S7E8 - Roman Around with Romulus and Remus

The stories featured in Greaking Out are usually original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features a hero of the Trojan War, more shepherds who are actually princes, love leading to inconvenient babies, and deadly sibling rivalry.

It's finally here, the field trip you've been asking for.

We read the reviews so we know what lies in your heart.

And today, we are finally bringing you the very first ever Roman edition of Greaking Out.

Yes, that's right.

You can officially call this week's episode Roman Around if you want to, because today we are telling you the famous story of the founding of the city of Rome.

Today, Rome is the capital city of Italy, but it is also home to Vatican City, which is technically its own country.

So it can be accurately said that Rome is actually the capital of two different countries.

Important tourist tip.

Thank you, Oracle.

But our story today starts way, way back, well before this city was even a thing.

It starts with the hero Aeneas.

A hero of the Trojan War.

and one of the only surviving members of the Trojan royal family.

Right.

and he had many adventures that led him to land in the beautiful countryside of Italy, where he eventually settled in the country and founded the city of Lavinium.

Many generations down the line, his descendants founded another city called Albalonga, which we'll be talking about today.

This kingdom began to prosper, and two young men were born into the royal family.

They were named Numitor and Amulius.

By this time in history, Albalonga had grown very wealthy and Numitor ascended the throne of a thriving kingdom.

Numator didn't have any sons himself, he only had a daughter named Rhea Silvia, and this might be why his little brother decided to challenge him for the throne.

By taking control of the treasury, Amulius was able to stage a quick revolt and take over the kingdom.

He locked Numitor in a dungeon and forced Rhea to become a priestess to the goddess Vesta, who forbade her servants to ever have children.

Easy peasy, problem solved.

But, like all of these stories, everything changes when the gods get involved.

You see, Mars, the god of war, who the Greeks called Aries, also had his eye on Rhea Silvia.

She was smart, funny, and beautiful, and he was in love with her the first time he saw her.

As a priestess of Vesta, Rhea Silvia couldn't marry, but she did wind up pregnant.

And as previously stated, this was a big no-no for a priestess.

Many people were unhappy about this, especially King Aemulius, who would have sentenced her to immediate death if it had not been for the fact that the father of her baby was the god of war.

Festa was the Roman goddess of the hearth.

In Roman religion, six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, served in the temple and tended a sacred fire.

that was not allowed to go out.

In Greek mythology, she is known as Hestia.

To To make things more complicated, Rhea Silvia gave birth to twins.

Two boys she named Romulus and Remus.

Now, Aemulius didn't want these boys hanging around to challenge him for the throne, but he couldn't just kill them.

He didn't want to risk angering Mars, so he instructed a servant to take the babies out to the woods and just leave them there to die.

That way, he didn't actually kill the babies, but he knew they weren't going to survive.

This happens a lot in mythology and is the origin story of more than one hero.

People we've covered who were exposed as infants include Paris, Prince of Troy, Atalanta the Warrior, and Gilgamesh.

Yeah, I mean, on the one hand, I'm glad people were not okay with just killing babies.

On the other hand, is leaving them alone in the woods really any better?

I mean, you know.

Anyway.

This is where we meet a small but important hero in this story.

I don't do anything epic per se, but this hero makes a small decision that turns out to be a huge difference in the story.

Now we don't know much about this particular servant.

We don't know who they were or why they did what they did, but for whatever reason, this servant could not just leave these babies alone in a field.

Instead, they placed baby Romulus and baby Remus together in a basket and floated it down the river Tiber, hoping for the best.

From there, the gods took over.

The river guide Tarbernus calmed the river and guided the basket to safety in a nearby swamp.

The babies came to rest in the roots of a fig tree at the base of the Palatine Hill, and they were not happy.

They were wet and they were cold and they were hungry, so they did what babies do in times like those: they cried loudly.

Studies have shown that a human infant can cry more than 100 decibels, which is similar to the siren of a police car or fire engine.

So, not surprisingly, they got the attention of some nearby wildlife, specifically a wolf.

Fortunately for Romulus and Remus, this was a mother wolf.

And even though she was hungry and always on the lookout for food, she took pity on the two abandoned babies and nursed them back to health.

In fact, she stayed with them and raised them as if they were her own cubs.

With some help from a woodpecker named Picus, who gathered food for the boys when they were older, the wolf took good care of Romulus and Remus, and eventually they were toddlers who probably just thought of themselves as hairless wolves.

And that may have been how things stayed for a while had it not been for the shepherd.

Imagine you're just tending your flock of sheep, keeping an eye out for wolves, and you see movement in the tall grass up ahead.

You quickly urge the flock to move away, but you are not fast enough.

Suddenly, two small wolves spring up from the underbrush and pounce on one of your sheep.

When you rush to help the poor creature, you realize these aren't small wolves at all.

These are actually human children behaving like wolves.

This is pretty much the exact scenario Faustilus the Shepherd found himself in as he moved his flock through the Italian countryside.

No sheep or human children were harmed in this dramatization.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for that, Oracle.

Faustilus and his wife Akalantia decided to take the two boys in and raise them as their own.

I mean, what else were they going to do?

They couldn't just leave them there to grow up as wolf people or whatever, but of course, they had no idea who Romulus and Remus really were.

Over the next few years, the twins grew into men and, like their adopted father, they became shepherds watching over livestock in the countryside.

Now, you would think that being a shepherd would pretty much keep you out of harm's way, but Romulus and Remus seemed to attract trouble.

One day, they had found a particularly lush and green hillside for their sheep to graze upon when they encountered shepherds for the king's herd.

Clear off, said the kingsman to Romulus and Remus.

In the name of King Amulius, we order you to step aside and allow the king's flock to graze here.

Of course, sir, replied Romulus.

We will be happy to move our sheep aside when they have finished grazing should only be a moment

now this was unacceptable to the king's shepherds they demanded that the boys move their sheep or face the consequences romulus tried again to reason with the shepherds but remus who was quick to anger lost his temper we were here first he said seriously you and your sheep can wait or go somewhere else

well as you might expect this didn't go over well with the king's herdsmen they drew their swords and spears and charged charged at Remus.

But the boy was quick.

Living with wolves had blessed him with a strength, quickness, and ferocity that few men possessed.

He was able to block both attacks with his staff and easily rolled out of their reach.

Then he pounced upon one of the king's shepherds with his dagger out, ready to strike.

Remus, no!

His brother yelled.

The situation was already bad, but if Remus killed one of the king's men, it would be much worse.

To hesitate means to hold back in doubt or indecision.

Fear of making the wrong decision is one of the reasons that many people hesitate when faced with a choice.

In the split second when Remus hesitated, the men pounced upon him and bound his hands behind his back.

They threw him in the back of their wagon and told Romulus that he would be taken to the king and then executed.

Romulus stood by helplessly as the king's herdsmen rode away with his twin brother as their captive.

But he didn't stand by for long.

That very night, Romulus bid farewell to Faustilus and Achalarentia and told them that he needed to go see the king and free his brother.

But first, he needed help.

Over the years, Romulus and Remus had grown up around other shepherds and families.

They had made more than a few friends, and none of them were happy when they heard that Remus had been taken captive.

Within a few hours, Romulus had assembled a small band of shepherds and farmers who were willing to sneak into the palace dungeons and stage a rescue.

Romulus and his band of shepherd soldiers waited until after sunset before they made their way into the king's castle at Albalonga.

They were able to blend in with the crowd going to and fro and the vendors selling things in the market.

Apparently, Remus wasn't the only person who was scheduled to be tried and sentenced the next day, and a good crowd was expected.

They wandered around all night, searching for Remus as discreetly as possible.

In ancient Rome, public executions were great spectacles and a form of entertainment.

They were usually events put on to execute enslaved people who had run away, prisoners of war, and people who committed crimes.

Just before dawn, Romulus found a stairway leading to the underground dungeons where prisoners were kept in iron cages full of straw.

And there he found his twin brother, beaten and bruised.

When Remus saw his brother, he smiled broadly despite his injuries.

I knew you would come for me, Remus said, but the soldiers will be back at any moment, and these cages are too strong for you to break open.

Only the guard can let me out.

So Romulus and Remus came up with a plan.

Remus took off his dirty tunic and gave it to Romulus, who smeared dirt and grime all over himself.

Then, Remus buried himself deep under the straw in his cage.

When the two soldiers came back, they saw that Remus' cage appeared to be empty, and there was an identical man who was heading towards the door.

Of course, he did not make it.

The guards grabbed him easily.

You're a tricky one, the first guard said, clearly taking Romulus for his twin brother.

How did you manage to get out of your cage?

Never mind then, said the second guard.

Just put him back in there.

We're about to start.

Well, of course, the guard opened the cage to put the prisoner back in, and Remus jumped out from under the straw.

So now, the guards who had previously outnumbered their wily prisoner seemed to be outnumbered by one man, who was also two men.

At any rate, the twins left their guards unconscious and locked up in Remus' former cage and made their way out of the dungeon, rejoining their friends in the courtyard.

But by now, the crowd was so thick they found it almost impossible to make their way out.

And the king was making his way into the yard, so soldiers were everywhere.

Romulus and Remus knew their escape would be noticed in moments.

They pushed and squeezed through the crowd as quickly as they could, trying their best to avoid men in armor.

But they could not make their way to the safety of the main gate before someone sounded the alarm.

Prisoners have escaped!

The crowd began to scatter, and suddenly the two brothers had a lot more room to move.

Soldiers unsheathed their swords and brandished their shields, pushing through the crowds, searching for their escaped prisoner.

Romulus slowly and quietly began inching towards the exit, head down, trying not to attract attention.

But that was not Remus' style.

He was ready to fight.

There was a brief moment when he and a guard locked eyes.

It was only an instant, but in that moment, Romulus knew a battle was about to break out.

Romulus, Remus, and their friends fought valiantly.

The shepherds and farmers did their best with staffs and pitchforks, but the brothers fought with the skill of wolves on the hunt.

They were quick and efficient and never let up.

By the time it was over, they had driven the soldiers back against the scaffold, and King Amulius himself was forced to draw his weapon and stand against them.

A wolf pack is typically an extended family of wolves who work together to feed their young, defend their territory, and bring down larger prey.

Wolves have 42 teeth and can run at speeds up to 38 miles per hour.

It would be nice to say that Amulius recognized the twins, his own grand-nephews, but he did not.

He had no way of knowing that the two grown men standing before him were the twin babies he had sentenced to death years before.

For that matter, Romulus and Remus didn't know it either.

At that moment, he was just another man with a sword trying to attack them and failing.

With a swing of Remus' sword, the king fell.

Things were a little crazy after that.

Without the king, the soldiers didn't know what to do.

They weren't sure who to report to or who to listen to, so they kind of just gave up.

One of the shepherds got another set of keys and began to release all of the prisoners.

And in the last cell, they discovered a very old man.

He crawled out of his cage and then did his best to pull himself up to his full height.

He had a strange, elegant quality about him, almost regal, and he thanked the shepherds and the farmers profoundly for releasing him.

Then, he caught sight of Romulus and Remus.

After simply staring at the twins for an unusually long time, he approached the pair and introduced himself.

I am called Numator.

My younger brother, King Amulius, took the throne and imprisoned me many years ago.

Who do I have to thank for my freedom?

Romulus and Remus introduced themselves and their friends.

They explained to Numator how they wound up in Albalonga, and after some questioning, they also told him about their strange childhood, how they had been found by shepherds after being raised by wolves.

And this is when it all came together for Numator.

His head began to spin and he needed to sit down and compose himself before he explained why he was suddenly so overwhelmed.

You

are my grandsons, he said.

I did not know you were even alive.

You are not shepherds.

You are princes.

Numator went on to explain the whole story.

He told the boys about their mother, who had since died, and about Amulius sentencing them to death before they could grow into men.

They thanked the gods for their survival and the amazing circumstance that found them back home.

The end.

What?

No!

We still have more story to tell.

I mean, why would you think that was the end?

Your speech pattern had a conclusive tone, and the content of the story had seemed to to resolve itself.

Yeah, I see, but Rome isn't even built yet, and you know how long that takes.

Pro tip: it took longer than a day.

Yes, it did.

But since we are in break mode anyway, why don't we do a little commercial break here?

We'll be right back.

Okay, so let's continue roaming around with a story about the founding of the great city of Rome.

Rome is the most visited city in Italy and is 2,500 years older than the Republic of Italy itself.

That's right.

In this case, the city was founded a lot earlier than the country, but let's not get too far ahead.

Now that King Amulius was gone and the people of Albalonga had heard the amazing story of Romulus and Remus and their incredible childhood, it was practically a unanimous decision to give the kingdom to them.

The citizens all wanted Romulus and Remus to be kings and share the throne.

After all, it seemed only fair.

Now, the twins were flattered and honored.

Heck, just a few weeks ago, they only saw themselves as common shepherds.

Now, all of a sudden, they were going to be kings?

It seemed hard to believe.

And it didn't feel right.

It is highly unusual for someone to turn down a position of power like king, but neither Romulus or Remus accepted the offer to rule over Albalonga.

They talked it over and decided that their grandfather, Numator, should be reinstated as king instead.

But what of the two of you?

The old king asked.

You are royalty, and you will certainly be kings someday.

That's true enough, Romulus said.

But we want to be kings of our own country.

Remus chimed in.

We don't want anything given to us.

We would rather build our own city.

And that is exactly what the twin princes set out to do next.

Abdication is the act of formally giving up or declining a kingship or monarchical authority.

Romulus and Remus wandered the Italian countryside for a few weeks looking for the perfect spot to build their new city.

They were excited.

Now that they were princes, they had money and resources to make their dreams come true.

And the idea of starting a new city was thrilling to both of them.

Romulus and Remus, like many CEOs of today, got money from their family to start something new.

We would not call either of them self-made.

But finding the perfect spot turned out to be harder than they thought.

After a few weeks of exploring, the twins suddenly found themselves in a beautiful area of the country.

It was a large open plain with seven rolling hills and beautiful valleys.

It instantly reminded them of home.

And then they realized the reason for that was because they were home.

They had traveled great distances only to discover that their favorite place to settle was where they grew grew up in the woods with their wolf mom.

Romulus threw his head back and laughed, but Remus shook his head and sighed.

Obviously, the gods were giving them a sign, and both twins were relieved to have found the perfect spot for their city.

One of the best known nicknames for Rome is the city of seven hills because it was built on seven hills.

But this is where things get awkward.

Romulus immediately thought that they should build build the city at the base of the Palatine Hill because this was where they had been found as babies.

It seemed a good way to honor the gods in their good fortune.

Remus, on the other hand, wanted to build the city on the Aventine Hill, a potentially more picturesque location.

The two brothers argued about this for days and things got pretty contentious.

They almost came to blows several times with Faustilus coming between them to break up their quarrel.

Finally, they agreed to let the gods help help them make the decision.

They would use a practice called augury to consult the gods for guidance.

Augury was a type of prophecy where birds are examined and observed to help determine which actions or persons have the favor of the gods.

Right.

So Remus and Romulus each went to their respective hill and prepared a sacred space.

They would wait there and look to the skies, watching for birds and hoping to see some sort of a sign from above making the decision clear.

After two days, both brothers ran down from their hills with a skip in their respective steps.

They were both sure they had won.

I had six birds land upon my altar yesterday, said Remus.

Clearly, the gods favor my location.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, his brother countered.

I had 12 birds flocking to my altar this morning.

It's clear the gods have chosen Palatine Hill.

But Remus refused to concede.

He believed that since since he saw his birds first, the gods had chosen his hill.

Romulus obviously disagreed.

He thought Remus was just being difficult because he didn't want to lose.

The two brothers hardly spoke to each other for weeks.

Making decisions via bird is an ineffective way to run a city.

Yeah, maybe not the best start ever.

When it became clear that they would never ever reach an agreement, Romulus decided to just begin building the the city.

It seemed that most folks agreed with his choice because before long there were workers everywhere digging trenches and building walls around the base of Palatine Hill.

Remus was furious.

He was jealous and resentful and angry all at the same time.

He began to realize that the city would never be built where he had wanted it, but he wasn't willing to support his brother.

In fact, he mocked him every chance he got.

Romulus and his crew worked tirelessly for weeks and weeks building their new city, but Remus just sat by and watched, frequently heckling the workers as they went by and mocking their work.

Romulus told the team to just ignore his brother, but it wasn't easy.

And eventually, even Romulus himself had had enough.

After days and days of backbreaking work, the walls around the city were finally ready to go up.

It was a big moment for Romulus and the workers, but when they finally got the wall in place, Remus' laughter rang out all across the hillside.

Look how small it is, he chided.

You call that a wall?

That won't keep anything out.

Some sections of the Great Wall of China are as high as 23 feet.

The average garden retaining wall is under three feet.

In the absence of more specific data, I feel it is safe to conclude that the size size of the wall referenced here is somewhere between the two.

Okay, thanks for the perspective, Oracle.

Now it was Romulus's turn to be furious.

But he said nothing.

Remus kept laughing and making jokes about the wall until finally, Romulus told him to leave.

Sure, I'll leave, Remus replied.

But first, I'll have to jump over this tiny wall that's in my way.

And with that, Remus jumped into the air, grabbed the top of the wall, and vaulted easily over the top, top,

landing effortlessly on the other side.

Remus was clearly making fun of his brother's work, and Romulus wasn't having it.

In fact, kind of snapped.

He launched himself at his brother, shovel in hand, and a fight broke out between the twins.

This wasn't your usual brother versus brother wrestling match either.

This was an all-out fight between two angry men who had been raised by wolves.

When all was said and done, Romulus was left standing, and his brother was dead.

The story of Remus' death is depicted in a few different ways.

In some versions, Remus dies when he falls from the wall.

However, most sources say that Romulus was responsible for his brother's death.

Exactly.

And most sources agree that Romulus felt terrible about it.

Despite the awful circumstances, Romulus had his brother buried with full honors.

Then, in 753 BCE, Romulus officially opened his new city, which he called Roma.

To help govern the people, Romulus organized his army into legions, and he called his 100 most noble men patricians and dubbed the elders of the city senators.

Whenever there were laws or rules that needed to be made or changed, Romulus would consult with the patricians and the senators and they would help him govern the city.

This system of government worked so well that Roma quickly became one of the most popular cities in the region.

Many people came there to start a new life, particularly fugitives, runaways, and people in exile.

Now, as you might expect, a lot of these new citizens were male.

In fact, almost all of them were.

And this was the biggest problem for Romulus in the early days of Roma.

If there were no women in his city, How would there be future generations?

Romulus had to resort to trickery.

so he invited the neighboring kingdom of Sabine to a festival, during which he actually kidnapped some of the women.

This obviously didn't go over too well with their king Titus, and soon Romulus found himself on the brink of war.

Ironically, in the later years of the Roman Empire, the crime of stealing could be punishable by death.

In many circumstances, kidnapping was considered a form of stealing.

Exactly.

We all know the old saying, desperate times call for desperate measures, but you don't just take people from their homes because you want to, or you can.

The king of Sabine was willing to fight for his citizens, and rightly so.

Now, the Sabine women were initially very mad about this whole thing, obviously, but the men of Rome, and specifically Romulus himself, went out of their way to convince the women to stay.

They convinced them that they could build a good life in Rome.

And in the end, it was the Sabine women who stopped the brewing war.

They had decided to stay in Rome and marry Roman men, and they actually walked out into the middle of the battlefield to prevent their fathers and husbands from killing each other.

Because of this, Romulus and King Titus actually agreed to be co-rulers of both kingdoms and share the control over both regions.

So the Sabines and the Romans became one people.

Over time, the borders of Rome grew and grew, and Romulus became a wise and powerful ruler.

But then, sometime around 717 BCE, he disappeared.

The specifics of the death of Romulus are still unclear to this day.

Some accounts say that he vanished in a storm or a whirlwind.

There are eyewitnesses who say he ascended to the heavens.

Another theory is that his death was ordered by members of the Senate in an attempt to claim more power.

But remember, this is a story that has been told for generations.

It is a legend that Romans told each other about how their great city was founded.

Most historians believe that Romulus and Remus were not real people per se, but their characters were likely based on real people and real events.

In other words, this is just a myth.

Well, yeah.

But the myths that people tell about themselves are important too.

See, the Romans thought of themselves as descendant from the god of war and raised by wolves.

They were displaced royalty and willing to kill their own brother because of a slight, which actually might say a lot about them if you think about it.

Anyway, thank you for roaming around with us this week.

We'll be back in a few days with more Greaking Out.

Greaking Out.

We're finishing there for this week, but next episode, we'll be going on a trip south to somewhere we've never been before.

National Geographic Kids Creaking Out is written by Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes and hosted by Kenny Curtis with Tori Kerr as the oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam, and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Dr.

Adria Haluska is our subject matter expert and Emily Everhart is our producer.