Tony Robinson - Tony Robinsons Weird World of Wonders: Romans

Tony Robinson has written lots of books about history and ancient stuff, including Tony RobinsonsKings and Queens and The Worst Childrens Jobs in History, which won the Best Book with Facts category of the Blue Peter Book Awards 2007. He has also written several television series for children, including Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, for which he received a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award. He presents Channel 4s archaeology series Time Team and played Baldrick in Blackadder.

Del Thorpe has been drawing ever since that time he ruined his mums best tablecloth with wax crayons. Most of his formative work can be found in the margins of his old school exercise books. His maths teacher described these misunderstood works as wasting time. When he left normal school, Del went to art school and drew serious, grownup things. Soon he decided the grown-up stuff was mostly boring, so went back to drawing silly cartoons and has done ever since.

Other books by Tony Robinson

The Worst Childrens Jobs in History

Bad Kids

Tony Robinsons Weird World of Wonders: Egyptians

Tony Robinsons Weird World of Wonders: British

Tony Robinsons Weird World of Wonders: Greeks

For Holly...

This book is for Holly Shepherd-Robinson. Shes only two years old, so she cant read it yet. But she can nibble at it, wear it as a hat, or drop it from a great height so it goes bang! on the floor.

Hopefully in about five years time shell try to read it. But by then itll be so dog-eared and manky and stained with tomato ketchup that shell have to buy her own copy, and Ill make about 17p!

... and Jess

Its also for Jessica Cobb, whose brains are bigger than a double-decker bus. In fact, if she didnt stick her head out of the window when shes on the way home, shed squash all the other passengers. I couldnt have written the book without her.

Hi! Were the Curiosity Crew. You may spot us hanging about in this book, checking stuff out.

Its about the Roman Empire, which in ancient times ruled pretty much all the known world for hundreds of years. Thats impressive, particularly when you think that Rome started off in about 750 BC as an ordinary little farming village.

Although, actually, theres a much better story about how the whole Roman thing began, and its pretty wild... thats if you believe it!

Read on to find out...

L ong, long ago in the faraway country of Italy there lived a beautiful young priestess called Rhea Silvia who began to grow fat. After six months she had a belly the size of a watermelon, and her uncle Amulius grabbed her by the sleeve, dragged her into the temple garden and whispered, Youre pregnant!

That would seem to be the case, replied Rhea Silvia.

But youre a priestess. Youre not allowed to mess around with young men, insisted Amulius.

I didnt, said Rhea Silvia. I messed around with one of the gods Mars. We went into those mulberry bushes, and one thing led to another, and now...

Youre going to have a baby.

No, said Rhea Silvia. Im going to have two babies.

And she did. Three months later Rhea Silvia gave birth to twins.

Her father King Numitor was naturally very upset, but he grew fond of the two little boys, and soon everyone was happy again...

Except Uncle Amulius.

One night he crept into the little boys room, bundled them into a wicker basket and carried them off to the deep, dark forest.

You have brought shame on our family, he hissed. So now you must die. And he tipped them out on to the musty, dusty leaves, leaving them to their fate.

All night they lay there. They didnt cry they were brave little boys. But they were very hungry.

Then towards morning there was a snuffling sound, and the pad of soft paws, and a great, grey wolf loped out of the surrounding trees.

The wolf picked up one twin in her sharp, white teeth and carried him back to her den. Then she returned, picked up the other one, and brought him back to her den too.

But she didnt harm them. Her cubs had recently died in a tragic chariot accident, and she was full of milk and without any babies to love.

So she looked after the little boys and raised them as her own. She chased away the hungry badgers when they came too close to the den, and she covered them with the musty, dusty leaves when they were cold in winter. And they became strong and clever, and as wily as... err... wolves.

Until one day, when they were eight years old, and their Wolf Mother had died and gone to Wolf Heaven, they were discovered by shepherds and taken back to the shepherds village. There they were given a hut to live in, clothes to wear and names too. One was named Romulus and the other Remus .

By the time the boys had grown to manhood, Rhea Silvias father was no longer king. Wicked Uncle Amulius had seized the crown, and had thrown Numitor into a damp and unhygienic dungeon. In fact Amulius threw almost anyone he could into that deep and unhygienic dungeon, and one day when Remus had strayed too near the palace while looking for a lost lamb, Amulius grabbed him and threw him in for trespassing.

The young man soon befriended Numitor, who told him his two grandsons had once been stolen from him. Fortunately Remus had an unusual birthmark behind his knee, and one afternoon Numitor saw it. He suddenly realised who Remus was his long-lost grandson!

Meanwhile Romulus had raised an army of brave shepherds who marched to the palace, broke down the door, seized Amulius, chopped him into bite-sized nuggets and threw him in the moat.

When the shepherds released Remus, he told them that he and his brother were heirs to the throne. The whole city cheered, held a three-day party and offered Romulus and Remus the crown. But they refused.

Our grandfather Numitor is the rightful king, they said. He shall rule here. We will set off and found a new city.

So their mother Rhea Silvia brushed a tear from her eye, packed their lunch boxes and kissed them goodbye, and off they went, accompanied by the shepherds and a few scruffy, runaway slaves.