Romulus, Remus, and the Vultures that Made Rome

By Harrison Klaassen

The story of how Rome was made has resounded down the centuries. It all started when Numitor was king of Alba Longa, and his jealous brother Amulius schemed to become king himself. To do so, he sent Numitor away from his family, but Numitor had a daughter and Amulius, her uncle, was hoping that she would not have kids. This was because with no direct heirs from Numitor, Amulius himself could become king. So Amulius sent the daughter away to become one of the vestal-virgins, priestesses who were not allowed to have children.

One day Mars, the god of war, came along and saw Numitor’s daughter and fell in love with her. Eventually the daughter gave birth to twin boys, Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars. When Amulius found out, he was furious. He ordered his servant to take the two kids and drown them in the river, but the servant couldn’t bring himself to do it, so he put them by the shore, thinking that the waves would wash the babies in and he wouldn’t have to see them die.

However, unbeknownst to Amulius, a she-wolf came along and took care of them. Later, a shepherd took charge of them, eventually returning them to their father, Numitor. After the two boys grew up, each wanted to be king, so they went to the seven hills of Italy to found a kingdom. Romulus insisted they build a kingdom on the hill Palatine, but Remus wanted it on the hill Capitoline.

To settle the dispute, they fought each other to see which of them would have his way. When neither of them could win the fight, they decided to settle the issue by means of a luck game. Each went back to his hill for awhile and then met once again. Remus came back happy because at the hill Palatine he had seen six vultures. Romulus came back even more happy because at the hill Capitoline he had seen twelve vultures.

Since each vulture represented a century of triumph, it was apparent that Romulus had won. His city would hold power for twelve centuries. He went back to his hill and started building the wall of his city. One day his defeated brother, Remus, jumped over the wall and started laughing at Romulus’ work, which caused Romulus to get so mad that he picked up a sword and killed Remus, saying, “Let this be an example to those who would try to come over my wall again!” Free from the rivalry of his brother, he built the kingdom he named after himself—the great city-state of Rome, known well for its long years of prosperity and power.

Our Purpose

The purpose of Klaassical Shadows is to encourage interest in Graeco-Roman history by writing profiles of some of the awesome people of Greece and Rome. To do this, we will use the method of writing the Greeks themselves invented, the progymnasmata, or preliminary exercises. Some of the exercises we will use include Narrative, Description, Fable, Proverb, Anecdote, Refutation/Confirmation, Commonplace, Encomium/Invective, Comparison, Speech-in-Character, Thesis, For and Against Laws.

We are two mad geniuses who can't get enough of Greek and Roman history--one guy and one gal in order to provide a double perspective.

The name Klaassical Shadows combines our guy writer's surname (Klaassen) with a quote from an ode by Pindar, fifth century B.C.: "Man is but a shadow of a dream."

We wish to introduce you to the greats like Alexander, Leonidas, Xerxes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and some of the boys from Rome as well.

Please come back from to time. We'll have more up in a few weeks.

σταθεις δε παυλος εν μεσω του αρειου παγου εφη ανδρες αθηναιοι κατα παντα ως δεισιδαιμονεστερους υμας θεωρω (Acts 17:22)

Harrison Klaassen
Eileen Cunningham