How reliable is the story Romulus and Remus?

Answer 1

no one will ever know because it is a legend. it was passed down verbally so it could have altered the story some. also there is no proof that they were ever alive. no one isthat old to know that fact. after all it was 2500 years ago at the earliest.

Answer 2

Here are the very basics. Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of Mars and the Vestal Virgin, Rhea Silvia, the daughter of the rightful, but deposed king at the time. When they were born the king ordered them to be left to die in the Tiber, but the basket in which they were placed washed up on the shore and a wolf nursed then while a woodpecker fed them. A shepherd finds them and brings them into his home. When the twins grow up they restore the throne to the rightful ruler, their grandfather, then set out to establish their own city. Sibling rivalry causes Romulus to kill his brother and become the first king of Rome. For more detailed information, just type in "Romulus" in your computer search engine and you'll get several sites and links.

Answer 3

Their being born in Alba Longa is probably legendary. The Romans fancied themselves as being descendants of the Trojans. The myth of Aenea was created. He was a hero of the Trojan war. The legend has him landing in Latium (the land of the Latins). He founded the city of Lavinium. His son founded the city of Alba Longa and its royal house. Having Romulus and Remus being the sons of Silvia Rhea, the daughter of the deposed king of Alba Longa, bridged the 400 year gap between the dates of the Trojan war and the foundation of Rome.

That Romulus and Remus were thrown into the Tiber and landed by the Palatine Hill is also a legend. Note that Alba Longa was 15 kilometres southeast of Rome. The twins would have had to be put in the river north of Rome. The she-wolf story is also a legend.

The abduction of the Sabine women was also probably a legend. It is likely that Titus Tatius and the Sabines did attack Rome, make peace and settle on the Quirinal and Viminal hills. However, it is unlikely that it was due to a kidnapping of Sabine women. It is more likely that it was prompted by Rome's expansion northwards, toward Sabine territory. Why they made peace is not known. The Romans saw themselves as the product of a fusion between Latins and Sabines, and some patrician clans claimed Sabine descent.

The dispute between Romulus and Remus over the foundation of Rome might have been factual, though there was an injection of fictional elements.The rituals used by Romulus may indicate that he presented himself as a king-priest and that religion was central to the first Roman state. There are different versions of how Romulus died.

Some historians thought that the whole story of the foundation of Rome was a legend. They also argued that Rome only went back to around 625 BC. However, archaeologists have found a fragment of a wall, which might have been the wall of the square Rome, and the foundations of the regia (royal house), the temple of Vesta and a few other temples. All of them have been dated to the first quarter or the half of the 9th century BC. The date of given for the foundation of Rome is 853 BC.

The square Rome was the Palatine Hill with a wall which was built around it by Romulus. This was the original nucleus of Rome. It is called square because the shape of this hill is square.

Answer 4

The story of the Romulus and Remus is part of the semi-legendary story of the foundation of Rome. It is called semi-legendary because parts of it are credible and could have happened, while parts of it are fictional and characteristic of ancient legends. For example, the baby twins were abandoned in a basket to float down the River Tiber, but they survived and were stopped when the basket got caught by a branch of a fig tree by the Capitoline hill. They were then suckled by a she-wolf. It is unlikely that these events actually happened.

Answer 5

not very, since it was a legend