For the citizens of imperial Rome, the festival of the Parilia, which took place every year on 21 April, was always a jolly occasion, complete with all sorts of sacrificing and feasting. For, as everybody knew, this was the city’s birthday, the anniversary of Rome’s establishment by Romulus in the year 753 BC.
Even at the time, there were several different versions of the story of Rome’s foundation. In the most common, Romulus and Remus were the twin sons of the princess Rhea Silvia and the god Mars, who were abandoned by the river Tiber and suckled by a she-wolf. Later, as adults, they returned to the riverbank to found a city of their own. According to legend, the two brothers could not agree on the precise spot on which…