Romulus
Romulus and Remus,mythical founders of Rome. Their legend, though probably as old as the late 4th cent. bc in one form or another (the Ogulnii dedicated a statue of the she-wolf with the twins in 206 BC, Livy 10. 23. 12; see further C. Duliere, Lupa Romana (1979); F. Coarelli, Il Foro Romano: Periodo repubblicano e augusteo (1985), 89 ff.), cannot be very old nor contain any popular element, unless it be the almost universal one of the exposed children who rise to a great position. The name of Romulus means simply ‘Roman’, cf. the two forms Sicanus and Siculus; Remus (who in the Latin tradition replaces the Rhomos of most Greek authors), if not a back-formation from local place-names such as Remurinus ager, Remona (Festus 344. 25 and 345. 10 Lindsay), is possibly formed from Roma by false analogy with such doublets as Kerkura, Corcyra, where the o is short. The origin of the legend of Romulus and Remus has...
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