In the first book of the Ab Urbe Condita, Livy told about Ascanius, son of Aeneas, establishe the town of Alba Longa on the right riverside of the Tiber. There, during the centuries, reigned lots of his descendants, until the sons of the king Procas, Numitor and his younger brother Amulius. After deposing Numitor, Amulius killed all of his male legacy during an hunting trip and forced Rhea Silvia, his only daughter, to become a vestal, so that she couldn’t have any offspring-due to the chastity requested for the priestess of Vesta-that could threaten his kingdom and claim the crown. After it, Mars fell in love with Rhea Silvia and the two had an intercourse, from which she remain pregnant with the two twins Romulus and Remus. Once Amulius realised about it, he entered in the Vesta temple and ordered to drown the two newborn. But the fate had chosen for the the two children a brighter destiny: the soldiers, moved by mercy, saved them and let them on a basket on the Tiber, from which they were saved by the she-wolf.

Excerpt of the expertise by prof. Francesco Leone.