Romulus
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Romulus. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
mythical founder and first King of Rome. According to the legends, he was the son of the vestal Rhea Sylvia by the god Mars, Sylvia being a daughter of Numitor, rightful heir of the er. Exposed with his twin brother Remus, the babes were suckled by byshe wolf, and afterward brought up by a ered, and they determined to found a city on the banks of the Tiber, the scene of their exposure. The right to choose the site was acquired by Romulus; and Remus not acquiescing, in his disappointment, was slain. Inhabitants for the new city were found by establishing a refuge for murderers and fugitive slaves on the Capitoline hills, and by carrying off the Sabine maidens at a to which they were invited. This led to war with the Sabines, which ended, through the intervention of the Sabine women, in a union of Romans and Sabines, under their two kings, Romulus and Titus Tatius. The latter was soon slain, and Romulus reigned alone. He was regarded as the author of the fundamental division of the people into tribes, curiæ, and gentes, and of the institution of the senate and the comitia curiata. The date commonly assigned for the foundation of Rome is 753 b. C. The tomb in which the body of Romulus is alleged to have been interred was discovered in January, 1899, in the Roman Forum, near the arch of Septimus Severus, along the Via Sacra. A large slab of black marble, measuring four square meters, was found, exactly corresponding to the description of the tomb of Romulus alluded to by Varro as "Lapis Niger." This stone differs from ordinary Roman silicium, and comes from Cape Tenarium, in Greece, thus proving that communication existed between Rome and Greece in the most remote period. For many centuries, till the fall of the Roman empire, the tomb of Romulus was considered a sacred shrine by the Romans. The discovery is incalculably valuable to historians and archæologists, proving the fact, often doubted and ridiculed, especially by the German school, that a black stone, surrounded by a marble inclosure one meter high, was missing from the E. side of the Rostra Julia.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
rom'u-lus, in mythology, the first king of Rome. According to tradition, he was the son of Mars and the vestal virgin, Rhea Silvia. On the birth of Romulus and his twin brother Remus, the king ordered the vestal virgin to be executed and the twins thrown into the Tiber. The boys were placed in a cradle and set afloat. Instead of overturning, however, it floated to the roots of a wild fig tree, where it rested after the subsidence of the waters, leaving the twins on dry land. They were suckled and brought up by a she-wolf, until they were found by a shepherd who took them to his wife. On growing up, the secret of their birth was discovered and they together inherited the throne of their grandfather, Numitor. Romulus founded Rome in 753 B. C. He was worshiped as a divinity under the name of Quirinus.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
According to tradition the founder of Rome. He was a son of Mars and Ilia, and was twin brother of Remus. The twins were thrown into the Tiber, but were saved and suckled by a she-wolf till they were found by Faustulus, a shepherd, who brought them up. Disputes arising between the brothers in reference to the building of the city, Romulus caused Remus to be slain.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The legend itself has not moved an inch since these accounts: the Mars and Rhea Silvia parentage, the she-wolf, the murder of Remus and the seizure of the Sabine women are still told exactly as Collier's told them in 1921. What has changed is the status of the 1899 find that Collier's called "incalculably valuable" proof. Giacomo Boni's Lapis Niger in the Forum is now dated to the 6th century BC and read as an archaic shrine carrying the oldest surviving Latin inscription, not as the tomb of Romulus; the "often doubted and ridiculed" German scepticism about a historical founder has, if anything, prevailed. Rome is now understood as the gradual coalescence of Iron Age hilltop villages, though Varro's date of 753 BC survives as a convention, and even the bronze Capitoline she-wolf, long taken for Etruscan work, was dated by laboratory tests in the 2000s to the Middle Ages.
Written for this edition, 2026.