The origins of Rome

2. Long ago, a king called Amulius
ruled over the city of Alb Longa.
He was a very cruel and wicked
king. He had stolen the throne
from his brother, Numitor.
Numitor had two sons and a
daughter. But Amulius killed the
boys and locked the girl so that
she would never marry and
have children.

3. But one day, he
heard that his brother
´s daughter, Sylvia,
had fallen in love with
the god Mars and had
twin baby boys.
Amulius was terribly
angry.

4. He was afraid that when they grew up, one of
them might become king in his place. So he
ordered his servants to drown the babies in
the River Tiber. The servants were sorry for
the two little boys, so they put them in a basket
and place it in the water. The babies were
unhappy, cold, wet, and really hungry. They
began to cry.

5. A she-wolf was hiding quite near. She was
feeling very unhappy because a terrible
hunter had just killed her two young cubs.
This mother wolf heard the cry of the two
babies. He went to see where the noise came
from. Instead of killing them, she took them to
a cave and looked after them, feeding them
with her own milk

6. Soon after, an old shepherd called Faustulus,
walking along the bank of the river Tiber,
heard a strange noise. To his surprise, he
found the baby boys near the wolf, who was
licking them clean with its tongue.
Faustulus took the babies home with him and
showed them to his wife, Laurentia. The old
shepherd and his wife had no children of their
own, so they decided to keep the boys and
named them Romulus and Remus.
The twins grew up among the shepherds.

7. They then built
a city on a hill
by the River
Tiber. Both
twins wanted to
be kings, so
they had a
contest to
decide who
would be the
top king.

8. There were hills in the
area, so each boy stood
on a different hill and
counted how many
vultures they could see
fly before sunset. The
one who counted the
most, would get to pick
the name.
Romulus counted six
vultures, but Remus saw
twelve.

9. It appeared that Remus
was going to win the
contest, but his brother
got so angry that he killed
him with a rock. Romulus
then became the first
king of Rome.

10. Romulus named the Rome after himself and
became the first ruler of the city.