NUMITOR RECOGNISES HIS GRANDSONS
The young prisoner was brought before Numitor in the city of Alba. No
sooner had the old man’s eyes fallen on the lad than he threw up his
hands in amaze, and gazed more keenly at the prisoner.
‘No herdsman this,’ muttered the old king to himself, ‘rather does he
bear himself as a prince.’
Scanning the face before him even more closely, it seemed to Numitor
that the features were not unknown to him. Dreams of his lost daughter
Silvia gladdened his heart.
Gently the old man tried to win the confidence of the lad, asking him
who he was, and whence he came.
Remus was touched by the kindness of Numitor, and answered: ‘I will
hide nothing from you, sire, for you seem of a princely temper, in that
you give a hearing and examine before you punish.’
Then he told the old man the story that Faustulus had often told to him
and Romulus, of how the wolf had found them as babes on the banks of
the river Tiber, and had carried them to her cave and fed them with her
milk.
Long before Remus had ended his story, Numitor knew that it was his
grandson, his daughter Silvia’s child, who stood before him, and his
old heart beat quick with joy. Here at length was one who would take
his side against the cruel King Amulius.
At this moment Romulus, leading a rough band of herdsmen, approached
the city gate, determined to rescue his brother from the hands of
Numitor.
In the city were many folk who groaned under the tyranny of Amulius.
These, hearing that Romulus was without the city gate, stole
noiselessly away to join the prince, believing he had come to punish
the king.
Meantime Romulus had divided his followers into companies of a hundred
men. At the head of each company was a captain, carrying a small bundle
of grass and shrubs tied to a pole.
These rough standards were called ‘manipuli,’ and it was because they
carried these manipuli that captains in the Roman army came to be
called Manipulares.
When Amulius heard that Numitor had recognised in the prisoner one of
his long lost grandsons he was afraid. Then, hearing the shouts and
blows of Romulus and his men as they attacked the city gate, he rushed
to defend it, determined that the second prince should not enter the
city.
But Romulus captured the gate, slew the king, and entered the city in
triumph.
Here he found Remus, no longer a prisoner as he had feared, but the
acknowledged grandson of Numitor.
The old king welcomed Romulus as joyfully as he had welcomed his
brother, and the two princes, eager to please the gentle old man,
placed him upon the throne from which he had so long ago been driven.
They then sped to the prison where their mother Silvia had lain since
the princes had been born. Swiftly they set her free, and cheered her
by their love and care as good sons ever will.