Decended from the transplanted Trojan prince Aeneas after the fall of Troy. He landed in Latium and and his people intermixed with the locals.
Bam, historical street cred to the Greeks, as well as some Latin spice.
Aeneas founded Alba Longa which was ruled by a dynasty of 12 kings. The 2nd was Ascanius, and the 13th was Numitor. He was usurped by nearby king. Rhea Silva, Numitor’s niece, is placed in a convent as a Vestal Virgin to prevent her from bearing an heir and interfering with the usurpation. It looks like it’s a wrap for the Alban dynasty.
Luckly, the God Mars comes along and rapes her. Unfortunate to be sure, but on the other hand, this may be the most important and meritorious rape in history. Why?
The product of this surprise sex are the twins Romulus and Remus. Raising half-gods is a challenging enough, but when you add to the equation the rape resent a Rhea Silva would have felt towards them, you can understand her decision to discard the infants in the Tiber river. And die they would have, if it weren’t for the she-wolf which suckled them to life. Yes.
As half-gods raised by wolves, Romulus and Remus are quite remarkable, so they are practically duty bound to do the remarkable thing and overthrow the usurper and restore Numitor to the thrown. Maybe they wanted to finally earn mommy’s love?
Virgil quotes the usuper after his overthrow: “And my plan would have worked if it weren’t for the pesky Mars and his propensity for raping virgins…as well as the she-wolf’s propensity for raising upstanding individuals. Fuck.”
The story doesn’t end there. Romulus kills Remus and goes on to found Rome, probably because he feared his name would be lost to history without a namesake. And to make sure Rome was an important part of history, he invited criminals and cutthroats to settle in it. So they did.
Then, discovering the reluctance of women to come join the likely-rapefest, Romulus does what any man would do in response: he kidnaps them. Let us not imply Romulus was a crude half-god, and please, no liberal psycho-babble about him being the product of a rape, raised in wolf foster care (as if that justifies kidnapping). Romulus is crafty and practical, so he invites the nearby Sabine tribe to join the Romans for some games. During a footrace the Romans stop and kidnap all the women. And the Sabine men go home.
But the Sabine men plot revenge and rescue. Not-so-urgent rescue. Years later, they lay siege to Rome and demand their damsels. The Sabine women run out into the fray and call for peace before blood is shed. “If Rome wins we lose our fathers and brothers! If Sabine wins we lose our husbands! Oh such distress!” [Limp-wrist to forehead. Damsel twirl. Faint.] Romulus quickly arranges peace.
This is all bared out by archeological evidence, in case you were wondering.
