Rome really WAS built in a day -- very long ago

By Aussiegirl

NEWSFLASH! -- Romulus and Remus were probably real -- still unclear whether the wolf bit was true, though.

What a fascinating piece of news in the Washington Times today -- don't miss if you are a Roman history buff. More and more of these legends are proving to have a historical basis in fact. Troy too was thought to be a myth until its remains were dug up.

Read more -- or as Rommie and Reemie would have said -- legite:

Italian archaeologists digging in the Forum have unearthed the ruins of a palace they say confirms the legend of Rome's birth " a discovery that may force the rewriting of Western history.

Most contemporary historians dismiss as fable the tale that Romulus founded Rome in 753 B.C. and built a walled city on the slopes of the Palatine hill where he and his twin brother, Remus, were suckled by a wolf in their infancy.

Andrea Carandini of Rome's La Sapienza University has spent 20 years trying to prove the skeptics wrong and last month he and his team hit on the final piece of a puzzle he believes shows the myth has root in fact.

"Archaeology and legend appear to go better together than contemporary historians thought," Mr. Carandini said in an interview before presentation of his findings this weekend.

"We now have all the elements to show that part of the legend may very well be true."

The source of Mr. Carandini's confidence is the discovery of traces of an 8th century B.C. house of regal proportions on the edge of the Forum that dates from the period of the Eternal City's legendary founding.