Good question! Romulus and Remus are the twin mythical founders of Rome, raised in the wild suckling on the milk of a she-wolf before founding the city. Although they are not characters in the Aeneid, they are direct descendants of Aeneas. It is worth noting that Virgil died while writing the Aeneid, which accounts for its abrupt ending. It is entirely possible, had he been able to complete his magnum opus, there would have been some more mention of them. The ancient Romans loved Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic world, so it comes as no surprise they felt the need to connect their history to it somehow—even if it meant being descended from their famous Trojan enemies.

Romulus and Remus are removed from Aeneas by about fifteen generations. Their grandfather, Numitor, was the king of an ancient city in central Italy called Alba Longa. Numitor was usurped by his younger brother Amulius who forced the mother of Romulus and Remus, Rhea Silvia, to become a vestal virgin (he did not want any legitimate male heirs coming to depose him).

The father of Romulus and Remus is up for debate—some myths claim it was the war god Mars, others say that Rhea Silvia was raped by an unknown man. When the twins are born, Amulius sends a servant to take them into the woods and put them to death. As often happens in these cases, the servant took pity on the newborn babes, and left them alone to the will of the elements instead.

They grow up as shepherds and eventually depose Amulius—though Romulus ends up killing Remus too: a fitting beginning to the bloody history of Rome.