XIX. [1] After this Silvius Procas, king of Alba, divided his inheritance in equal portions between the two sons, Numitor and Amulius. [2] Then Amulius in one portion placed merely kingship, and in the other he placed the total of all his inheritance and the whole substance of his father's wealth. To Numitor, who was older, he gave the choice of picking whichever one of these he preferred. [3] When Numitor had chosen private leisure and property rather than kingship, Amulius obtained the kingship. [4] In order to hold this securely, he saw to it that the son of his brother Numitor was done away with while hunting. Then he even ordered Rhea Silvia, that man's sister, to become a priest of Vesta, pretending to have had a dream in which he had been urged by said goddess that this should happen. The truth was that he considered it necessary to do it for his own sake, thinking it would be dangerous if someone were born to her who might avenge the injustices against his grandfather, as Valerius Antias writes in his first book.

[5] But in fact Marcus Octavius and Licinius Macer report that Amulius, the uncle of the priestess Rhea, was seized by love for her. Under a cloudy sky and in a dark mist, when it had first begun to dawn, as she fetched water for rites, he lay in ambush for her in the grove of Mars and raped her; ³³ then, when the months had passed, twins were born. [6]  When he discovered this, in order to conceal the deed which he had conceived though his wickedness, he ordered that the priestess be killed, and that the offspring be presented to him. [7] And then Numitor, in hope for the future, because if they grew up these twins might one day be the avengers of the injustices against him, substituted others for them and gave them, his real nephews, to Faustulus the master of his shepherds to be brought up.