Editing Faustulus (section)

== Representation in Livy's ''From the Founding of the City'' ==
The Roman historian [[Livy]] details the story of the infants Romulus and Remus in his work ''[[Ab urbe condita (Livy)|Ab urbe condita libri]]'' (From the Founding of the City). According to Livy, after the rape of the Vestal Virgin [[Rhea Silvia]], who later claimed Mars as the father (either out of truth or for the respectability that came of divine providence, as Livy points out), [[Amulius|King Amulius]], the twin's great-uncle, ordered the infants put into a basket and sent down the [[Tiber|Tiber River]] to their deaths by drowning. In this year, the Tiber had flooded and as such, carried the boys into a flatland. When the water receded, it dropped the boys on a flat piece of land where the she-wolf, known as [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|Lupa]], found and nursed them. According to Livy, some shepherds referred to Acca Larentia as the 'she-wolf' because of her sexual promiscuity, and this may be how the tale of the twins suckling at the teat of the she-wolf came to be. Either way, Faustulus carried the infants back to his sheepfold where he presented the children to his wife to rear. Faustulus and Acca Larentia raised the boys as their own, and they grew to be shepherds. According to Livy, Faustulus was aware of the royal lineage of the twins from the beginning, writing:

<blockquote>From the very beginning Faustulus had entertained the suspicion that they were children of the royal blood that he was bringing up in his house; for he was aware both that infants had been exposed by order of the king, and that the time when he had himself taken up the children exactly coincided with that event.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1, chapter 1|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi0011.perseus-eng1:1|access-date=2020-11-22|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref></blockquote>Faustulus withheld his knowledge of the twin's lineage, choosing instead to wait "until opportunity offered or necessity compelled."<ref name=":1" /> According to Livy, necessity came first, as Remus had been captured by [[Numitor]], the former King, a descendant of [[Aeneas]], father of Rhea Silvia, and maternal grandfather of Romulus and Remus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=P. Ovidius Naso, Fasti, book 4|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi007.perseus-lat1:4|access-date=2020-11-22|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Faustulus revealed the true nature of the twin's birth to Romulus. At the same time, Numitor realized the boy he held in custody was his grandson Remus, and so a plan was hatched to slay King Amulius. Romulus gathered a band of shepherds and, combined with Remus's forces from the house of Numitor, attacked and killed the king. The twins declared the death of the tyrant and named their grandfather king. According to Livy, this was followed by a "shout of assent...from the entire throng [which] confirmed the new monarch's title and authority."<ref name=":1" />