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According
to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C., Romulus and
his twin brother, Remus, found Rome on the site
where they were suckled by a she-wolf as
orphaned infants. Actually, the Romulus and
Remus myth
originated sometime in the fourth century B.C.,
and the exact date of Rome's founding was set by
the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro in the
first century B.C.
According
to the legend, Romulus and Remus were the sons
of Rhea Silvia, the daughter of King Numitor of
Alba Longa. Alba Longa was a mythical city
located in the Alban Hills southeast of what
would become Rome. Before the birth of the
twins, Numitor was deposed by his younger
brother Amulius, who forced Rhea to become a
vestal virgin so that she would not give birth
to rival claimants to his title. However, Rhea
was impregnated by the war god Mars and gave
birth to Romulus and Remus. Amulius ordered the
infants drowned in the Tiber, but they survived
and washed ashore at the foot of the Palatine
hill, where they were suckled by a she-wolf
until they were found by the shepherd Faustulus.
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