An interesting story of twin brothers who were raised by wolves

Myths and legends are stories that may or may not be based on ancient facts. Historians spend years studying ancient manuscripts to check whether the myths and legends have some truth in them.

Here is the story of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who were raised by a wolf.

Long ago there lived a king called Numitor in Italy. He had a brother named Amulins who hated him and wanted the throne for himself. He plotted against Numitor, drove him away and made himself king in his stead. He also gave orders that Numitor’s sons were to be killed and his daughter Silvia was to be shut in a temple where no one would marry her.

Amulins now felt safe and gave all his thoughts to ruling the land. However, Silvia did marry and soon twin sons were born to her. When Amulins heard of them, he was furious and ordered his servants to take the boys and give them to the River Tiber.

The men took the boys to the river to drown them but then felt sorry for the helpless babies.

“We will make a basket of rushes for them and push them out on the water in it,” said one of the men.

“We can then tell the king the truth that we have given the children to the river.”

The Tiber, swollen by storms, swiftly carried the basket away. But, soon it became caught in the overhanging branches of a fig tree. The babies, cold and hungry, began to wail loudly. A hungry wolf heard their cries and came sniffing to the river. She took them out of the basket and was about to eat them when the babies began to cuddle against her warm fur, for they were cold.

The wolf had had some cubs of her own that had been stolen by a hunter. These two babies remained her of her own little cubs and she took them for her own cubs.

The little boys grew strong and healthy in the wolf’s care. It was here that a shepherd found them and picking them up, he took them to his wife. “We will keep them!” she said in delight. “We will call them Romulus and Remus and bring them up as our own sons.”

So the two boys grew up as shepherd lads and did not know they had any other father or mother but the shepherd and his wife.

One day Numitor, who, exiled from the palace, lived in the country, sawRemus and wondered at the boy’s resemblance to his daughter, Silvia. On questioning the boys and their foster-parents, he soon put together the whole story. It was not long before the two headstrong youths vowed to take their mother from prison, put their wicked great uncle to death and restore the throne to their grandfather Numitor.

This they did and Numitor once more sat on the throne. Their mother was overjoyed to be reunited with the sons she had lost so many years ago. A short white later they decided to build a city for themselves and that is how Rome, one of the greatest cities of all time, came into being.