Long, long ago when this ancient story first began, there was a royal city. The king there had a daughter named Rhea Silvia. However, fate did not want her to live the life of a princess. Her profiteering uncle dethroned her father and made himself king instead. He wanted his own sons to inherit the kingdom after his death, but that would only happen if Rhea Silvia didn’t have any sons.
So he decided to send Rhea Silvia to serve the goddess Vesta. All the women who served Vesta lived in the temple together and were forbidden from having children. So Rhea Silvia guarded and maintained the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta and lived a chaste life with the other Vestal Virgins.
Rhea did not enjoy her new role, and life in the temple did not fulfill her. After some time, Rhea fell in love with Mars, the god of war, and began to meet with him in secret. It was not long before she became pregnant, and a few months later, she gave birth to two healthy baby boys. Rhea and Mars named the twins Romulus and Remus and they hoped for a happy and long life together.
But once again, fate messed up their plans. Rhea's uncle found out about the children. He was extremely angry and ordered that the twins be thrown into the river immediately. He was a powerful and tyrannical king, so his servants always obeyed him.
The servants who were sent to throw Romulus and Remus into the river didn’t want to harm the babies, but they were too afraid of the king to disobey him. So they came up with a ruse. They put the twins into a wicker basket and let the…