Todays adventures included a ton of history. We started with an impromptu tour of the Colosseum, followed by a trip to Palatine Hill and the Roman forum. Pretty amazing to see exactly where Rome was founded over 2700 years ago in 753 BC! I had heard the story of Rome's founding in the past, but it was great to hear again from our tour guide. For those of you who have never heard the story before, Rome was founded by twin brothers, well one brother really, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The brothers were named Romulus and Remus. They had been set adrift on the river Tiber after their mother, Rhea Silvia, was flung into the river by Amulius, their mother's uncle. Why had she been flung into the river you ask, great question! Amulius had actually taken the throne of Alba Longa by ejecting Romulus and Remus' grandfather, Amulius' brother, from the throne. Amulius wanted no threats to his throne so he made Rhea Silvia become a vestal virgin. Unfortunately for him, Mars, the god of war, was enchanted by Rhea Silvia and had his way with her while she slept, thus impregnating her with Romulus and Remus.
So now we have the two twin brothers floating along the river - motherless, when all of a sudden they are snagged by a tree branch. From there a she-wolf suckles them and they grow up to be men. True to their heroic origins, they raise an army and return to defeat their great uncle Amulius, and return their grandfather to his throne.
Now after winning this great battle and killing their uncle the two brothers are like, "Hey, what should we do now? Maybe found a town near where the tree branch stopped us on the river!?" They both think it's a great idea!
Unfortunately, they couldn't agree on which hill to found the town, Romulus wanting Palatine Hill and Remus wanting Aventine Hill. Basically what happened is their fight over these hills got so big that Romulus threw a spear at his brother and killed him (so glad my brothers and I aren't into the whole town founding thing, sounds dangerous) thus resulting in Rome being founded on Palatine Hill in 753BC!
Ok, so that is all from memory of what the tour guide said and what I could remember from 7th grade history (with a little help from Google on names), so please don't hold it against me if I got any of the details wrong. In fact, comment and let me know if I mixed anything up please!
Now, onto some pictures from today, hope you enjoy!
As always, thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for more to come!
Bonus pic of me trying to take a selfie while staring into the sun
Check out our other adventures in Rome at these links below.
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