Wolf-Raised Founder of Rome
Son of the war god Mars by a priestess, and a descendant of Aeneas. With his twin brother Remus he was cast into the Tiber and suckled by a she-wolf. On April 21, 753 BC, he plowed the first boundary of Rome — the Romans made that day their national holiday and counted history "from the founding of the city."
A usurping great-uncle ordered the twins thrown into the Tiber. Their basket ran aground beneath a fig tree, where a she-wolf came to the sound of crying to suckle them and a woodpecker brought food, until a shepherd took them in. The bronze statue of the she-wolf nursing the twins still stands in Rome’s city hall — a capital of empire that claims a wolf for a mother.
The brothers quarreled over the site and name of the city, resolving it by the flight of birds, and then disputed the result. Romulus began building his wall; Remus, in scorn, leapt over the low wall — and Romulus struck him dead, declaring, "So perish anyone else who leaps my walls." From its first day, Rome held its boundary dearer than blood.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
That email didn’t look right? Free · unsubscribe anytime · Privacy