When the Greeks, Menelaus, Ulysses and Achilles conquered Troy and they razed it, one of the few defenders who save himself was Aeneas, strongly favoured by his mother, none less than Venus-Aphrodite. As he wandered the world, after a few years of adventures he reached Italy, sailed northwards and reached Lazio. He married the daughter of king Latino, whose name was Lavinia, founded a city named after his wife and lived out his life with her. His son Ascanio founded Alba Longa, making it the new capital city, and after eight generations (approximately 200 years after the arrival of Aeneas, two of his descendants, Numitore and Amulio were still on the throne of Lazio. Unfortunately the throne was a bit tight for two kings so one day Amulio kicked his brother out to reign by himself and killed all his children except one daughter: Rea Silvia. To avoid her giving birth to any child that might want to avenge his grandfather he forced her to become a priestess to the goddess Vesta, which means more or less that she became a nun. One day Rea, who probably was sitting next to the river, enjoying the coolness of the shade in a hot summer day, and fell asleep. The god Mars, who often came down to earth to have a bit of fun, be it in a war or with some women, happened to pass by. He saw Rea Silvia and fell in love with her. Without even waking her up got her pregnant. When Amulio came to know this he became furious, but he didn’t kill her. He waiter for her to give birth (which happened to be twins) he loaded them on a minuscule raft and entrusted their destruction to the river confident that they would have drowned. The wind though pushed the raft towards the shore further downstream where the two infants were found by a she-wolf who started nursing them. That is how the wolf became the symbol of the city that was founded by those two infants. The twins grew up, and were named Romolo the one and Remo the other. Soon they came to learn their past. They returned to Alba Longa, organised a revolt, killed Amulio and put their grandfather Numitore back on the throne. Once this was done, they stared getting impatient, and instead of waiting to inherit the reign from their grandfather they went off to found a brand new one, choosing the spot where their raft beached itself saving their lives. As it often happens the two brothers argued on the name of the city and decided that the one that would see the most birds would win and name the city. Remo, on the Aventino, saw six, while Romolo, on the Palatino, saw twelve. The city would be named Roma. They yoked two white oxen, plowed a furrow, and raised the walls swearing that they’d kill anyone that would breach them. Remo, still resenting his loss said the walls were fragile and kicked off a piece. Romolo, true to his oath, picked up a spade and killed him on the spot. All of this, supposedly, happened 753 years before Christ, exactly on the 21st of April which is still celebrated as the city’s birthday. Its inhabitants counted it as the beginning of the history of the world, until Christianity imposed another “year one”. To settle though you need people, and to make people you need wives, and those pioneers were single. In absence of historical reference, here, we have to turn back to legend, which tells us how the leader of these settlers, whether his name was Romolo or not, procured some women for his men. He organised a great party, possibly under the pretence of celebrating the birth of the city and invited his neighbours, the Sabini, and their king Tito Tazio, and most importantly their daughters. The Sabini came, but while they were intent on partying and competing in games, the hosts took the girls and kicked them out. It’s quite natural that their fathers and brothers took up arms to rescue them. They camped on the Campidoglio (another of the hills) but they made the mistake of giving the keys of their fortress to Tarpeia, a roman girl who had fallen in love with Tito Tazio. She opened the door to the invaders, who in turn squashed her under their shields for being a traitor, even if it was in their favour. The romans later called Tarpeia the cliff from which traitors were cast off as a death sentence. Everything ended in a wedding feast, because while the Romans and the Sabini were fighting, the women intervened and declared that they didn’t want to become orphans (in case of roman victory) or widows (in case of sabine victory). Life with their new husbands was not so bad, so might as well make the whole thing official. That is how Romolo and Tazio decided to share the throne, both as kings, and the new population, born of the fusion were finally called Romans.

• published: 24 Jan 2015
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