Of the European countries…………..Italy has an older history than most……….or just about all of them, save for Greece……………..just due to the warmer climate and the Med sea…………fishing, warmer weather,………….etc…………….and the wars between Greece and Turkey, which go way back…………………Homer’s Illiad, the Odyessy, Crete, Rhodes………………a lot of history in Med culture………..and of course Southern Spain, Adulucia, and Southern France, Monaco……………same, warm weather, med sea…………..
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The legend in ancient sources[edit]
Modern scholarship approaches the various known stories of Romulus and Remus as cumulative elaborations and later interpretations of Romanfoundation-myth. Particular versions and collations were presented by Roman historians as authoritative, an official history trimmed of contradictions and untidy variants to justify contemporary developments, genealogies and actions in relation to Roman morality. Other narratives appear to represent popular or folkloric tradition; some of these remain inscrutable in purpose and meaning. Wiseman sums the whole as themythography of an unusually problematic foundation and early history.[5][6] Cornell and others describe particular elements of the mythos as “shameful”.[7] Nevertheless, by the 4th century BC, the fundamentals of the Romulus and Remus story were standard Roman fare, and by 269 BC the wolf and suckling twins appeared on one of the earliest, if not the earliest issues of Roman silver coinage. Rome’s foundation story was evidently a matter of national pride. It featured in the earliest knownhistory of Rome, which was attributed to Diocles of Peparethus. The patrician senator Quintus Fabius Pictor used Diocles’ as a source for his own history of Rome, written around the time of Rome’s war with Hannibal and probably intended for circulation among Rome’s Greek-speaking allies.[8][9]
Fabius’ history provided a basis for the early books of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, which he wrote in Latin, and for several Greek-language histories of Rome, including Dionysius of Halicarnassus‘s Roman Antiquities, written during the late 1st century BC, and Plutarch‘s early 2nd century Life of Romulus.[10][11] These three accounts provide the broad literary basis for studies of Rome’s founding mythography. They have much in common, but each is selective to its purpose. Livy’s is a dignified handbook, justifying the purpose and morality of Roman traditions observed in his own times. Dionysius and Plutarch approach the same subjects as interested outsiders, and include founder-traditions not mentioned by Livy, untraceable to a common source and probably specific to particular regions, social classes or oral traditions.[12][13] A Roman text of the late Imperial era, Origo gentis Romanae (The origin of the Roman people) is dedicated to the many “more or less bizarre”, often contradictory variants of Rome’s foundation myth, including versions in which Remus founds a city named Remuria, five miles from Rome, and outlives his brother Romulus.[14][15]
All that happened about 700 years before the Roman empire was founded……………….
DEATH OF REMUS & FOUNDING OF ROME
In response to Romulus’ construction, Remus made continuous fun of the wall and his brother’s city. Remus was so bold as to jump over Romulus’ wall jestingly. In response to Remus’ mockeries and for jumping over his wall, Romulus, angered by his brother’s belittlement, killed him. There are several versions as to how Remus was killed on the day Rome was founded. In Livy’s version, Remus simply died after jumping over Romulus’ wall, which is thought to be a sign from the gods of Rome’s power and fate. According to St. Jerome, Remus was killed for his mockery by one of Romulus’ supporters, either Fabius or Celer, who killed Remus by throwing a spade at his head. Afterwards, Romulus mournfully buries his brother, bestowing upon him full funeral honours. However, most sources would convey that Romulus killed Remus. Remus’ death and founding of Rome are dated by Livy to April 21st, 753 BCE.
Maybe that is why men are from Mars………………………………
There is much debate and variation as to whom was the father of Romulus and Remus. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths attest that the demi-god hero Hercules was her partner. However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia was discovered to be pregnant and gave birth to her sons. It was custom that any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death; the most common death sentence was to be buried alive. However, King Amulius, fearing the wrath of the paternal god (Mars or Hercules) did not wish to directly stain his hands with the mother’s and children’s blood. So, King Amulius imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered the twins’ death by means of live burial, exposure, or being thrown into the Tiber River. He reasoned that if the twins were to die not by the sword but by the elements, he and his city would be saved from punishment by the gods. He ordered a servant to carry out the death sentence, but in every scenario of this myth, the servant takes pity on the twins and spares their lives. The servant, then, places the twins into a basket onto the River Tiber, and the river carries the boys to safety.
THE TWINS WERE FIRST DISCOVERED BY A SHE-WOLF OR LUPA, WHO SUCKLED THEM, AND THEY WERE FED BY A WOOD-PECKER OR PICUS.
