The story of Rome’s foundation is an action-packed tale populated by gods, heroes, kings, priestesses, and she-wolves - there’s scarcely a city in the world that could claim such an exciting beginning!
A king is overthrown and his daughter is forced to take a vow of chastity. Despite the girls’ good intentions, she is seduced by the war god Mars and finds herself pregnant with twin boys. Upon birth, the babies are taken from their mother and exposed on the banks of the Tiber River. Their lives, however, are saved when a she-wolf finds the children and takes them home to live alongside she and her newly-born pups. They are then rescued by a shepherd and his wife who raises them as their own children.
Later in life, these same boys, Romulus and Remus, decide to honor the astounding way in which their lives were saved by founding a city on the banks of the Tiber. They quarrel, however, about who will head up the city, and in an effort to insure his primacy, Romulus kills his brother Remus before founding the city of Rome on April 21st, 753 BC. Wow! It’s more of a mini-series than a story!
In antiquity, the exciting legend of Romulus, Remus, and the She-Wolf was commemorated and honored in a variety of manners. The Lupercal, or the cave in which Romulus and Remus were believed to have lived with the wolf family was kept as a holy shrine on the side of Rome’s Palatine Hill, while the hut in which Romulus lived after founding the city (also on the Palatine), was likewise considered a holy place.
While the careful preservation of such heritage sites meant that ancient Romans (and no doubt many tourists) could follow the Romulean-trail through Rome, paying visits to places associated with the city’s founder and its earliest history - just as Americans today might follow the Lincoln Trail or visit sites important to the life of George Washington - the Romans also recalled their city’s foundation with a religious that was held each year on the city’s birthday, 21 April.
On Roman religious calendars, 21 April was the day designated for the celebration of the Parilia - a festival held in honor of the god (or goddess - no one is sure) Pales who watched over and protected shepherds. Because Romulus and Remus began their lives in the care of a shepherd (and no doubt did some sheep herding themselves), it was commonly thought that Romulus must have been the first to have performed these rites as he founded his city.
So what do the rites entail? This evening - a bit in anticipation of Rome’s birthday - we got a glimpse of this festival when it was re-enacted by the Gruppo Storico Romano in front of the Temple of Hercules (formerly believed to be the Temple of Vesta) in Rome’s Forum Boarium.
In the presence of the Imperial Family (see top photo in this post), the Vestal Virgins processed to the front of the temple where they undertook a public purification by means of fire and smoke, burning the blood of an October Horse (the right hand horse of the team that won a particular chariot race on October 15 of the previous year), the ashes of an unborn calf, and the shells of beans. (We take this opportunity to emphasize that this was a re-enactment and that no animals were harmed in the recreation of this ritual.)
Smoke and spectators were in abundance as these six honorable virgins officiated at the rites meant to bring health and wealth for shepherds - but also to the city of Rome. And the performance was but a warm-up for the star-studded super-parade that will be staged by the Gruppo Storico Romano tomorrow in honor of Rome’s 2761st birthday. Stay tuned!
