The legend of Romulus and Remus begins with a fight for the throne in Alba, a city founded by Ascanius, son of Aeneas. You can find our article about the Legend of Aeneas here.
While Amulus and Numitor, the twins’ grandfather and great-uncle, ruled the city, Amulus imprisoned Numitor and made his daughter Rea Silvia a Vestal priestess so that the line would become extinct. Rea is attacked by the god Mars (Ares) in her sleep at night and becomes pregnant with twins.
Her uncle Amulus spares Rhea’s life upon the begging of his daughter Antho. He locks him in a tower. He orders Faustulus, a shepherd, to kill the twins he gave birth to. The shepherd leaves the twin children in a basket into the Tiber river. The river, whose waters are swollen, suddenly drops and leaves the babies in a shallow place. A she-wolf comes there and breastfeeds the twins. Later, Faustulus finds the children and takes them to his wife, Acca Larentia. Children grow and become stronger. One day, Remus attacks the shepherds waiting for the herds of King Amulius on the Aventine Hill. The shepherds arrest Remus and take him to the king. Faustulus tells the story of their birth to Romulus, who was not there at the time, and asks him to save his brother. The supporters of Romulus, who is advancing towards Alba, are also increasing. They take over the palace with the young people they lead. They replace Amulius with their grandfather Numitor and save their mother, who was imprisoned in the tower. Then the twins leave Alba to go and establish a city of their own.
The Legend of Romulus and Remus: Rome is Founded!
An argument breaks out between them about where the city will be founded. Romulus around the Palatine; Remus begins building separate walls around different hills around the Aventine.
They wait for a sign to understand which region the gods have chosen, and decide to make sense of the flight of the birds. Remus sees six vultures on the Aventine Hill, and Romulus sees twelve vultures on the Palatine Hill. Upon contradictory omens, each twin claims that their home city has been chosen by the gods. Angry, Remus jumps over Romulus’ wall and Romulus kills him.
According to many sources, this is why Rome took the name of Romulus. Thus, Romulus, left alone, wants to fill the city he founded. He starts by setting up a shelter on top of the Capitolium. All criminals, thieves, murderers and bandits in the region take the opportunity to take shelter there. Romulus has now become their king. Since there is no female population in the city, Romulus makes a plan. He organizes a festival and calls the neighboring Sabines, who attack his daughters while they are unarmed and kidnap them. When the Sabines came to take their women with their weapons, the Sabine women prevented the war by intervening between their fathers and brothers and their husbands. Romans and Sabines form a partnership, and Romulus and Tatius reign together for a while. This situation ends with the treacherous murder of Tatius.
There are various rumors about the death of Romulus. According to one source, he reigned for 33 years after founding the city of Rome, and then, while he was inspecting his army in the field of Mars, the skies suddenly became empty, lightning struck and the king suddenly disappeared with this storm. One of the Romans kept telling that he saw Romulus in a dream, that the king became a god and flew to the skies and took the name Quirinus. From now on, the Romans worshiped Romulus as Gjuirinus. They even built a large temple on Quirialis hill.
According to another source, Romulus’s death was not so glorious at all, and the senators, tired of his tyranny, took the hurricane as an opportunity to kill the king and made up the tale of Quirinus and the dream to deceive the people.