THE WOLF AND THE TWINS

Aeneas defeated Turnus in single combat and married Lavinia. He built Lavinium and was later killed in battle. For four hundred years his descendants ruled Latium. King Numitor was overthrown by his brother Amulius, who killed Numitor's son and forced his daughter Rhea Sylvia to become a Vestal Virgin. Vestals guarded a sacred fire and could not marry for thirty years—punishment was burial alive. But Mars the war god married Rhea Sylvia secretly. When twin sons were born, Amulius had them set adrift on the Tiber in their cradle. The cradle drifted ashore. A she-wolf who had lost her cubs found the crying babies and nursed them. A woodpecker brought berries. A shepherd discovered them and took them home to be raised.