Hinduism

The formation of the Maurya civilization occurred due to:

• Greek invaders being fought off.
• Sixteen states becoming unified.

* Resentment of Hindu priests * Dissatisfaction with Hinduism * The migration of the Aryans
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born in Northern India (now Nepal) about 563 BCE to King Suddhodana and his wife Queen Maha Maya, so he was born a Prince. His mother died shortly after childbirth. The hermit seer Asita told his father, the King, that his son would either grow up to be a great ruler or a great holy man. The King didn't want his son to be a Holy man so he made it that the prince was only surrounded by luxury and beauty and hid from him sickness, old age and death. At 16 Siddhartha married his cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā. They had a child named Rāhula which means fetter (think ball and chain).

At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen what the real world for the first time and was deeply troubled about the fact that so many people suffer. So he left his wife and child and renounced his throne to find out the answer to why there was suffering. Now it should be noted when Buddhists speak of suffering this includes dissatisfaction (unhappiness) with the way things are. Siddhartha went to study with various gurus to try to find the answer to his question. Theses gurus had him do various types of yoga and meditation to try to help him with his quest. None of them seem to have an answer to his question though.

Siddhartha left these various gurus and joined in with a group of ascetics. Asceticism is a path in which you deprive the body in order to conquer and control the mind. He practiced asceticism fiercely, almost to the point of death. At that point he realized that neither giving in to pleasure, as he did when he was a prince, nor trying to punish the body, was the proper path to finding the answer. So he sat down and meditated under a pi-pal tree. During this meditation he discovered the root of all suffering and the path to how to overcome suffering and became enlightened.

After his enlightenment he meets up with his ascetic friends, who by now were critical of him for leaving the path of asceticism. But he explains to them what he had discovered and they were instantly converted. From there The Buddha taught for 45 years until his death at 85 converting many to his teachings and now Buddhism is the 4th largest religion in the world.

According to the legend, the two brothers that founded the city of Rome were Romulus, and Remus. BUT, Romulus and Remus couldn't decide witch hill they should build Rome on. The two brothers argued until Romulus threw a brick at Remus's head. Remus died and Romulus became the first king of Rome.
ROMULOS AND REMUS

Legend has it that they were twins and abandoned as newly born

A she wolf raised them.

The two brothers Romulus and Remus, Romulus killed Remus and gained control of the new empire. He named it after himself.

However the story of them being raised by a she-wolf is a distortion. Prostitutes were banned in the city, and would howl like wolves outside the city walls soliciting custom: they were known as she-wolves. So Romulus and Remus were raised by a prostitute hired as wet nurse after their mother died.

This is true but Romulus and Remus were ancestors of Aeneas who led a group of Trojans after the fall of Troy to where Rome now lies. They were said to have been raised by wolves and Romulus killed Remus and became king of Rome. This is of course is a myth.

It was really started out of just a village formed where Rome was by the two Italian tribes of Sabine and the Latins in the 8th century. Later Etruscans settled here and turned into the Elite class of Romans. The etruscans later lost power and the originial tribed formed the republic which lasted until 27 a.d at which point it became an Empire.