XX. [1] ³⁴ On the other hand, Fabius Pictor³⁵ in his first book and Vennonius³⁶ [write that], the virgin left, by custom and habit, seeking the water for use in the rites from the fountain there, which was in Mars' grove. Suddenly those who were with her scattered because of the rain and thunder, and she was raped and disturbed by Mars, [but] soon she was restored by the consolation of the god, who revealed his name and assserted that the children born to her would be worthy of their father. [2] Consequently, as soon as King Amulius learned that the priestess Rhea Silvia had given birth to twins, he immediately ordered that they be brought down to the swollen river to be cast off there. [3] Then those who had been ordered to do this, after they placed the boys in a basket around the base of the Palatine Hill into the Tiber (which, on account of the great rain, had been flooded), cast them off. The swineherd of the region, Faustulus, after he observed the exposers, saw, as the river receded, the basket in which the boys were, which had gotten caught on the trunk of a fig tree. [Faustulus saw] a she-wolf, excited by the boys' crying, [which] first cleaned them by licking, then she offered her teats for suckling [lit. for the sake of her breasts to be lightened(by suckling)]. [Faustulus] climbed down and carried [the twins] and gave them to his wife Acca Larentia for their care, as Ennius in his first book and Caesar in his second book write. [4] Certain [writers] say in addition that as Faustulus watched, a woodpecker also flew to [the twins] and with a full mouth regurgitated food for the boys; so evidently the wolf and the woodpecker are under the protection of Mars. Also, a tree around where the boys had been cast off, is called the Ruminal, because under its shade at midday the herd rested [and] it was their habit to ruminate.