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This lady some call Ilia, others Rhea, and others Silvia; however, not long after, she was, contrary to the established laws of the Vestals, discovered to be with child, and should have suffered the most cruel punishment, had not Antho, the king's daughter, mediated with her father for her; nevertheless, she was confined, and debarred all company, that she might not be delivered without the king's knowledge.
What these circumstances were, will be explained in the next chapter. The temple of Mars at Alba. Its situation. Rhea's fault. Her excuse. The wolf story. Rhea in trouble. Birth of her sons. Antho. The anger of Amulius. Rhea imprisoned. Faustulus. His plan. The box that he made. He follows the stream. The children thrown out upon the sand. The wolf. The woodpecker.
The laws of the State in respect to vestal virgins, which were inexorably severe, would have justified him in causing her to be executed at once, but Antho interceded so earnestly for her unhappy cousin, that Amulius for a time spared her life. When, however, her sons were born, the anger of Amulius broke out anew.
Then, besides, he had a daughter of his own named Antho, who was the playmate and companion of Rhea, and with whose affection for her cousin he must have felt some sympathy. He would not, therefore, destroy the child, but contented himself with determining to make her a vestal virgin.
Her life was saved by the entreaties of Antho, the king's daughter, but she was closely imprisoned, that she might not be delivered without Amulius's knowledge. She bore two children of remarkable beauty and size, and Amulius, all the more alarmed at this, bade an attendant take them and expose them.
She was soon afterward excused from her duties in the Vestal temple, and went away, and remained for some time shut up in retirement and seclusion. There at length two children, twins, were born to her. It was only through the influence of Antho, Rhea's cousin, that the unhappy vestal was not put to death by Amulius, before her children were born, at the time when her fault was first discovered.
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