A different tour of Rome. Civis Romanus sum

Today is the anniversary of the foundation of Rome. Infact in the 753 b.C. (April 21 as said from Varrone, a latin poet) two twins decided to build a new city. They were sons of a vestal named Rea Silvia. A vestal was a woman, a priestess who had to keep her virginity as a vow to Vesta, the divinity of the fire, preserver of the city and of every home. Her fire was lighted on March 1 and it was considered as a sign of the goodwill of Vesta; for this reason a vestal had to be the curator of this fire, a sign more important than her life. But we was talking about Rea Silvia. She was the most beautiful woman of Rome, but she wanted to keep her vow to the goddess; once she went in the forest and here she met Mars, the god of war who fell in love with her and lied with her. Their love was big and after 9 months she had two twins and called them Romolo and Remo; but at the same time she had betrayed the vow of virginity and for this reason she was condemned to be buried alive. The fate of the twins was different. They were dumped in the Tevere, the river of Rome, but they were saved from the roots of a fig tree. They sucked the milk of the tree and ate its fruits. Then when the splate of the river disappeared, arrived near them a female of a wolf that nursed them as two cubs. They were adopted from a shepherd, Faustolo, and form his wiìfe, Acca Larenzia. The two twins raised in this poor family, but one day the true came out. They discovered that their mother was the daughter of the acient king of Alba Longa (the city in which they live), Numitore, who was overthrown by his brother Amulio. So they decided to have their vendetta; they organized a little army and killed the king of Alba Longa. Numitore now was the king again and his grandsons asked him if they could build a new city. Once he told them that they could, Romolo and Remo arrived in a place near the Tevere. This place have a lot of hills and to decide in which of those hills the city had built they decided to see the flight of birds (this was a magic art). Romolo was the favorite one from this art and so he traced some furrows for the city on the Palatino (one of the hills, picture). Those furrows had to be not passed, but Remo did it and derided his brother; after this event the twins fought each other and Romolo killed Remo with his sword. Since that day Romolo was crowned king of Rome. For more information post me a comment or e-mail me. Ps: the famous statue of the wolf of Rome, it's the same on the right column. Dblk

Happy Easter! Buona Pasqua! Today it's the most important festivity for the Chritian world. The word Pasqua derives from the latin world Pascha and from the Hebrew Pesach that means passage. Once this feast was celebrated every sunday (because of its importance), but during the II century a. C. the Council of Nicea decided that this festivity should be celebrated only once during the year in a period between March 22 and April 25. In particular to choose the day of Pasqua it needs to calculate the first sunday after the first fool moon after the vernal equinox. There are a lot of symbols in this day. First the lamb. This rember the release of the Jewish people from the Egypt; infact Moses ordered to sacrifice a lamb to God just before the escape. But the lamb it's also a symbol for Jesus, pure and innocent victim. The second sign it's the egg. This is a symbol of renaissance, but it also represents the possibility of eat meal again because Jesus it's resurrected (infact every friday during the period before the Easter, Christians can't eat the meal) and this symbolize the center of the christian religion. Once the eggs were taken to be blessed before to give them to somebody as a sign of opulence. The last symbol is the dove. In the tradition this was usual to be shown just during the Pentecost (a feast in which the Spirit of God, represented with a dove, descended on the humanity), but today you can see it also during the Easter. For more, post me a comment or e-mail me. Dblk