Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...

, Amulius () was king of

Alba Longa Alba Longa (occasionally written Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient Latin city in Central Italy, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it was d ...

who ordered the death of his infant, twin

grandnephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an ...

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

, the eventual

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and

king of Rome The king of Rome ( la, rex Romae) was the ruler of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 ...

, and Remus. He was deposed and killed by them after they survived and grew to adulthood. He is the brother and

usurper A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...

Numitor In Roman mythology, King Numitor () of Alba Longa, was the maternal grandfather of Rome's founder and first king, Romulus, and his twin brother Remus. He was the son of Procas, descendant of Aeneas the Trojan, and father of the twins' mother, R ...

and son of

Procas Procas or Proca (said to have reigned 817-794 BC) was one of the Kings of Alba Longa, Latin kings of Alba Longa in the Roman mythology, mythic tradition of the founding of Rome. He was the father of Amulius and Numitor and the great-grandfather of ...

. He was said to have reigned 42 years before his death (794-752 BC).

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary sty ...

''Roman Antiquities'' 1.71 His brother had been king, but Amulius overthrew him, killed his son, and took the throne. He forced

Rhea Silvia Rhea (or Rea) Silvia (), also known as Ilia (as well as other names) was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome. Her story is told in the first book of ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri'' of Livy and in Cassius D ...

's daughter, to become a

Vestal Virgin In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...

, a priestess of Vesta, so that she would never bear any sons that might overthrow him. However, she was raped or seduced by the god

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, resulting in the birth of the twins. Rhea was thrown into prison and her sons ordered to be thrown into the river

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

. The twins washed up onto dry land and were found by a she-wolf who suckled them. Later their mother was saved by the river god Tiberinus who ended up marrying her. Romulus and Remus went on to found

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and overthrow Amulius, reinstating their grandfather Numitor as king of Alba Longa.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

was a Greek historian and librarian who wrote in the first century BC. He writes that Amulius' father, King Proca, willed the throne to

but Amulius deposed him. For fear of a threat to his rule, the king had Numitor's son, Aegestus killed, blaming thieves. The truth about the crime was known by some, including Numitor, who feigned ignorance. Amulius then appointed Numitor's daughter to the Vestal priestesshood, where her vow of chastity would prevent her from producing any further children. Despite this, she became pregnant a few years later, claiming to have been raped. In one of the sources, Amulius himself (in full armor to conceal his identity) commits the rape. Ilia hid her pregnancy with claims of illness so as to avoid her vestal duties. But Amulius was suspicious and employed physicians and his own wife to monitor her for signs of being with child. When he discovered the truth, he placed her under armed guard. After being informed of the delivery of Romulus and Remus, Amulius suspected that she had in fact given birth to triplets, the third child having been concealed from the guards present. Ilia was either put to death, or kept secretly in a hidden dungeon for the rest of her life. Citing

Fabius Pictor Quintus Fabius Pictor (born BC, BC) was the earliest known Roman historian. His history, written in Greek and now mostly lost besides some surviving fragments, was highly influential on ancient writers and certainly participated in introducing Gree ...

Cincius Cincius, whose ''praenomen'' was likely Lucius and whose ''cognomen'' goes unrecorded, was an antiquarian writer probably during the time of Augustus. He is frequently confused with the annalist Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who fought in the Second ...

, Cato, and

Piso Piso may refer to: * Lake Piso, Liberia *Philippine peso The Philippine peso, also referred to by its Tagalog name ''piso'' (Philippine English: , , plural pesos; tl, piso ; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philip ...

, Dionysius writes that the king ordered the twins to be tossed into the Tiber. When his servants arrived at the riverbank, high waters had made it impossible to reach the stream. So they left the twin's basket in a pool of standing water on the site of the

ficus Ruminalis The ''Ficus Ruminalis'' was a wild fig tree that had religious and mythological significance in ancient Rome. It stood near the small cave known as the Lupercal at the foot of the Palatine Hill and was the spot where according to tradition the ...

. After the waters of the Tiber had carried the twins away, their basket was overturned by a rock and they were dumped into the mud. It was there, that a she-wolf famously found them and nursed them in front of her lair (the Lupercal). Amulius' servant

Faustulus In Roman mythology, Faustulus was the shepherd who found the infant Romulus (the future founder of the city of Rome) and his twin brother Remus along the banks of the Tiber River as they were being suckled by the she-wolf, Lupa. According to lege ...

happened upon the scene. He took the boys home and brought them up with his wife. Later, quoting Fabius' account of the overthrow of Amulius, Plutarch claims that Faustulus had saved the basket in which the boys had been abandoned. According to Fabius, when the twins were 18, they became embroiled in a violent dispute with some of Numitor's herdsmen. In retaliation, Remus was lured into an ambush and captured while Romulus was elsewhere. In

Aelius Tubero The gens Aelia, occasionally written Ailia, was a plebeian family in Rome, which flourished from the fifth century BC until at least the third century AD, a period of nearly eight hundred years. The archaic spelling ''Ailia'' is found on coins, b ...

's version, the twins were taking part in the festivities of the

Lupercalia Lupercalia was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as ''dies Februatus'', after the purification instruments called ''februa'', the b ...

, requiring them to run naked through the village when Remus, defenseless as he was, was taken prisoner by Numitor's armed men. After rounding up the toughest herdsmen to help him free Remus, Romulus rashly set out for Alba Longa. To avoid tragedy, Faustulus intercepted him and revealed the truth about the twins' parentage. With the discovery that Numitor was family, Romulus set his sights on Amulius instead. He and the rest of his village set out in small groups toward the city so that their arrival would go unnoticed by the guards. Meanwhile, after Amulius turned Remus over to Numitor to determine his punishment, Remus was told of his origins by the former king and eagerly joined with him in their own effort to topple Amulius. When Romulus joined them, they began to plan their next move. Faustulus is caught by the Alban guards trying to sneak the infant twins' basket into the city and is brought before Amulius by none other than the servant who had taken the boys to the river those many years before. Amulius questions his man and insincerely claims he means the twins no harm. Faustulus, trying to protect Romulus and Remus, and escape the king's clutches, claimed he had been bringing the basket to the imprisoned Ilia at the twins request and that they were at the moment tending their flocks in the mountains. Amulius sent Faustulus and some of his men to find the boys. He then tried to trick Numitor into coming to the palace so that the former king could be kept under guard until the situation had been dealt with. Unfortunately for the king, when the man he sent to lure Numitor into his clutches arrived at the deposed king's house, he betrayed Amulius and revealed everything that had happened at the palace. The twins and their grandfather led their joint supporters to the palace, killed Amulius, and took control of the city.

References

{{Roman religion Kings of Alba Longa Usurpers