Romulus, legendary founder of Rome, reputed son of Mars and Rhea Silvia (q. v.), daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa; exposed at his birth, along with Remus, his twin-brother (q. v.); was suckled by a she-wolf and brought up by Faustulus, a shepherd; opened an asylum for fugitives on one of the hills of Rome, and founded the city in 753 B.C., peopling it by a rape of Sabine women, and afterwards forming a league with the Sabines (q. v.); he was translated to heaven during a thunderstorm, and afterwards worshipped as Quirinus, leaving Rome behind him as his mark.