The Founding of Rome: The Roman Myth of Romulus and Remus Animated

After the war between the Trojans and the Greeks ended with the sack of Troy, the hero Aeneas led the Trojan people through many wanderings to settle in Italy along the banks of the Tiber. Taking in marriage Lavinia, the daughter of the king of Laetium, Aeneas set about building a new city, which he called Lavinium, in honor of his wife. Aeneas had a son that he named Ascanius. When Ascanius came of age, he desired to found a new city of his own. He therefore traveled south and when he found a suitable place at the foot of the Alvin Mount, he began to build his city, which he named Alba Longa. After the death of Ascanius, his son Aeneas Silvius ruled Alba Longa, as did Latinius Silvius after it, and thus all members of that family bore the name Silvius. For many generations the Silvian family ruled Alba Longa, until Proca became king. Proca had two sons, Amulius and Numitor. Numitor was the elder, and Proca made him his heir. But Amulius was power-hungry and greedy, and so thrust Numitor from his throne and took the rule of Alba Longa for himself. Amulius killed all the sons of Numitor, then took his brother's daughter, Rhea Silvia, and appointed her a vestal, ever to live as a that she might never marry and never bear a son having a rightful claim to the throne. This was no proof against the will of the gods, for one day Mars came down from the heavens and took to himself Rhea Silvia. She soon found that she was pregnant. Although she strove to keep this secret, for the penalties against a vestal who broke her vows were severe, she could not hide her state forever, and in time she gave birth to twin boys. When Amulius discovered this, he fell into a rage. He locked away Rhea Silvia in a prison, and he ordered that the two boys be put into a reed basket and set adrift on the river Tiber. The basket floated down the river, finally coming to rest against the riverbank. A she-wolf coming down the river to drink came across the basket, and seeing that there were two small motherless babes inside, offered her own teats for them to suckle. In this way, a shepherd to Amulius, a man named Faustulus, found the two children being cared for gently by the she-wolf. Taking pity on the children, Faustulus took them home and gave them to his wife, Laurentia, to nurse. Under the care of Faustulus and Laurentia, the boys, who were named Romulus and Remus, grew up into young men, tall and strong. They helped their foster father in his work. They hunted game in the forests. They practiced with bow and spear, and they wrestled and boxed. Soon they became well-respected in the lands about Faustulus' homestead for their courage and strength, for their honesty, and for the way they stood up for the weak when oppressed by the strong. Indeed, one of their favorite pastimes was to lay in wait for robbers, despoil them of their plunder, and then share out the goods among the local shepherds. It was not long before Romulus and Remus had gathered about them loyal bands of young men who would gladly do anything the brothers asked of them. One day, during the celebration of the Feast of Pan, when the young men ran about naked in honor of the god, a group of robbers decided to take their revenge upon the twins. The robbers lay in ambush for the lads as they celebrated the festival, and while Romulus was able to fight his way free, Remus was taken captive and brought before Amulius on the charge that he had led a band of thieves who had been pillaging the lands of Numitor, who Amulius had allowed to live on an estate near Alba Longa. Remus, therefore, was sent to Numitor to face punishment. Now, although Faustulus had suspected for some time that Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of Rea Silvia who had been condemned to exposure by Amulius, he had said nothing to anyone about this, seeking to protect the children from their wicked uncle. But seeing that Remus had been taken by the king, Faustulus poured out his story to Romulus, telling him the whole truth of his parentage and how he came to be fostered in a shepherd's hut. Remus, meanwhile, was prisoner at the estate of Numitor. In the course of questioning his young captive, Numitor gradually came to the same conclusion as Faustulus, although he at that time held his peace in the matter. Upon hearing the truth of his and his brother's parentage, Romulus feared for the life of Remus and desired to have revenge upon his uncle for his misdeeds. Romulus, therefore, assembled a band of his friends and headed to the palace of Amulius, where they were soon joined by Remus, who had been set free by Numitor, and gathered his own band of companions. Together, the brothers and their friends stole into the palace and there Romulus killed the king. When Numitor heard of the assault on the palace, he at first summoned guards to deal with what he supposed was a foreign invasion, but when Romulus and Remus came to him at the head of their band of stout friends and proclaimed Numitor king, Numitor convened a council of all the nobles of the land. There he told the nobles the story of how Amulius had usurped the throne and killed all Numitor's heirs, and how Amulius had imprisoned Rea Silvia and condemned Romulus and Remus to exposure. He explained that Romulus and Remus were his own grandsons and that the vile Amulius had been put to death in answer for his crimes. The nobles and the people gladly proclaimed Numitor their rightful king, and so he took the throne of Alba Longa. Although the twins could expect to inherit Alba Longa on the death of their grandfather, they did not want to wait for a city of their own to rule. They thus went out from Alba Longa, searching for a place closer to where they had been fostered, to found a new settlement. Along the river Tiber they found a place that seemed good, where the river ran among seven hills. Romulus thought the Palantine Hill by far the best place, partly because it was closest to where they had been found as babes, but Remus disagreed. The Aventine Hill, Remus said, had a better aspect, being less steep and therefore easier to build upon, and that surely was a more pressing reason than the one Romulus clung to. Also, there was the issue of who would rule the city once it was built, since Romulus and Remus were twins, neither could claim to have more of a claim than the other because of age. The brothers argued at length over what was to be done, yet neither would yield to the other. Wishing yet to resolve their quarrel peacefully, they went to Numitor to ask for his advice. Numitor suggested they determine which course to follow by augury, since surely a sign from the gods would be the best guide in such a great undertaking as the foundation of a city. The brothers agreed that this was wise advice, and so returned with their followers to the place along the Tiber. Remus declared the Aventine Hill the place where he would look for augury, while Romulus took the Palantine. While they watched, a flight of six vultures was seen above the Aventine Hill, which Remus took to be a sign that his cause was in the right. But soon after that, Romulus reported twelve vultures above the Palantine Hill. Since they had not determined how the augury was to be interpreted beforehand, Remus claimed himself the victor because birds had been seen over his hill first, while Romulus said the prize should go to him since his hill had the greater number of birds. This time the quarrel did come to blows, and in the fight that ensued, Romulus killed his brother, thus becoming sole ruler of the new kingdom. After seeing that Remus was properly buried, Romulus set about building his new city. First, he ploughed a furrow some distance from where the city walls would be, to mark out the boundaries of the city, then commenced the building of the walls. In time, Romulus instituted laws and a system of government, adopting the Etruscan custom of appointing twelve lictors, counselors who attended the king and helped mete out justice. Romulus also appointed one hundred senators to help make the laws. One thing, however, was lacking in his new state. There were insufficient women among the settlers, and therefore insufficient children to carry on its laws and customs when their parents were gone. Romulus therefore sent emissaries to many neighboring cities, asking whether any of their families or women might be willing to join this new enterprise on the banks of the Tiber. But nowhere did the emissaries find anyone willing to leave their homes and settle in the new city, which was now known as Rome, after the name of its founder. Romulus and his companions took this as a great insult. They decided that if they were not to be allowed brides by consent, they would have them by force. The Romans therefore declared that they would hold great games at the Feast of Consuelia, a harvest festival sacred to Neptune. They sent invitations to all the neighboring cities and made preparations for the sport and the feasting. When the time came, people from the districts all around answered the invitation, gladly coming to watch the competitions and honor the god. The Sabine people attended in particularly great numbers, bringing with them their wives and their children, as did families from other neighboring tribes. But the games and the feasting were but a ruse. At Romulus' signal, the Romans fell upon the young women who had come for the festival and dragged them back into the city. The families were outraged and demanded the return of their daughters, but the Romans refused, saying that they too had the right to marry and have children and that it had been unjust of their neighbors to deny this to them. The Romans also promised that they would treat the women well and that the families had no reason to worry on that score. This, of course, did not satisfy the families. They went to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, asking that he might raise an army to get their daughters back. When Titus did not act quickly enough, the other tribes massed their own armies and jointly attacked Rome, but their campaign was ill-conceived and disorganized. Soon, the attacking armies were routed by Romulus and his troops, and their own towns taken. Before the Romans could despoil the towns and slay the inhabitants, Hercilia, wife of Romulus, begged her husband to spare the townspeople, for their captive daughters had entreated her to ask this of him. Romulus agreed, but on the condition that they joined the Roman state. To this, the defeated townspeople gladly agreed. Some of them moved to Rome itself, while some of the Romans took up homesteads in the defeated districts, both expanding Romulus' rule and making peace between the old cities and the new. Although Titus Tatius had not participated in the first assaults upon Rome, he had not been idle. He mustered his army and laid his plans carefully. First, one of the Sabine generals bribed a Sabine woman to let soldiers of her own nation into the citadel of Rome. They then killed the woman, although precisely why is not known, and soon the citadel was in the hands of the Sabines. Romulus gathered his army and laid siege, but not until the Romans were at the very gates did the Sabines give battle. The fight went well for the Romans until their chief general was slain. Then the Roman line buckled and the soldiers began to fly from the Sabines. Romulus himself was caught in the fight for the gates. He prayed to Jupiter to give him the victory, promising that a great temple would be built in honor of the god if he were successful and the Sabines defeated. Crying out that the god Jupiter himself commanded that the Romans turn and fight, Romulus rallied his troops and thus turned the tide of the battle. Seeing that their menfolk were being put to the slaughter, the Sabine women issued forth from the citadel. They placed themselves between the combatants, saying that they would rather die themselves than see such strife between their parents and husbands. At this, the Sabines and Romans lowered their weapons and agreed to a truce, putting the Sabine territories under the rule of Rome. Romulus had therefore strengthened his authority and well-established his city. Although there were a few more wars in the years that followed, the Romans emerged victorious from all of these. Romulus ruled wisely and well and was respected both by his own people and by his allies. Under him, Rome enjoyed a long period of peace. Then, one day, as Romulus was in the campus marshes reviewing his army, a storm came down with much thunder. A cloud enveloped Romulus, hiding him from the sight of his men. When the storm passed and the cloud had dispersed, Romulus was nowhere to be found. The senators who had been seated next to the king said that Romulus had been taken up to heaven by a divine storm and that their king now reigned immortal among the gods themselves. One senator, Proclus Julius, said that Romulus had later appeared to him and said that it was his will that the Roman state thrive and flourish and that it become the very capital of the world itself. The people agreed that surely their king had been taken up into immortality and thus they strove to follow his command that Rome become the greatest state on earth. If you want to discover more Roman tales, check out our new book Roman Mythology Captivating Roman Myths of Roman Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Mythological Creatures. Also, if you haven't already gotten your free mythology ebook bundle, grab it while it's still free. All links are in the description. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed the video and subscribe if you want us to create more videos like this.