Aeneid, Aeneas and his son arrived at the city of Laurentum on the west coast of Italy. Aeneas married Lavinia, the daughter of a local king, Latinus, and founded the town of Lavinium in honor of his wife. Ascanius, son of Aeneas, decided to build a new city, which he named Alba Longa, under the Alban mountain.
Aeneas is sometimes credited with the founding of Rome, but the version of the Roman foundation myth that is most familiar is that of Romulus, the first king of Rome.
Romulus and Remus were twin brothers, the sons of a vestal virgin named Rhea Silvia and the god Mars, according to legend. Since vestal virgins could be buried alive if they violated their vows, whoever forced Rhea Silvia to enter the equivalent of an ancient convent assumed that Rhea Silvia would remain childless.
The grandfather and great-uncle of the twins were Numitor and Amulius, who between them divided the wealth and kingdom of Alba Longa, but then Amulius seized Numitor's share and became sole ruler. To prevent retaliation by offspring of his brother, Numitor made his niece a vestal virgin. When Rhea (also called Ilia) became pregnant, her life was spared because of the special pleading of Amulius' daughter Antho, but Rhea was confined.
When the twin boys were born, Numitor wished to have them killed, and so bid Faustulus, a swineherd, expose the boys. Faustulus left the twins on the river bank where a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker fed and guarded them until Faustulus took them into his care again. The two boys were well educated by Faustulus and his wife, Acca Larentia. They grew up to be strong and attractive.
As adults, Remus found himself imprisoned, and in the presence of Amulius, who determined from his age that Remus and his twin brother could be his grandsons. Learning of Remus' predicament, Faustulus told Romulus the truth of his birth, and sent him off to rescue his brother.
Numitor was despised, and so Romulus drew a crowd of supporters as he approached Alba Longa to kill the king. The twins re-installed their father Amulius on the throne and freed their mother.
Since Numitor now ruled Alba Longa, the boys needed their own kingdom and settled on the area in which they had been raised, but the two young men couldn't decide on the exact site and started building separate sets of walls. Each twin claimed his was the city and used omens to support his claim. An angry Remus jumped over Romulus' wall and Romulus killed him.
Rome was therefore named after Romulus.
- Rome was founded on 21 April 753 B.C., according to tradition. It was celebrated in Rome with the festival of Parilia.
- Because a woodpecker tended to the twins, the woodpecker was sacred to Rome.
- In some versions of the story, Rhea was drowned and then married the river god Tiber.
- When Faustulus first let the twins go, they floated into the river and then washed ashore at the base of a fig tree. This was the site where they built their city.
- In some versions, Acca Larentalia was a prostitute.
