One bad act usually leads to another, and this case was no exception to
the rule, for when Amulius had taken his brother's throne, he still
feared that the rightful children might interfere with the enjoyment of
his power. Though he supported Numitor in comfort, he cruelly killed
his son and shut his daughter up in a temple. This daughter was called
Silvia, or, sometimes, Rhea Silvia. Wicked men are not able generally
to enjoy the fruits of their evil doings long, and, in the course of
time, the daughter of the dethroned Numitor became the mother of a
beautiful pair of twin boys, (their father being the god of war, Mars,)
who proved the avengers of their grandfather. Not immediately, however.
The detestable usurper determined to throw the mother and her babes
into the river Tiber, and thus make an end of them, as well as of all
danger to him from them. It happened that the river was at the time
overflowing its banks, and though the poor mother was drowned, the
cradle of the twins was caught on the shallow ground at the foot of the
Palatine Hill, at the very place where the good Evander had begun his
city so long before. There the waifs were found by one of the king's
shepherds, after they had been, strangely enough, taken care of for a
while by a she-wolf, which gave them milk, and a woodpecker, which
supplied them with other food.
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