Sanctuary of Rome's 'Founder' Revealed

Yahoo! News (AP) ^ | 11/20/2007 | Ariel David

[Pyro7480]

This photo made available by the Italian Culture Ministry during a press conference in Rome, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007, shows an underground grotto believed to have been worshipped by ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed the city's legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus. Decorated with seashells and colored marble, the vaulted sanctuary lies buried 16 meters (52 feet) inside the Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome. (AP Photo/Italian Culture Ministry, HO)

[Pyro7480]

GGG ping!

[Red Badger]

Ping!............

[blam]

Thanks. (Bump)

[Sacajaweau]

Very cool...

[Greg F]

Awesome discovery. I credit the Romulus and Remus legend a little more now that I saw a show on Discovery (I think) about a Russian boy that was an orphan and lived with dogs on the street.

[lilylangtree]

Fascinating.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Pyro: Thanks for posting this.

My only ‘Humm’ on this is that I was under the impression that this was a fictional story.

So are they saying this is NOT fiction?

Or that this is the REAL location of a fictional event?

[af_vet_rr]

Very cool indeed. It’s amazing how much has survived until now.

[LexBaird]

Romulus

Remus

[Pyro7480]

It’s where the ancient Roman believed the legend took place.

[RosieCotton]

OK, I admit, I laughed.

But seriously, interesting article! Thanks for posting.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

We were in Rome this summer and the Palatine hill was one of our favorite places--we went twice, in fact. It's basically a park full of wildflowers and ruins and amazingly uncrowded, compared to the other sights. Hot tip: the same ticket gets you into the adjacent Colosseum, but there's no line to buy it at the Palatine hill. Get your ticket there, see the sights, then cruise past the long ticket line at the Colosseum.

[Andyman]

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Steves.

[mickey finn]

I was in Rome last Christmas and Palatine Hill was also our favorite place. Went twice and could have gone again. This find is very important!

[Proverbs 3-5]

How long before the Muslims come in and blow it up like they destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001...

[jalisco555]

Great story, thanks for posting it. I read somewhere that in old Latin the word for female wolf was similar to a slang term for prostitute and that maybe the legend of the twins being nursed by a she-wolf was a distortion of the fact that their mother was a prostitute. Which implies that there was an historical Romulus and Remus, of course.

[jalisco555]

I was in Rome last Christmas and Palatine Hill was also our favorite place. Went twice and could have gone again. This find is very important!

Yeah, it's terrific, isn't it. Just a fascinating place. Did you get to go to Torre Argentina? It's the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated and is now a cat sanctuary. Literally hundreds of cats live there, right where Caesar fell.

[purpleraine]

Thanx. I remember the Palatine from our trip.

It's a good thing the other brother didn't win, we'd be calling it Remu.

[IronJack]

I always considered it fortuitous that Romulus won the combat with his brother. I can’t conceive much reverence for the “glories of ancient Reme.”