What really happened to romulus and remus of Rome?

Question

Is it really true that they are the founders of Rome?

Answer 1

The story behind Romolus and Remus...

Numito and Amulius, brothers and distant descendants of Aeneas (son of Anchises and Aphrodite, and survivor of the sack of Troy who wandered for seven years before settling in Italy), inherited the kingdom of Alba Longa.

Rather than share the rule of the kingdom, Amulius slew his brother, and his brother's sons; and then forced his daughter to become a Vestal Virgin so that she would not bear any children who might kill him to take over the kingdom.

She became pregnant anyway and gave birth to twin sons, Romulus and Remus. King Amulius imprisoned her and ordered his servants to drown the twins.

The servants placed the twins in a basket and tossed it into the Tiber River. The basket washed ashore where it was found by a she-wolf, who suckled them with her own milk.

A friendly bird also fed them by placing crumbs into their mouths. A herdsman eventually came across them and took them into his home to raise.

When they were grown they found out the true story of their birth, raised an army of herdsmen, attacked, and killed Amulius.

They then returned to the scene of their rescue by the Tiber River, and began plans to build a town there. They could not decide who of them should rule, so they asked the gods for a sign.

They each awaited an answer from the gods on a different one of the seven hills there. Remus saw the first sign; six vultures in a line flying overhead.

Romulus then saw twelve vultures in a line flying overhead, and thereby claimed kingship for himself. Remus disagreed, claiming kingship by virtue of seeing the first sign.

The disagreement escalated, and ended only when Romulus slew his brother. He then established the new town, naming it Rome after himself.


The origin of the city's name is unknown, with several theories already circulating in Antiquity; the least likely is derived from Greek language Ρώμη meaning braveness, courage; more probably the connection is with a root * -, "teat", with possible reference to the totem wolf (Latin lupa, a word also meaning "prostitute") that adopted and suckled the cognately-named twins Romulus and Remus. Romulus and Remus are believed to come from the people of Lavinium. Romulus killed Remus and founded Rome. The Basque scholar Manuel de Larramendi thought that the origin could be related to the Basque language word orma (modern Basque horma), "wall".

In the past few decades further progress in the Etruscan language and the archaeology of Italy made the above theories less likely, and made more definitive hypotheses possible. We know now that Etruscan was spoken from what became Rhaetia in the Alps through Etruria to include Latium all the way south to Capua. The Italic tribes intruded into Latium from a core Italic region in the central mountains, into which they had moved from the east coast. Regardless of the circumstances of Rome's founding, its original population was certainly a combination of Etruscan and Italic elements, with the Etruscan predominating. Gradually Italic infiltration increased to a flood and overwhelmed the Etruscans; that is, the Etruscan population within and outside Rome assimilated to Italic.

Etruscan gives us the word ach, "from Rome", from which a can be extracted. Its further etymology, as is that of most Etruscan words, remains unknown. That it might mean "teat" is pure speculation. Its later mythological associations cast doubt upon that meaning; after all, none of the original settlers was raised by wolves, and the founders were unlikely to have been familiar with this myth about themselves. The name, Tiberius, may well contain the name of the Tiber. It is believed now to be from an Etruscan name, Thefarie, in which case Tiber would be from *Thefar.

The most telling evidence comes from the people themselves. In the expression, Senatus populusque Romanus, "populus" is of Etruscan origin. The place name, Populonia, is from Etruscan Pupluna or Fufluna. Related to populus is the typical Roman praenomen (personal name) of Publius, from Puplie.

Indeed the whole history of early Rome is the story of the struggle between the original families and the newcomers. The praenomina of those families give them away as Etruscan in origin; for example, Gaius, deriving from Cai. It was used by the Julian gens among others. We do not have a derivation of Julus, the mythical founder of the gens, but he is supposed to have been Etruscan. The Etruscans also had a word for gentes, which was lautun. It is not known if this is the origin of Latins, but the etymologizing of most such words pertaining to early Rome has been difficult and resistive, which is likely to mean that they are not Indo-European.

Answer 2

This should clarify things a little for you.

The origins of Rome are steeped in myth and legend. Many ancient Romans believed twin boys named Romulus and Remus founded the city. A king feared the twins would rob him of his throne, so he tossed them into the frigid Tiber River. Soon after, the brothers were rescued by a she-wolf who nursed them back to health.

Romulus and Remus decided to establish a city on the Tiber River, but the brothers could not agree on a location. Signs from the heavens decreed that each brother would build a city, but Romulus’ city would be much larger. Romulus completed his city on April 21, 753BC. Remus was upset that Romulus had built his city, so he climbed over the wall. The enraged Romulus killed his brother with an ax. The city came to be known as Rome, named for its legendary founder.

The early Romans lived in small communities that grew into city-states, often ruled by kings from wealthy families. About fifty years after Romulus founded the city, the legends say the Etruscans conquered the Romans. The Etruscans were brutal rulers who rained terror on the Roman people. They were eventually ousted by a group of Roman aristocrats who founded the Roman Republic.

Answer 3

Brother Of Remus

Answer 4

Yes it is really true....maybe... who knows.
It is a hell of a story right?

According to the legend recorded as history by Plutarch and Livy, Romulus served as the first King of Rome. He dared his brother to not cross the wall of his city. Remus did anyway and Romulus struck him dead.

Answer 5

THEY WERE THE FIRST RULERS OF ROME

Answer 6

unfortunately it wasnt a she wolf