How Rome came into being

By Wen Shan

這是一個傳說：意大利首都羅馬城的建立與狼有關。

Long ago，there lived a king called Numitor in Italy.But his brother Amulins wanted to be the king for himself.He drove Numitor away and made himself king instead.He also gave orders that Numitor's sons be killed and his daughter Silvia be shut in a temple so that no one would marry her.

Amulins now felt safe.However,Silvia did marry and soon twin sons were born.When Amulins heard of them,he was very angry and ordered his servants to kill them.

The men took the boys to the river Tiber,intending to drown them but then felt sorry for the helpless babies.

They made a basket of bushes for them and pushed them out on the water in it.

The Tiber carried the basket away.But,soon it became caught in the branches of a big tree.The babies,cold and hungry,began to cry loudly.A hungry wolf heard their cries and managed to take them out of the basket and was about to eat them when the babies began to keep closer to her warm fur,which reminded her of her own little children and she took them.The little boys grew strong and healthy with the care of the wolf.

Luckily,a hunter found them and adopted them and named them Romulus and Remus and brought them up as his own sons.

One day，Numitor living in the country,saw Remus and wondered at the boy's resemblance to his daughter,Silvia.On questioning their adoptive parents,he soon put together the whole story.It was not long before the two headstrong youths took their mother from prison,put the wicked to death and helped their grandfather Numitor become the king again.

A short while later，they decided to build a city for themselves and that is how Rome,one of the greatest cities of all time,came into being.