The gate of the year

Marble relief belonging to an altar dedicated to Mars and Venus during the empire of Trajan (98-117 A.D.), discovered in the Piazzale delle Corporazioni at Ostia Antica, and now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale Romano – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme), Rome.
The scene represents the Lupercal, the cave in which the twins Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf. According to tradition, the twin brothers were the children of Rhea Silvia, Vestal virgin who had been impregnated by the god Mars. Having failed to observe the vow of chastity, the mother was imprisoned and the children abandoned to die in the river Tiber. The basket, in which the babies had been put, run aground near the river bank where the Ficus Ruminalis grew, an ancient tree which still existed at the times of Titus Livius (History of Rome, I, 4). A she-wolf approached, attracted by the wails and licked and suckled immediately the two children. They were later found by a shepherd, Faustulus, with an auspicious name, who took them home, entrusting his wife, Acca Larentia, of their upbringing. The woman, who is said having already twelve children, was probably an ancient Italic goddess, who protected the fertility of fields and the flowing of the seasons.

[Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_%28mythology%29]




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Marble relief belonging to an altar dedicated to Mars and Venus during the empire of Trajan (98-117 A.D.), discovered in the Piazzale delle Corporazioni at Ostia Antica, and now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale Romano – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme), Rome. The scene represents the Lupercal, the cave in which the twins Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf. According to tradition, the twin brothers were the children of Rhea Silvia, Vestal virgin who had been impregnated by the god Mars. Having failed to observe the vow of chastity, the mother was imprisoned and the children abandoned to die in the river Tiber. The basket, in which the babies had been put, run aground near the river bank where the Ficus Ruminalis grew, an ancient tree which still existed at the times of Titus Livius (History of Rome, I, 4). A she-wolf approached, attracted by the wails and licked and suckled immediately the two children. They were later found by a shepherd, Faustulus, with an auspicious name, who took them home, entrusting his wife, Acca Larentia, of their upbringing. The woman, who is said having already twelve children, was probably an ancient Italic goddess, who protected the fertility of fields and the flowing of the seasons. [Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_%28mythology%29]