King Romulus

Romulus was the founder of Rome, the first king of Rome, the most famous king of Rome, and the most beloved king by the people. He was born near 770 B.C in Alba Longa to his mother, Rhea Silvia. Rhea had been forced into priesthood by her uncle, Amulius, who had killed her brother and imprisoned her father so as to take the throne for himself. The specific goddess she served was Vestal, known to the Greeks as Hestia, a virgin goddess. Since she was a virgin goddess her followers were virgins as well, and Amulius had therefore cut off all chance of a legitimate heir. However, Mars Ultor meaning Mars the avenger, known to the Greeks as Ares, decided she should not be a virgin, and raped/seduced her. When she had the twins Romulus and Remus Amulius was furious and sentenced her to imprisonment for not honoring her oath to Vestal, and ordered the twins thrown into the Tiber river. Before they drowned, though, they were fetched out of the water by a mother wolf named Lupa. Lupa cared for them with her own pups until they were found by a local farmer who then cared for them as his sons. It quickly became obvious they had royal blood, and they went with the people and farmers to kill Amulius. They were successful and set their grandfather back up as king. Later, in 753 B.C, Romulus and Remus decided to make their own city they could be the king of, but they couldn’t agree on who would be king or where the city would be, so Romulus killed Remus and built the city on Palatine hill, naming it Rome after himself. People came flocking to this city, but it was mostly men, since Romulus promised a clean slate and protection for former criminals, who were mostly men. To rectify this, Romulus invited the Etruscan people to the north to a magnificent feast where they could talk about making a treaty. There was no treaty, but Romulus kidnapped almost all the Etruscan women and given them to his men as wives. They prepared for a war, but then the Etruscan women ran out and told their families they liked there new husbands, so they were at peace. Romulus continued this type of trickery until he had a big enough army he could conquer his neighbors. He soon conquered the Fidenae and the Veientes, which dramatically increased the size and wealth of Rome. He also installed a type of government called a senate that could do all the things that were below a kings dignity but still needed doing. There are two stories about his death, one from the senate and one from the people. The senate said that when a cloud came over Romulus’s throne they killed him with a knife and dragged him from his throne before the people could see beyond the cloud. The people, who pretty much thought he was a god, said that a cloud came down around his throne and took him up to Mount Olympus, the seat of the gods. All that we now from these stories is that a cloud went around his throne and Romulus disappeared in the year 716 B.C. That was the life of the great king Romulus of Rome.