Romulus   

From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great
in glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called,
authors do not agree. Some are of opinion that the Pelasgians, wandering
over the greater part of the habitable world, and subduing numerous
nations, fixed themselves here, and, from their own great strength
in war, called the city Rome. Others, that at the taking of Troy,
some few that escaped and met with shipping, put to sea, and driven
by winds, were carried upon the coasts of Tuscany, and came to anchor
off the mouth of the river Tiber, where their women, out of heart
and weary with the sea, on its being proposed by one of the highest
birth and best understanding amongst them, whose name was Roma, burnt
the ships. With which act the men at first were angry, but afterwards,
of necessity, seating themselves near Palatium, where things in a
short while succeeded far better than they could hope, in that they
found the country very good, and the people courteous, they not only
did the lady Roma other honours, but added also this, of calling after
her name the city which she had been the occasion of their founding.
From this, they say, has come down that custom at Rome for women to
salute their kinsmen and husbands with kisses; because these women,
after they had burnt the ships, made use of such endearments when
entreating and pacifying their husbands.
Some again say that Roma, from whom this city was so called, was daughter
of Italus and Leucaria; or, by another account, of Telaphus, Hercules's
son, and that she was married to Aeneas, or, according to others again,
to Ascanius, Aeneas's son. Some tell us that Romanus, the son of Ulysses
and Circe, built it; some, Romus, the son of Emathion, Diomede having
sent him from Troy; and others, Romus, king of the Latins, after driving
out the Tyrrhenians, who had come from Thessaly into Lydia, and from
thence into Italy. Those very authors, too, who, in accordance with
the safest account, make Romulus give the name of the city, yet differ
concerning his birth and family. For some say, he was son to Aeneas
and Dexithea, daughter of Phorbas, and was, with his brother Remus,
in their infancy, carried into Italy, and being on the river when
the waters came down in a flood, all the vessels were cast away except
only that where the young children were, which being gently landed
on a level bank of the river, they were both unexpectedly saved, and
from them the place was called Rome. Some say, Roma, daughter of the
Trojan lady above mentioned, was married to Latinus, Telemachus's
son, and became mother to Romulus; others that Aemilia, daughter of
Aeneas and Lavinia, had him by the god Mars; and others give you mere
fables of his origin. For to Tarchetius, they say, king of Alba, who
was a most wicked and cruel man, there appeared in his own house a
strange vision, a male figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed
there for many days. There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which
Tarchetius consulted, and received an answer that a virgin should
give herself to the apparition, and that a son should be born of her,
highly renowned, eminent for valour, good fortune, and strength of
body. Tarchetius told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and
commanded her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity,
sent her handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger imprisoned
them both, purposing to put them to death, but being deterred from
murder by the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment
the working a web of cloth, in their chains as they were, which when
they finished, they should be suffered to marry; but whatever they
worked by day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night.
In the meantime, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom
Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to destroy
them; he, however, carried and laid them by the river side, where
a wolf came and continued to suckle them, while birds of various sorts
brought little morsels of food, which they put into their mouths;
till a cowherd, spying them, was first strangely surprised, but, venturing
to draw nearer, took the children up in his arms. Thus they were saved,
and when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. This