Little is known for sure about the earliest history of Rome. According to legend, the city was founded in 753 B.C. by two brothers, Romulus and Remus. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, was the daughter of King Numitor of Alba Longa (a city in Latium, Italy). The king was overthrown by his brother Amulius, who forced Rhea to become a vestal virgin to prevent her from having children who might challenge his claim to the throne. When Rhea became pregnant by the god Mars and gave birth to handsome twin sons, Amulius sent her into exile and set the children adrift in a trough or basket on the Tiber river.
Miraculously, the babies floated safely ashore. They were suckled by a wolf, which kept them alive until they were rescued by a shepherd and his wife, who raised them. As adults Romulus and Remus killed Amulius and restored their grandfather to his throne. Then they set out to found their own city, but they squabbled over its exact location, and when Remus ridiculed the walls Romulus was building, Romulus was so enraged that he killed his brother.
The settlers of Romulus's new city of Rome were fugitives of every description -- debtors, runaway servants, even murderers. Unsurprisingly, they found it difficult to find wives, so they kidnapped women from the neighboring Sabine tribe, sparking a war which only ended when Romulus agreed to make the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, his co-ruler.
Five years later, associates of Tatius killed some ambassadors during a robbery. Tatius shielded the culprits from prosecution, so the victims' relatives attacked and killed him. After his death, Romulus enjoyed a long and prosperous reign. Instead of dying like an ordinary mortal, he mysteriously vanished during a thunderstorm, and was thereafter worshipped as a god.
The next king of Rome, according to tradition, was Tatius's son-in-law, Numa Pompilius, a peaceable and pious man. After his death, the warlike Tullus Hostilius -- who came from a prominent Roman family -- was elected king. He reigned for more than three decades, and was succeeded by Numa's grandson Ancus Martius.
Next came the Tarquin dynasty. At one time historians believed the Tarquins were purely mythological, but their existence is better accepted today. The first Tarquin king was a Greek noble who emigrated to Rome with his Etruscan wife and rose high in Roman society. He was called Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, or Tarquin the Elder. He became guardian of Ancus Martius's sons and somehow seized the throne after the king's death in 616 B.C. He reigned until 578 B.C., when he was murdered by Ancus Martius's sons and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Servius Tullius.
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