Romulus

Life of Romulus by Plutarch

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Plutarch's motive was to write biographies that could teach moral lessons to readers, rather than histories. The life of Romulus concerns the legendary co-founder of Rome. As with the Life of Theseus, the reader is deluged with details about the life of Romulus. There is the mysterious father of Romulus and Remus, their abandonment, rearing by a wolf, recovery by a shepherd, fratricidal murder of Remus, rape of the Sabine women, and more crimes and atrocities.

It is hard to ascertain any Christian virtue in this. The virtue that we might see may involve the martial virtue of doing whatever is necessary to found a civilization. It's not a virtue that we esteem highly today.

Plutarch seems to accept the details he relates as true. For example, there is the mysterious disappearance of Romulus and his subsequent reappearance as the god Quirenus. This passage has often been used by atheist apologists to undermine the uniqueness of Christian claims. It is worth reading this section to see that it really does not map on to the Resurrection appearance.