The Legend of Romulus and Remus Essay Example

Romulus and Remus were twin brothers. Their father was Mars, the God of War; their mother was Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin and daughter of the King, Numitor. Numitor's brother, Amulius, had taken the throne from him and had forced Rhea Silvia to become a vestal virgin so that she would not have any children who might try to take back the throne. When the boys were born, Amulius seized them, put them into a basket and threw them into the river Tiber. He hoped that they would drown. However, the boys were rescued by a she-wolf who fed the babies with her own milk and cared for them.
A shepherd called Faustulus saw the wolf with the baby boys. He took them home to his wife. They called the boys Romulus and Remus.
When they grew up the boys became shepherds like Faustulus. One day they had a fight with another group of shepherds. Remus was arrested and sent to Numitor as a prisoner. When Numitor heard the story he realised that Remus was his grandson! He told Romulus and Remus what had happened to him and their mother. For revenge, Romulus and Remus attacked their Uncle Amulius and killed him.

After that, Romulus and Remus went to live with their grandfather in Alba Longa, but they got bored and missed the countryside where they grew up. They decided to move back to River Tiber where Faustulus had found them and build their own city but the twins argued over where the city should be built. Romulus wanted to build it on the Palatine Hill and Remus wanted to build it on the Capitoline Hill. In the end they built two cities.

Unfortunately, the arguing did not stop. They kept teasing each other about their cities. Remus teased his brother about the height of his city walls, saying they were too low. In the end the two cities went to war and Romulus won. Romulus became king of his new city which was called Rome in his