Remus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Remus

13 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Remus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Remus and his twin brother Romulus were the founders of Rome in Roman mythology. Their mother was Rhea Silvia, daughter of the king of Alba Longa, Num... For the story in one place, read our article on Remus.

Ovid (6)

Ovid, Fasti 4.807–862Fasti 4: The founding of Rome and the death of RemusOvid tells how Romulus and Remus settle the right to found a city by watching for birds, with Remus seeing six and Romulus twelve. Romulus ploughs the boundary furrow and prays to Zeus (Jupiter), Ares (Mars) and Hestia (Vesta). Remus mocks the wall and jumps it, and Celer kills him; Romulus weeps and buries him.
Ovid, Fasti 2.359–424Fasti 2: Romulus and Remus and the she-wolfOvid gives a Latin reason for the naked run. During a goat sacrifice to Pan (Faunus), Remus recovers stolen cattle and eats the meat with the Fabii, so Romulus finds only bones. The poet then explains the name Lupercal: the Vestal Silvia's twins are set adrift on the flooded Tiber on a king's order, wash up under a fig tree and are suckled by a she-wolf.
Ovid, Fasti 5.419–492Fasti 5: The Lemuria: the midnight rite and the ghost of RemusOn 9 May Ovid describes the midnight Lemuria: the householder throws black beans over his shoulder nine times, clashes bronze, and asks the ghosts to leave. Hermes (Mercury) explains the name. The ghost of Remus appears to Faustulus and Acca, and Romulus names the day for him; the festival keeps temples closed and makes weddings unlucky.
Ovid, Fasti 2.119–152Fasti 2: Augustus, Father of his Country (5 February)On 5 February Ovid says he wishes for a thousand tongues to sing the day on which Augustus was given the title Father of his Country by people, senate and knights. He compares Augustus with Romulus point by point, on walls, conquests, laws and mercy. He then notes the Water-Pourer rising and the start of spring around 9 February.
Ovid, Fasti 3.1–42Fasti 3: Ares (Mars) and SilviaOvid asks Ares (Mars) to put down his arms at the start of Book 3, since the month is named for him, and points to Athena (Minerva) as a warlike goddess who also makes time for the arts. He tells how the Vestal Silvia falls asleep by a river and is possessed by Mars. She wakes pregnant, tells a dream of two palms, and Remus and Quirinus grow within her.
Ovid, Fasti 4.1–84Fasti 4: Aphrodite (Venus) and the line of AeneasOvid invokes Aphrodite (Venus) at the start of April, and she tells him to finish his work. He traces the descent of Caesar's family from Dardanus through Aeneas, Julus and the Alban kings to Romulus and Remus, then gives the Greek derivation of the month's name and lists Greek settlers in Italy.

Plutarch (6)

Plutarch, Life of Romulus 7.1–8.7Remus taken captive, Numitor's discovery and the death of AmuliusAfter a quarrel between the herdsmen of Numitor and Amulius, Numitor's herdsmen capture Remus and bring him before Numitor, who guesses the truth from his bearing and listens to his story of the trough. Faustulus, hearing of this, tells Romulus the facts of their birth and carries the trough toward Numitor, but a guard who once helped expose the boys recognises it, and Faustulus is brought before Amulius. Romulus arrives with a large force in companies of a hundred, each led by a man carrying a pole with a handful of hay. Remus incites the citizens within Alba and Romulus attacks from outside, and Amulius is seized and put to death.
Plutarch, Life of Romulus 9.1–10.2Founding Rome: the sanctuary of asylum, the vultures and the death of RemusWith Amulius dead, the brothers restore the government to their grandfather and resolve to found a city where they were reared. Plutarch argues that the Albans would not let the fugitives and slaves around them intermarry, as the rape of the Sabine women shows, and that the new city made a sanctuary of refuge that soon filled it with people. Romulus builds Roma Quadrata and Remus marks out a precinct on the Aventine, so they settle the dispute by augury, and Remus sees six vultures and Romulus twelve. Remus, enraged by the deceit, leaps over the trench of the new wall and is struck dead, by Romulus himself or by Celer, and Faustulus and Pleistinus fall in the fighting.
Plutarch, Life of Romulus 11.1–13.6The ritual founding of Rome, the Parilia, the date of foundation and the first senateRomulus buries Remus and has men from Tuscany teach him the sacred rites, with a circular trench called the mundus and a furrow ploughed round the boundary with a bull and a cow, leaving a space at each gate. Rome is founded on the twenty-first of April, the day of the pastoral festival Parilia, and Plutarch tells how Tarutius worked out for Varro the day and hour of the conception and birth of Romulus and of the founding of the city. Romulus then forms the legions and appoints a hundred councillors, called patricians, as a senate. He also sets up the bond between patrons and clients.
Plutarch, Life of Romulus 21.1–22.4Roman festivals: the Matronalia, Carmentalia and Lupercalia; the Vestals and laws of RomulusRomans and Sabines share feasts and sacrifices, adding the Matronalia, which honours the women for stopping the war, and the Carmentalia, and Plutarch discusses whether Carmenta was a Fate or the prophetic wife of Evander. He describes the Lupercalia, with its goat sacrifice, the two noble youths, the running Luperci with thongs and the sacrificed dog, and compares explanations linking it to the she-wolf, to Faunus and to the Greek Lycaea. He reports that Romulus first consecrated fire and appointed Vestals, though others credit Numa, and that he carried an augur's staff, the lituus. Romulus also enacted laws on divorce and counted all murder as parricide.
Plutarch, Life of Romulus comp.1.1–comp.6.5Comparison of Theseus and RomulusPlutarch weighs Theseus, who chose great deeds freely, against Romulus, who was driven to them by danger, and sets the road robbers, the Centaurs, the Amazons and the Cretan tribute against Amulius, Acron and the Sabine war. He judges that both rulers changed, Theseus towards democracy and Romulus towards tyranny, and compares the anger of Romulus at his brother with that of Theseus at his son. Romulus rose from humble beginnings and gained a lasting union through the Sabine marriages, while the abductions of Theseus, from Ariadne to Helen, brought Athens only war.
Plutarch, Life of Romulus 3.1–6.3Romulus and Remus: Amulius, the Vestal Ilia, the she-wolf and Faustulus; the two LarentiasAmulius takes the kingdom of Alba from his brother Numitor and makes Numitor's daughter a priestess of Vesta, but she bears twin boys of more than human size and beauty. A servant sets them in a trough by the swollen river, which floats it to a spot near the wild fig-tree Ruminalis, where a she-wolf and a woodpecker, both sacred to Ares (Mars), tend them. Plutarch notes the story that the nurse was Acca Larentia, wife of Faustulus, and tells of a second Larentia, whom the temple keeper of Heracles (Hercules) locked in the temple after losing a game of dice with the god, and who later became rich through Tarrutius. Faustulus rears the boys, and they grow up as brave herdsmen, famous for hunting, driving off robbers and rescuing the oppressed.

Strabo (1)

Strabo, Geography 5.3.2–3The founding of Rome: Aeneas and RomulusStrabo tells how Aeneas came to Laurentum, how Latinus and the Latini arose, and how Ascanius founded Alba. He recounts Rhea Silvia, the twins said in myth to be sons of Ares (Mars) suckled by a she-wolf, Romulus and Remus, the asylum and the seizure of the Sabine women. He also gives the older Arcadian account of Evander entertaining Heracles (Hercules) on the advice of his mother Nicostrata, whom the Romans worship as Carmentis.