Amulius

Romulus and Remus went on to found Rome and overthrow Amulius, reinstating their grandfather Numitor as king of Alba Longa.

Amulius then appointed Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, to the Vestal priestesshood, where her vow of chastity would prevent her from producing any further children.

After being informed of the delivery of Romulus and Remus, Amulius suspected that she had in fact given birth to triplets, the third child having been concealed from the guards present.

[4] Citing Fabius Pictor, Cincius, Cato, and Piso, Dionysius writes that the king ordered the twins to be tossed into the Tiber.

Later, quoting Fabius' account of the overthrow of Amulius, Plutarch claims that Faustulus had saved the basket in which the boys had been abandoned.

[5] In Aelius Tubero's version, the twins were taking part in the festivities of the Lupercalia, requiring them to run naked through the village when Remus, defenseless as he was, was taken prisoner by Numitor's armed men.

[6][7] Faustulus was caught by the Alban guards trying to sneak the infant twins' basket into the city and was brought before Amulius by the same servant who had taken the boys to the river those many years before.

Faustulus, trying to protect Romulus and Remus, and escape the king's clutches, claimed he had been bringing the basket to the imprisoned Rhea Silvia at the twins' request and that they were at the moment tending their flocks in the mountains.

However, when the man he sent to lure Numitor into his clutches arrived at the deposed king's house, he betrayed Amulius and revealed everything that had happened at the palace.

Miniature from the Constantine Manasses portraying Amulius' rape of his niece Ilia (14th century)