Some Reminders for Me and Maybe Also You

The She-Wolf, Remus and Romulus

A couple of years ago when we visited Siena I was surprised to see the Roman emblem of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus all over the place, in sculptures atop columns, in paintings, in carvings, everywhere. I looked it up then to find out why, and wrote about it at the time, but when I got here this time, I had forgotten the logic, so I had to look it up again. In case you too had forgotten the connection, here it is:

According to legend, Remus's sons Senio and Ascanio left Rome and founded Siena, named after Senio. (Remus was dead by this time, either killed by his twin Romulus or accidentally killed by jumping over a wall built by Romulus, according to Livy. Another explanation, according to St. Jerome, is that a supporter of Romulus killed Remus in retribution for his mockery of Romulus, by throwing a spade at his head. Yes, that's what I read.) There seems to be no suggestion nowadays that the story has any historical basis, but the Sienese have always been proud to have a Roman connection and heritage, and that's why they put the wolf nursing the twins all over their city.

The historical truth appears to be that the Romans established a military output in about A.D. 30 called Siena, which thrived as a trading post and grew. If Romulus and Remus had any historical existence, then to square their story with that of the Trojan War, they would have had to founded Rome in about 753 B.C., and Siena not long after. The name Siena may derive from an Etruscan word, "saina" meaning "orange-red."

St Sebastian and His Means of Martyrdom

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind you of a fact that I learned in 2011, and shared then in my blog (alas no longer online), that St. Sebastian did not die of being shot full of arrows. The real story is that in around A.D. 283, after being sentenced to death by arrow for being a Christian in the Roman army, he was nursed back to health by St. Irene of Rome. After that, he went back to his prior activity of denouncing the Romans for their cruelty to Christians, which caused the emperor Diocletian to have Sebastian clubbed to death in 287. So he was definitely a martyr, and the first attempt to kill him by turning him into a pincushion is visually arresting, but it was the second try that killed him. (Also, he was not a handsome youth but a burly middle-aged fellow, not nearly so lovely in a loincloth.)

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I had intended to write something about St. Catherine of Siena, but then I found that her story was less eventful and dramatic than I thought, so I decided not to (she seems to have been important, though, as a philosopher and theologian).

Except this tidbit: St. Catherine of Siena was born in 1347, the 25th child born to her mother, and a twin, though neither her twin nor half of the previous 24 children survived childhood. Can you imagine?! The poor mother was 40 when Catherine was born. Her feast day is actually coming up next Monday, April 29.