If you go to the Capitoline Museums do not miss the wonderful Pinacoteca, full of works of art such as this painting by Rubens, dating between 1615 and 1616. It is just one of the painted masterpieces of this section at the Capitoline Museums, that as you can understand doesn't host just archeological wonders. 

Anyway the Rubens' painting represents the legend of Romulus and Remus. In a single work we can "see" the myth of the foundation of Rome, the act which led to the birth of the Eternal City. We start from an assumption: this episode is narrated by several roman historians, from Plutarch to Varro. Some details could change depending on the source, but the story is always the same. But keep always in mind how we are talking about a legend, and not a complete true story. Livy wrote about this story writing "Still today is alive the oral tradition (...)", telling us, at the same time, that it is not easy to understand what is true or not. It is, however, interesting as, basically, all the main protagonists of the episode are here, placed by Rubens in that bucolic setting and natural backdrop to the whole affair. We are in a wild environment where, between the valleys of the hills, where will be built in Rome, there were marshy areas and where nature grew in a lush and unspoiled way. In the painting we see the two twins and the famous she-wolf, and in the background the figure of the shepherd Faustolo who discovered them, and on the left the elderly and muscular man, representative of the river, with a woman, the famous Rhea Silvia, the twins' mother. But do you know the legend?

It all begins in Alba Longa, the legendary town founded by Ascanius, Aeneas' son from Troy. After 30 generations the King of Alba Longa became Amulius, who had usurped the throne of his brother Numitor. In his neverending search for power Amulius ordered him to kill his two sons, forcing instead his niece, Rea Silvia, to become a priestess vestal. Among the prerogatives of the Vestals (which, however, in theory, appeared for the first time only with the second King of Rome, and then after the story I'm telling now), there was the close and holy virginity. In this way Rhea Silvia would never have been able to have any sexual relationship, avoiding, therefore, that Amulius would remain with the heirs to the throne that could bother him. But Rhea Silvia, in spite of everything, got pregnant, giving the "blame" on Mars. It would have been Him to subdue the mind of the poor mortal woman, bringing her to have sexual intercourse in a very and special way. It is said, indeed, that this act took place when the God of War (but originally the God of fertility for the early romans), appeared in the form of a huge phallus. Something that Rea Silvia could not resist... Found out the regrettable fact, Amulius ordered to kill Rhea Silvia and ordered too, to two slaves, to abandon the twins, born from the love between Mars and Rea Silvia, in a basket, leaving them at the waters of the Tiber river. In this way the fate of the two babies would be left to the destiny (reminds you of something in this story? Think of Moses...).

Miraculously, at a certain moment, the waters of the Tiber calmed down, becoming calm and quiet, allowing the basket with the twins to rest gently on the shore of the river, at the height of a loop or, according to some, a puddle of water that then took the name of the Cermalus. According to other sources, in reality, the basket was carried by the waters of the Tiber river up to a cave that opened up along one of the slopes of the Palatine: the cave took the name of the Lupercal, and here comes into play the other great protagonist of the whole story: the she-wolf. It is said that this wild animal in search of food, descended along the slope of the Palatine, finding the twins. It was at that moment that the she-wolf, going against the ordinary animal instincts, began to nurse the two babies. Read again Livy: "when the shallow water left dry the floating basket in which the children had been abandoned, a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding mountains changed his run in the direction of their cry and, crouching, offered them their milk". The she-wolf, coincidentally, was also a sacred animal of Mars. According to some sources, in addition to the she-wolf we should also include a woodpecker, another animal sacred to Mars, which worried about the food, bringing something to eat to the two poor twins. Keep in mind how here, at the Capitoline Museums, you can appreciate the famous Capitoline She Wolf, a bronze artifact that, in some degree, symbolized what I'm telling about. Shortly after came the shepherd Faustolo who, without any fear, took the two twins bringing them back to his house. He raised as his children.

In the framework by Rubens there is another prominent figure of the whole myth: Acca Larenzia, the sheperd Faustolo's wife. As always happens when these figures are mythicals or legendaries, still today it is not clear what might be the symbolism behind the figure of Acca Larenzia. According to some, in reality, the wolf would be the same Acca Larenzia that, more than a pious wife, would have been a prostitute, who used to work in the so-called "brothels". Of course, in this case, it is clear how the myth would be a true invention, because it certainly did not exist in the archaic era in which the story of Romulus and Remus would have had the place. Apart from this, however, well understood the symbolic power of this work of Rubens: Rome is destined to grow, its founders are intended to survive, men and rivers, as in the case of the Tiber, must contribute to the divine will at the origin of the city that would rule the ancient world. Fascinating, no doubt about it.