Thread by @travisdon1981

Was the story of Jesus based on #Romulus, the #Demigod Son of #Mars and the mythical founder of #Rome?
Um, #No, and here is why:

There are various versions of the story of how Romulus came to be. Some says he and his twin #Remus were the sons of Roma, a mythical heroine whom Rome was named after, and a feller named Latinus (I'm from Texas, I can get away with writing "Feller" (meaning "Fellow" to you

Yankees!), while others say that Aneas and Dexithea were his parents. Some have his mother as being a woman named Aemilia.
However, the main version of the tale has him being the son of Mars, the god of war, and Rhea Silvia, a mortal.
According to the Myth, Mars actually (Brace

for impact, Jesus mythicists!) raped her, thus conceiving Romulus and Remus.
That is nowhere near a virgin conception.
So why do they claim that she was?
Rhea was a "Vestal Virgin", a woman dedicated to Vesta, the Virgin goddess of the Hearth. Such women were supposed to stay

virgin...but Mars of course had other plans.
Thus, she was no virgin.
Indeed, the parentage of Romulus and Remus is open to question in this version of the tale, according to Livy and Plutarch.
Some try to argue that he was an incarnate god.
Folks, he was a DEMIGOD, half man and

half god, just like most of the Greco-Roman heroes, such as Hercules, Achilles, Perseus, etc. He was no incarnate deity like Christ. Indeed, he became a God at the end of his life. Romulus didn't start out as a deity.
Was he called "Son of God?" yes, just like a lot of other

mythic figures (as well as angels, as seen in Genesis 6:1-4 (Hebrew "bene Elohim", or "sons of god" was a term only applied in the OT to angels).
The term "Son of God" in the New Testament means "God the Son", a part of the Triune nature of the Biblical God, as well as Messiah.

Did Romulus die and rise from the grave? In most accounts, he simply vanished, taken up in a whirlwind (Like Elijah, not Christ), though some ancient writers state that he was murdered and cut into pieces, never resurrected. According to Plutarch and Livy, he was seen after his

disappearance, but since he wasn't thought to have died by them, this would not be a post-death resurrection appearance. And if Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the ancient writer who believed Romulus was killed, had ever thought that Romulus appeared after his death, well, since

he never wrote that Romulus resurrected, then he wouldn't see such appearances as a those of a resurrected Romulus.
He would be thinking more on the lines of a...

Was there a darkness when he died? Well, the storm and whirlwind came in the tale where Romulus...didn't die.
In Dionysius of Halicarnassus account, there was an eclipse, but it also came at the time of Romulus' birth as well, and once again, no resurrection.
And no, he was not

Part of a trinity when he became the god Qurinus (after he vanished); he was simply 1 of three gods who made up the Indo-European background of the ancient Roman faith.
Thus, Jesus was #NOT (repeat, #NOT) based on Romulus.
Sorry, Jesus Mythicists.

Sources:
Livy's History of Rome, 1.3.11, 1.4.2, 1.16.1-8, (written by Titus Livius, 49/64 BC-17 AD)
mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Li…
Plutarch, "Romulus", 4.2, 27.2-6, 28.1-2 (written 105-125 AD)
perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do…

Dionysius of Halicarnassus "Roman Antiquities" (Written 7 BC), 1.77.1, 2.56.2-6, 2.63.3-4
penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman…
Ovid's "Metamorphoses", book 14 ("Legends of Early Rome: the Apotheosis of Romulus"), 772-851)

"The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology", by Pierre Grimal, pages 382, 389-91
"The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology" by Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm, pages 80-81

@thethreadreader untoll please