Roman Republic, Didrachm, 269BC Apparently, today (April 21) is Rome's birthday...Roman historians dated the city's foundation by Romulus (plus/minus Remus) to c. 750BC, and Plutarch reckoned that Romulus and Remus were born c. 771 BC. But in what month? Let's find out...
The legend:
Romulus and Remus were born in Alba Longa. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, a vestal virgin, was impregnated by the God Mars, when he visited her in a sacred grove dedicated to him...
Rhea Silvia was the daughter of the former king of Alba Longa, Numitor, who was overthrown by his brother Amulius. Seeing Romulus and Remus as a threat to his rule, Amulius, took the kids from Rhea Silvia and ordered a servant to kill them by throwing them into the Tiber River...
But the servant took pity on the twins and instead of throwing them into the river, he placed the twins into a basket and put the basket into the River Tiber, and the river carried the boys to safety...
The river god Tibernus ensured the safety of the twins by calming the river, and causing their basket to catch in the roots of a fig tree which grew at the base of the Palatine Hill in the Velabrum swamp...
The twins were then discovered by a she-wolf (Lupa), who had just lost her cubs. She lived in a cave near the fig, which is today known as the Lupercal. She suckled the twins and they were also fed by a woodpecker...
Eventually, Romulus and Remus were discovered and adopted by a shepherd called Faustulus...
The rest is boring stuff, murders, rapes, wars and other "glorious" stuff...I will leave that to historians and Rome "enthusiasts"...
So...Where do we start? I think with the she-wolf (Lupa). She just lost her cubs...and was still lactating...which means that Romulus and Remus were born during the Italian wolf birthing season...Or just before it...Which is when?
Well, it turns out that the Italian wolf, a special subspecies of the wolf family, begins to mate in the middle of Feb...Right around the time of the very important Roman fertility festival Lupercalia (wolf festival)...
The sacred rites performed during Lupercalia were centred around the Lupercal cave...Yup, the one where she-wolf Lupa lived...And the wild fig-tree to which Romulus and Remus were brought by the divine intervention of the river-god Tiberinus...
Interestingly, some Roman sources name the wild fig tree caprificus, literally "goat fig".
Why is this interesting?
Cause the main sacrificial right performed during Lupercalia was a sacrifice of goats at the Lupercal altar by Luperci, Wolf Priests...
After the blood sacrifice, two Luperci had their foreheads anointed with blood from the sacrificial knife, which was then wiped clean with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to laugh...
The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs (known as februa, hence February) from the flayed goat skin, and ran with these, naked, along the old Palatine boundary, laughing and striking those they met with goat skin thongs...
Plutarch writes that "Many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy"...
Luperci then returned to the Lupercal cave...
So...What's all this about? Remember that Ibex (wild) goats were in Europe used as animal calendar markers for winter (Nov,Dec,Jan)...Because their mating season starts in Oct/Nov...
Article "Goat in European culture", about Ibex goat as an animal calendar marker imbedded in in European cultures and mythologies...
Winter finishes in Jan, and spring starts in Jan/Feb...Right when Italian wolves start mating in Feb/Mar...And when Luperci, wolf priests (spring) kill goats (winter) and use goat skin thongs as magic fertility instruments...
Because in continental Europe nature dies at the beginning of winter, and gets resurrected at the end of winter, and because winter is the season of the goat, the goat has to die, so nature can get resurrected...
Article "Krampus", explaining the link between Mountain Ibex Goats, #Capricorn zodiac sign, #Yule Goat, #Krampus and all the other Christmas related goat characters and masks:
You might like this too: Describe winter zodiac poetically 🙂
A hunter chases an ibex with gold horns up the mountain. At the summit he shoots the goat. The goat is bleeding and dying. But a magic flower grows out of its blood. Goat eats the flower, gets revived and runs away. I talked about this in my articles "Zlatorog-Goldhorn" and "Trentar"...
After the goat was killed by Wolf priests, the sacrificial knife was cleaned by milk and wool...Feb is the the time when sheep start lambing and lactating...
The sheep stop lambing and the milking season starts in Mar/Apr, in Aries...
When a lamb is decorated like this in Serbia, it means that it's destined to be sacrificed to St George...Aries must die so Taurus can begin...Spring is sacrificed to summer...
Also the lambing season is over and the milking season begins. From my article "Aries must die"...
The killing of a dog, together with goats, was a sacrifice to wolves, so that they spare the flocks...
BTW, dog mating season is opposite to wolf mating season...They are opposite calendar markers...Natural antagonists...
When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...
Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...
Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...
India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...
Anyway, back to Romulus and Remus...The Italian wolf mating season spans Feb/Mar. The gestation lasts 2 months...Which means that the Italian wolf cubs are born in in Arp/May...
And so, Romulus and Remus could have been born in Mar/Apr (Aries) possibly in Mar, the month of their father Mars...But then they would have been a month old before they were thrown into Tiber...
Could that be the case?
I think that Amulius decided to kill Romulus and Remus as soon as he found out they were born...Which means that they were probably born in Apr/May...
Look at this. This is flood chart of the river Tiber. You can see that the floods almost completely subside by Apr/May...Remember that Tibernus "calmed the waters of Tiber down to ensure safety of the twins"...
And then he delivered the basket with the boys to the roots of a wild fig...Where they were "cradled in the shade of the fig branches". Fig trees are deciduous, dropping their leaves in late fall and leafing out again in early spring...
So when are fig leaves fully grown in the area around Rome? Finally, while Lupa was breastfeeding the twins, "woodpeckers were bringing them food too"...Woodpecker was the sacred bird of Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus...
And 4 main woodpecker species in Italy (The great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, Green and Black woodpecker) are nesting in Apr/May...Right on time to feed Romulus and Remus...
The two wolf boys were then found and adopted by Faustulus, the shepherd, and were brought up as shepherds...Interesting...Apr/May is when shepherds take their sheep to the highland pastures...I talked about this in my article "Aries must die"...
Sooooo....Apr/May? Guess what happens in Apr/May? More precisely on the 21st of Apr? The Rome was founded...By Romulus (plus/minus Remus)...
Oh and this is when the flocks are purified during Palilia (Parilia) ceremony...
Palilia (Parilia), the Roman festival, held on 21st April, cleansed shepherds & sheep, honouring the god of shepherds & sheep, Pales. Interestingly, Romans didn't really know who Pales was...So in this article I tried to uncover Pales's the secret identity 🙂 I talked about this in my article "Parilia"...
That's that. Interesting? I think so.
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