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Young World
Cave of the founders
COMPILED BY
ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
PHOTO: AP
CHAMBER FOUND: Under Emperor Augustus' palace
Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale — the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born. The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-metre-tall) hill in the centre of the city. Archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-ft-deep (15-metre-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace. "We were drilling the ground near Augustus' residence to survey the foundations of the building when we discovered the cave," said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the area. According to myth, Lupercale is where a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the war god Mars and mortal priestess Rhea Silvia, who had been abandoned on the banks of the Tiber. The cave's name, in fact, comes from the Latin word for wolf — lupus. The brothers are said to have later founded Rome on April 21, 753 B.C., at the site. But they eventually fought for the leadership of the new city, and Romulus killed his brother.
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