Ancient Artefact of the Day: Only one option today really, in honour of the birthday of Rome, 21 April, here is the Capitoline Wolf. #AAOTD #Rome

Image: Capitoline Museum

The image of the She-Wolf and the twins, Romulus and Remus, became one of the key symbols of Rome, a reflection of the Roman belief in the divinely mandated greatness of the city.

Livy (1.4.1) puts it thus: "Sed debebatur, ut opinor, fatis tantae origo urbis maximique secundum deorum opes imperii principium" - 'But, as I suppose, the origin of so great a city was owed by the Fates, and the beginning of the mightiest of empires, next after that of Heaven'.

A number of sources refer to statues of the wolf suckling Romulus, such as Cicero (In Catilinam, 3.19): "quem inauratum in Capitolio, parvum atque lactantem, uberibus lupinis inhiantem fuisse" - 'a gilt statue on the Capitol of a baby being given suck from the udders of a wolf'.

This statue, however, whilst initially considered ancient by scholarship, in 2008 was dated to the 13th Century AD: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/jul/10/art.sciencenews

However, despite this dating, few images have such a popular resonance for 'Rome' as the She-Wolf.

So, a not-so-much #AAOTD