In 753 BC Mars stole into the town of Alba Longa and there bed Rhia Silvia the daughter of the King who was . . . her father Numitor had been deposed by his brother, Amulius, and she consigned to the Vestal Virgins; she gave birth to two twin boys. Ordered to be drowned by Amulius, the boys were placed in a trough and sent downriver. The trough drifted ashore where a she-wolf took the boys to teat. But a farmer and his wife found them and he raised them as his own and named them Romulus and Remus. The boys grew to strapping young men and gathered quite a following; they eventually learned of their heritage and returned to Alba Longa and slew Amulius and restored their Grandfather to his throne.
Not wanting to wait for the crown they swear to found their own town. While doing so they squabbled and Romulus slew his brother near the very spot the wolf had found them.
He founded the town and named it after himself, Rome; it was the town that would eventually rise to control the seven hills and the Tiber river basin. From their the Romans would overthrow their Kings and create a Republic, which in turn conquered the Latin states of central Italy, the northern states, souther states, parts of North Africa, Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, the rest of North Africa, Gaul, the Dalmatian Coasts, Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt and Britain, central Germany, the Balkans and a few other states that have escaped me (and not in that order)
It of course became the seat of the Catholic Church, from where it continued to control the Roman Empire of another thousand years, give or take a few hundred.
The Eternal City: Happy Birthday!
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