Roman Discovery

Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered
January 26, 2007

Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale-the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born.

The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city.


Palatine Hill, with crumbling palaces

Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace.

"We were drilling the ground near Augustus' residence to survey the foundations of the building when we discovered the cave," said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the area.

"We knew from ancient reports that the Lupercale shouldn't be far from the Emperor's palace, but we didn't expect to find it. It was a lucky surprise.

"We didn't enter the cave but took some photos with a probe," Iacopi added.

"They show a richly decorated vault encrusted with mosaics and seashells, too rich to be part of a home. That's why we think it could be the ancient sanctuary, but we can't be sure until we find the entrance to the chamber."

Ancient Legend

According to myth, Lupercale is where a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the war god Mars and mortal priestess Rhea Silvia, who had been abandoned in a cradle on the bank of the Tiber River.

The cave's name, in fact, comes from the Latin word for wolf, lupus.

The brothers are said to have later founded Rome on April 21, 753 B.C., at the site. But they eventually fought for the leadership of the new city, and Romulus killed his brother.

Every year on February 15 ancient priests killed a dog and two goats and smeared the foreheads of two boys from noble families with the sacrificial blood as part of the Lupercalia celebration. (Related: "'Rome' TV Wardrobe Not Built in a Day [August 26, 2005].)

The ceremony survived until A.D. 494, when Pope Gelasius put an end to the tradition.

The Palatine Hill also became the residential area of the most affluent Roman citizens beginning in 500 B.C.

When the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire in the first century B.C., Augustus even built himself and his wife Livia palaces on top of the hill.

Later emperors followed his example and built larger and larger homes on the same spot. Now the whole hill is a honeycomb of buildings and tunnels extending far underground.

The English word "palace" derives from "Palatium," the Latin name of the area.

Crumbling Ruins

"The tale of the birth of Rome is part myth and part historical truth," said Andrea Carandini, historian and archaeologist at the University of Rome, La Sapienza.

"The story of the twins reflects the previous tradition of the Lares, the twin deities protecting the area, but there was indeed a historical founder who constituted the Palatine Hill as the sacred heart of the city around 775 B.C.," he added.

"The archaeological findings are providing more and more evidence that the tale of Rome's foundation isn't a later legend but originates from historical facts," he said.

Time may been running out for additional discoveries, however.

"The remains are now crumbling due to atmospheric agents and lack of funds for maintenance," head archaeologist Iacopi said. "Most of the buildings are closed to the public for safety reasons. It's a real pity.

"Archaeologists are doing what they can to restore and stabilize the ruins," she added.

"Now we have to find the entrance and study the chamber," Iacopi said.

"In the meantime we are going to finish the restorations in Augustus' palace. We hope to open part of the emperor's residence to the public in a few months."



November 20, 2007-Colorful mosaics spiral across the vaulted ceiling of a grotto that was unveiled today as the likely place where ancient Romans believed that a she-wolf suckled their city's legendary founders.

In January archaeologists announced that the sacred cave, known as the Lupercale, had been found during excavations of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of Rome.

According to Roman myth, a female wolf nursed the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus in the Lupercale. The grown brothers are said to have founded the Eternal City at the site on April 21, 753 B.C.

Since the grotto's discovery, experts have been examining it with remote sensing devices, because they fear that a full dig might cause the already fragile cave to collapse, the Associated Press reported. So far the team estimates that the domed sanctuary is 26 feet (8 meters) high with a 24-foot (7-meter) diameter.

At a news conference today the team released images of the grotto-including the undated photo above-taken with a probe. The images show the cave's richly detailed mosaics made of marble and seashells.

The center of the ceiling features a depiction of a white eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus. The first-century-B.C. emperor is thought to have restored the sacred site in a bid to improve his power by linking himself with Rome's mystical founders.

"The Lupercale must have had an important role in Augustus' policies," Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the site, told the AP. "He saw himself as a new Romulus."

Archaeologists also announced that teams would soon start to search for the grotto's original entrance, believed to be at the bottom of the Palatine, in the hopes of safely accessing the cave.



Here is a selection telling the story, from History by Titus Livy, about 15 A.D.

...
But I must believe it was already written in the book of fate that this great city of ours should arise, and the first steps to be taken to the founding of the mightiest empire the world has known- next to that of the gods. The Vestal Virgin was raped and gave birth to twin boys. Mars, she declared, was their father- perhaps she believed it, perhaps she was merely hoping by the pretense to hide her guilt. Whatever the truth of the matter, neither gods nor men could save her or her babies from the savage hands of King Amulius.

The mother was bound and flung into prison; the boys, by the king's order, were condemnded to be drowned in the river. Destiny, however, intervened; the Tiber had overflowed its banks; because of the flooded ground it was impossible to get to the actual river, and the men entrusted to do the deed thought that the flood water, sluggish though it was, would serve their purpose. Accordingly they went to carry out the king's orders by leaving the infants on the edge of the first flood water they came to.

In those days the country thereabouts was all wild anduncultivated, and the story goes that when the basket in which the infants had been exposed was left high and dry by the receding water, a she-wolf, coming down from the neighboringhills to quench her thirst, heard the children crying and made her way to where they were. She offered them her teats to suck and treated them with such gentleness that Faustulus, the king's herdsman, found her licking them with her tongue. Faustulus took them to his hut and gave them to his wife Laurentia to nurse. Somethink that the origin of this fable was the factthat Laurentia was a common [fatlady] and she was called Wolf by the shepherds.

Such, then, was the birth and upbringing of the twins. By the time they were grown boys, they employed themselves actively on the farm and with the flocks and began to go hunting in the woods; their strength grew, until not content only with hunting they took to attacking robbers and sharing their stolen goods with their friends the shepherds. other young fellows joined them, and they and the shepherds would spend the time together, sometimes in serious talk, sometimes in jolly.

Even in that remote age the Palatine hill is supposed to have been the scene of the gay festival of the Lupercalia. Evander, who many years before held the region, is said to have institused there the old Arcadian practice of holding an annual festival in honor of Lycean Pan (afterwards called Inuus ny the Romans), in which young men ran naked and partook of various pranks and fooleries. The day of festival was common knowledge, and on one occasion when it was in full swing some robbers, incensed at the loss of their ill-gotten gains, laid a trap for Romulus and Remus. Romulus successfully defended himself, but Remus was caught and handed over to King Amulius. The robbers laid a complaint against their prisoner, the main charge being that he and his brother were in the habit of raiding Numitor's land with an organized gang of thugs and stealing the cattle. Whereupon Remus was handed over to Numitor for punishment.

Niow Faustulus had suspected all along that the boys he was bringing up were of royal blood. He knew that two infants had been exposed on the king's orders, and the rescue of his own two fitted that point in time. So far, however, he had been unwilling to delcare what he knew, until either a suitable opportunity occurred or circumstances compelled him. Now the truth could no longer be concealed, so in his alarm he told Romulus the whole story; Numitor, too, when he had Remus in his custody and was told that the two brothers were twins, started thinking about his grandsons; the young men's age and character, so different from the lowly born, confirmed his suspicions; and further inquiry led him to the same conclusion, until he was on the point of acknowledging Remus.

The net was closing in, and Romulus acted. He was not strong enough for open hostilities, so he told a number of herdsmen to meet at the king's house by different routes at a certain time; this was done, and with the help of Remus, heading another body of men, the King Amulius was surprised and killed. Before the first blows were struck, Numitor declared that an enemy had broken into the town and attacked the palace; he then drew off all the men of military age to garrison at the inner fortress, and, as soon as he saw Romulus and Remus, their purpose accomplished, coming to congratulate him, he summoned a meeting of the people and laid the facts before them: Amulius' crime against himself, the birth of his grandsons, how they were brought up and ultimately recognized, and finally, the murder of King Amulius for which he himself assumed responsibility. The two brothers marched through the crowd with their men and saluted their grandfather as king, and by a shout of unanimous consent his royal title was confirmed.

Romulus and Remus, after control had passed to Numitorin the way I have described, were suddenly siezed by an urge to found a new settlement on the spot where they had been left to drown as infants and had been subsequently brought up. There was, in fact, already an excess of population. Unhappily the brothers' plans for the future were marred by the same curse which had divided their father Amulius and their grandfather Numitor- jealousy and ambition. As the brothers were twins and all question of seniority was thereby precluded, they decided to ask the gods of thecountryside to declare by prophecy which of them should govern the new town once it was founded, and give his name to it. For this purpose Romulus took the Palatine hill and Remus the Aventine astheir respective stations from which to observesigns from birds. Remus, the story goes, was the first to receive a sign- six vultures; and no sooner was this made known to people than double the number of birds appeared to Rumulus. The followers ofeach promptly saluted their master as king, one side basing its claim on priority, the other upon number. Angry words ensued, followed all too soon by blows, and in the course of the fray Remus was killed. There is another story, a commonerone, according to which Remus, by way of jeering at his brother, jumped overthe half-built walls of the new settlement, whereupon Romulus killed him in a fit of rage. This, then, was how Romulus obtained sole power. The newly built city was called by its founder's name.

Livy goes on to tell how the city of Rome despaired for citizens as its population and reputation dwindled. How they remedied the situation shows the character of its inhabitants.

Romulus's overtures were nowhere favorably recieved; it was clear that everyone despised the new community, and at the same time, feared, both for themselves and for posterity, the growth of this new power in their midst. More often that not his envoys were dismissed with the question of whether Rome had thrown open their doos to female, as well as male, runaways and vagabonds, as that would evidently be the most suitable way for Romans to get wives. The Romans naturally resented this affront, and a clash with their naighbors seemed inevitable. Romulus, seeing it was inevitable, set the scene for it with elaborate care. Deliberately hiding his resentment, he prepared to celebrate the Consualia, a solemn festival in the honor of Neptune, patron of the horse, and sent notice of his intention all over the neighboring countryside. The better to advertise it, his people lavished upon their preparations for the spectacle all their resources meager as they were.

On the appointed day crowds flocked to Rome, partly, no doubt, out of sheer curiosity to see the new town. The majority of them were from the neighboring setlements of Caenina, Crustumium, and Antemnae, but al the Sabines were there too, with their wives and children. many houses offered hospitable entertainment to the visitors; they were invited to inspect the fortifications, layout, and numerous buildings of the town, and expressed their surprise at the rapidity of its growth. Then the great moment came; the show began, and nobody had eyes or thoughts for anything else. This was the Romans' opportunity: at a signal all the able bodied men burst through the crowd and siezed the young women. Most of the girls were the prize of whoever got hold of them first, but a few conspicuously beautiful ones had been previously marked for leding senators, and thes were brought to their houses by special gangs.

By this act of violence the fun of the festival broke up in panic. The girls' unfortunate parents made good their escape, not without bitter comments on the treachery of their hosts and heartfelt prayer to the god whose festival they had all come in good faith and the solemnity of the occasion, only to be grossly decieved. The young women were no less indignant and as full of foreboding for the future.