The Capitoline Wolf: What you might not know about her?
It is April 21, 753 BC, and according to legend, the twins Romulus and Remus are founding… But after whom will the city be named? It’s up to the birds to decide.
Perhaps just according to Etruscan traditions. The so-called augurs are Etruscan priests who divine from the flight of birds and enjoy great respect.
Romulus wins, but a bloody feud breaks out between the siblings. Remus is killed — either by his brother or one of his friends — and the city is finally named Roma, meaning Rome. Almost everyone knows this story.
Two boys were thrown into the Tiber River, rescued, and weaned by the famous she-wolf of the Palatine Hill. But the word lupa may not only mean a she-wolf but also a woman who practices the world’s oldest craft. The story immediately takes on more realistic contours…
They don’t belong together!
The most famous depiction of the brothers can be found on the smallest of the seven Roman hills, in the former center of power of Ancient Rome, the Capitol. The whole world knows her. But scientists still argue about its age. We are talking about the Capitoline Wolf.
What is certain is that the she-wolf and the duo of miscreants do not originally belong together. The wolf was given to Rome in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV. (1414–1484) and shortly afterward the Italian sculptor Antonio Pollaiolo (ca. 1429–1498) completed the twins in a completely different style.
How old is she?
But that still doesn’t tell us how old the she-wolf is. The 114-centimeter-long statue is believed to date from around the 5th century BC.
But two radiocarbon tests, which will take place in 2007 and 2019, will prove to 95 percent that the statue was cast between 1021 and 1153.
In addition, it is made of one piece — in the days of the Etruscans, few people dared to do this. So is the statue “new”? But the Roman she-wolf is also mentioned by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) or Pliny the Elder (23–79). Or was it a different statue?
The latest studies instead point to the fact that the she-wolf must be of Etruscan origin and the radiocarbon method is inconsistent. The metal contains copper, which the Etruscans brought with them from Sardinia, and at the time of the alleged production, it was no longer available…
