In Roman mythology, Faustulus was the shepherd who found the infant Romulus (the future founder of the city of Rome) and his twin brother Remus along the banks of the Tiber River as they were being suckled by the she-wolf, Lupa. According to legend, Faustulus carried the babies back to his sheepfold for his wife Acca Larentia to nurse them.
Representation in Livy's From the Founding of the City
The Roman historian Livy details the story of the infants Romulus and Remus in his work Ab urbe condita libri (From the Founding of the City). According to Livy, after the rape of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, who later claimed Mars as the father (either out of truth or for the respectability that came of divine providence, as Livy points out), King Amulius, the twin's great-uncle, ordered the infants put into a basket and sent down the Tiber River to their deaths by drowning. In this year, the Tiber had flooded and as such, carried the boys into a flatland. When the water receded, it dropped the boys on a flat piece of land where the she-wolf, known as Lupa, found and nursed them. According to Livy, some shepherds referred to Acca Larentia as the 'she-wolf' because of her sexual promiscuity, and this may be how the tale of the twins suckling at the teat of the she-wolf came to be. Either way, Faustulus carried the infants back to his sheepfold where he presented the children to his wife to rear. Faustulus and Acca Larentia raised the boys as their own, and they grew to be shepherds. According to Livy, Faustulus was aware of the royal lineage of the twins from the beginning, writing:
<blockquote>From the very beginning Faustulus had entertained the suspicion that they were children of the royal blood that he was bringing up in his house; for he was aware both that infants had been exposed by order of the king, and that the time when he had himself taken up the children exactly coincided with that event.</blockquote>Faustulus withheld his knowledge of the twin's lineage, choosing instead to wait "until opportunity offered or necessity compelled." Faustulus revealed the true nature of the twin's birth to Romulus. At the same time, Numitor realized the boy he held in custody was his grandson Remus, and so a plan was hatched to slay King Amulius. Romulus gathered a band of shepherds and, combined with Remus's forces from the house of Numitor, attacked and killed the king. The twins declared the death of the tyrant and named their grandfather king. According to Livy, this was followed by a "shout of assent...from the entire throng [which] confirmed the new monarch's title and authority." According to Plutarch, Faustulus was at one point brought before Numitor to confirm the livelihood of the boys. meaning 'be silent'. These Latin roots help to explain why Faustulus remained silent about the nature of Romulus and Remus's lineage for so long. Many have historically viewed Faustulus as a "wolfish" character, but this has no historical or etymological basis, and is generally thought to be the result of popular association of fauna and Faustulus.