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Poster:
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Icarusfree
(see this users gallery)
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Views:
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2315
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Date:
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Mon Sep 6, 2004
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Filesize:
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314.3k, 145.8k
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Dimensions:
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900 x 600
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Description:
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The Lupa nursing Romulo and Remus, founders of Rome. I have transcribed a short version of the legend, for those you may enjoy it.
Legend of Romulo and Remus.
The legend of Rome's origin would have been poorer if the gods had had no role in it. Mars (who will always be the most important god for Romans) had two sons with Rea Silvia, a priestess devoted to the sacred cult of Vesta. (The name Rea Silvia (often written Rhea Silvia) suggests a minor deity, a demi-goddess of forests. Silva means woods or forest, and rea may be related to res and regnum.) By this birth Rea Silvia had, as a priestess, severely offended both Vesta and the common customs of the time. Therefore Amulius ordered a servant to kill the newborn twins. The servant, lacking the stomach for the deed, put them in a bag that he left in the Tiber, to be carried away and drowned. The twin brothers were transported by the river and washed up on the shore in a place that, curiously, the legends don't specify. Here they were saved by a female wolf who nursed them (this wolf, Lupa, is still now one of main symbols of Rome.) Nearby, in a poor dwelling, lived an old shepherd Faustulus and his wife Larentia. The shepherd found the babies, brought them home, and adopted them. When they had grown to adulthood, the brothers were informed of their history, so they went back to Albalonga, killed Amulius, and freed their grandfather Numitor. Romulus and Remus started planning a new town in the same place in which they had been found by Lupa. They decided that one of them would build a town and the other would help. So they went questioning the gods, asking for signs (presumably from the flight patterns of birds) that would tell them who should lead. Another version of the tale says that they had a competition to be won by the brother who saw more birds (or more birds of some species). Romulus went to the top of Palatine hill, Remus to the top of Aventine. Romulus became convinced that he had been selected by the gods, or that he had seen more birds, so he casually threw his lance on the hill to find the place; when in the ground, the lance (which was wooden) immediately became the corniolus, a sacred tree in Rome. With the help of a white cow and a white bull, he then used his plough to trace the square borders of his town, following the traditional Etruscan ceremony. Remus outrageously crossed this line, invading Romulus's area and happily saying "Can you see how easy it is?" Romulus killed him with one blow of his sword, declaring that everyone who dared to offend Rome would pay with his life. Romulus was the first ruler of Rome, and reigned until he disappeared during a storm, carried off by his father Mars.
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Keywords:
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Rome, Italy, Cityscape, Landmark
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Photo URL:
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http://www.bytegallery.com/data/3185/4webRomaPiazzaPopolo08.jpg
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| File name: |
webRomaPiazzaPopolo08.jpg |
File size: |
149346 bytes |
| File date: |
2004:09:06 15:49:48 |
Camera make: |
Canon |
| Camera model: |
Canon EOS 10D |
Date/Time: |
2004:06:01 03:44:35 |
| Resolution: |
900 x 600 |
Flash used: |
No |
| Focal length: |
135.0mm (35mm equivalent: 732mm) |
CCD width: |
6.64mm |
| Exposure time: |
0.033 s (1/30) |
Aperture: |
f/10.0 |
| ISO equiv.: |
200 |
Metering Mode: |
matrix |
| Jpeg process: |
Baseline |
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