Rome Unveils Romulus Tomb
Rome is unveiling what's believed to be the tomb of its legendary founder Romulus on Friday. The 6th-century BC stone sarcophagus and altar, located beneath the Roman Forum, concludes months of investigation — no remains were found, but it offers a rare tangible link to Rome's mythic origins.
The underground temple, or hypogeum, is located beneath the Curia, the ancient Roman Senate house. This places it in the Comitium, the city's central open-air assembly space, and just a few meters from the Lapis Niger, a mysterious black stone shrine that ancient sources associate with the death of Romulus. This is not a new discovery, but a rediscovery. Archaeologist Giacomo Boni first unearthed the shrine in 1899, but it was subsequently reburied and its exact location forgotten for over a century. Modern archaeologists, led by Colosseum Archaeological Park director Alfonsina Russo, relocated the site after investigating Boni's original excavation records. While the 4.6-foot-long tufa sarcophagus is empty, officials stress the site was a "place of memory," not a literal tomb. Russo refers to it as a cenotaph, a monument created to honor Romulus where his cult could be celebrated. This aligns with legends in which Romulus was either taken up to heaven or torn apart by senators, leaving no body to bury. The legend of Romulus and his twin brother Remus, famously suckled by a she-wolf, dates the founding of Rome to 753 BC. While there is no definitive historical proof that Romulus existed as a real person, archaeological evidence does confirm settlements in the area around that time.
