June 14, 2021

Romulus, Remus and the Founding of Rome

9 minutes

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) are joined by May (age 6) to tell the legends and truth behind of the Founding of Rome.----more----

We start with Aeneas escaping from a burning Troy. The gods tell him that it is his job to find the area where Rome will later be founded. Aeneas has many adventures, including visiting the underworld. He stops off in Africa where he meets Dido, the beautiful Queen of Carthage. They fall in love. Dido wants Aeneas to stay. However, the god Jupiter, reminds Aeneas that he needs to find the place where Rome will founded. Aeneas leave. Dido is furious. She curses Aeneas and his descendants and then kills herself. Later the Romans believe that the wars between Rome and Carthage are because of the curse that Dido made.

Aeneas eventually finds the area near where Rome will one day be built. He settles there in some towns called the Latin people.

Later one of the Kings of the Latins is thrown off the thrown by another man called Amulius. The old Kings daughter is a priestess. She has two children by the God Mars – Romulus and Remus. Amulius is worried that the boys will one day want to take his throne. So he abandons them by the river Tiber to die. However, the two babies are rescued by a she-wolf. The She-wolf takes them back to her cave and feeds them her own wolf milk to keep them alive. Later a shepherd finds them and raises them as his own son. As the boys grow up they realise who they are. They make a plan to get rid of the evil King. They are successful and they put their old grandfather back on the throne.

The brothers now decide to found their own city. They find a place with seven hills and a river which looks good for a city. However, they argue about which hill to put the city on. Romulus wants to build it on the Palatine Hill. Remus wants to build it on the Aventine Hill. They argue and Remus is killed. Romulus now gets his way and the city of Rome is built on the Palatine Hill.

We then discuss if these legends are true or not. We talk about how the Romans believed that they were true and that is important. The stories are probably not totally true. However, it is true that Rome was founded on the Palatine Hill and previously had been different Latin villages. So there is some truth in all the stories.

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