Romulus and Remus a story to be retold

I have always liked the story of Romulus and Remus, and retold it to Year 7s over the years as a starting point to explore  Roman history and the way the Romans thought about themselves.

So I have been fascinated by this weeks In Our Time on Radio 4*

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romulus and Remus, the central figures of the foundation myth of Rome. According to tradition, the twins were abandoned by their parents as babies, but were saved by a she-wolf who found and nursed them. Romulus killed his brother after a vicious quarrel, and went on to found a city, which was named after him.

The myth has been at the core of Roman identity since the 1st century AD, although the details vary in different versions of the story. For many Roman writers, the story embodied the ethos and institutions of their civilisation. The image of the she-wolf suckling the divinely fathered twins remains a potent icon of the city even today.

With:
Mary Beard
Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge

Peter Wiseman
Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter

Tim Cornell
Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester.

BBC Programme Notes

Picture; The wolf-figure maybe Etruscan, dating from the 5th century BC, with figures of Romulus and Remus added in the 15th century AD by Antonio Pollaiuolo. Recent studies suggest that the wolf may be a medieval sculpture dating from the 13th century AD.

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot