The Mythology Story
The the creation of Rome can be investigated through archaeology, but traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous of all Roman myths, is the story of Romulus and Remus, the twins who were suckled by a she-wolf. This story had to be reconciled with a tradition, set earlier in time, the one that had the Trojan refugee escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son Iulus, the name of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
The Actual Beginning
The early Roman Republic and the preceding regal period are the most poorly documented periods of Roman history. Historical writing at Rome did not begin until the late 3rd century BC, when Rome had already completed its conquest of Italy, established itself as a major power of the ancient world, and become involved in a gigantic struggle with Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean. The earliest Roman histories were brief resumes of facts and stories, but gradually historians embellished the sparse factual material with both native and Greek folklore. Consequently, over time, historical facts about early Rome suffered from patriotic reinterpretation involving exaggerations of the truth, the suppression of embarrassing facts, and invention.