Remus

Remus raided Numitor’s lands and stole sheep from the old king’s herd. Numitor’s men captured him and dragged him towards the palace. A robber followed and claimed that he had caught the thief. He hoped that the king would condemn Remus to death. At the palace, the robber pounded on the door and demanded to see the king. An attendant led them inside.

The king heard the robber’s accusation, but refused to punish the young thief himself. He ordered the attendant to take Remus to his brother Numitor, who could decide the punishment. Numitor’s men brought Remus before the old king. Numitor studied the young man’s face and saw the piercing green eyes of his daughter, Rhea Silvia. He questioned Remus and learned that the prisoner was no ordinary shepherd or robber.

Romulus soon entered the house. He looked identical to Remus, and Numitor saw Rhea Silvia’s features in him as well. The old man realised that he stood before the twin grandsons whom he had believed dead. He recognised them as the sons of Rhea Silvia and the god Mars. Numitor asked where they had lived and how they had survived.

Faustulus, who had raised the twins with his wife Laurentia, trembled with fear. He explained that he had taken the infants from the she-wolf on the banks of the Tiber and had brought them home. He asked Numitor’s forgiveness for keeping the boys and raising them as his own. Numitor then told them that he was the rightful king of Alba Longa and that his brother Amulius had stolen the throne. Faustulus realised that the children he had rescued were royal descendants, and Numitor was reunited with his lost grandsons.

Romulus and Remus set out to establish a city on the northern edge of the Latium plain. Their grandfather, King Numitor of Alba Longa, had asked them to build another city nearby because Alba Longa had grown crowded. The twins chose a group of low hills as the site. Since neither could claim seniority, they agreed to let the gods decide which brother would rule the new city and give it his name.

Remus watched the sky first and saw six vultures. Soon afterwards, Romulus saw twelve. The brothers and their followers disputed which sign had prevailed. Remus claimed the first sighting, while Romulus claimed the greater number of birds. The quarrel grew worse as both brothers pressed their claims to leadership.

Romulus then built an earthen wall around Palatine Hill. Remus jumped over the unfinished fortification to show that it posed no threat to him. His defiance enraged Romulus, who killed him during the fighting. In one telling, Remus mocked the wall before he leapt over it. In another, Romulus’s companion Celer killed him instead.

Romulus warned Remus’s followers that the same fate would come to anyone else who dared to cross the wall. He then became king, and a new city was built on Palatine Hill. The city took the name Rome from Romulus.