Wednesday - November 21, 2007

The Cave of Romulus and Remus Found

The ancient site, considered by Romans to be the cave where Romulus and Remus were nursed by a wolf has been found. Reuter's has the details and I've included photos from the Italian Culture Ministry.

Italian archaeologists believe they have found the cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome.

An underground cavity decorated with seashells, colored marble mosaics and pumice stones was discovered near the ruins of the palace of Emperor Augustus on the Palatine hill.

Experts say they are "reasonably certain" it is the long-lost place of worship sacred to ancient Romans and known as Lupercale, from the Latin word for wolf.

"This could reasonably be the place bearing witness to the myth of Rome, one of the most well-known in the world, the legendary cave where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus," Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli told a news conference on Tuesday.

The cave was found 16 meters (52 feet) underground in a previously unexplored area during restoration work on the palace of Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

Archaeologists investigating Renaissance descriptions of the sanctuary used a camera probe and the images suggest the vault, which has a white eagle at the centre, is well-preserved.

"You can imagine our amazement, we almost screamed," said Giorgio Croci, head of the archaeological team working on the restoration of the Palatine hill overlooking the Roman forum. Read on....

For the history buffs out there, here is the Wikipedia entry for the brothers:

Romulus (c. 771 BC^[1]—c. 717 BC) andRemus (c. 771 BC—c. 753 BC) are the traditional founders of Rome, appearing inRoman mythology as the twin^[2] sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars. According to the traditionrecorded as history by Plutarch and Livy, Romulus served as the first King of Rome.

Romulus slew Remus over a dispute about which one of the two brothers had the support of the local gods to rule the new city and give it his name. After founding Rome, Romulus not only created the Roman Legions and theRoman Senate, but also added citizens to his new city by abducting the women of the neighboring Sabine tribes, which resulted in the mixture of the Sabines and Romans into one people. Romulus would become ancient Rome's greatest conqueror, adding large amounts of territory and people to the dominion of Rome.

After his death, Romulus was deified as the god Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people. He is now regarded as a mythological figure, and his name a back-formation from the name Rome, which may ultimately derive from a word for "river". Some scholars, notably Andrea Carandini, believe in the historicity of Romulus, in part because of the 1988 discovery of the Murus Romuli on the north slope of the Palatine Hill in Rome.^[3]

Author: The Machiavellian
Technorati Tags: Rome Romulus Remus Italy
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