ROME Italian archaeologists unveiled an underground grotto yesterday which is thought to have been worshipped by Ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed Rome’s legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.

Decorated with seashells and coloured marble, the vaulted sanctuary is buried 16 meters (52 feet) inside the Palatine Hill, the palatial centre of power in imperial Rome. Over the past two years experts have been exploring the space using endoscopes and laser scanners, fearing that the fragile grotto, already partially caved in, would not survive a full-scale dig, said Giorgio Croci, an engineer. The archaeologists are convinced they have found the place of worship where Romans believed a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war Mars, who were abandoned in a basket and left adrift on the River Tiber.

Thanks to the wolf, a symbol of Rome to this day, the twins survived and Romulus founded the city, becoming its first king after killing Remus in a power struggle. Ancient texts say that the grotto, known as the Lupercale, from lupa, Latin for she-wolf, was near the palace of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, who was said to have restored it. (AP)

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