Tarchetius
A mythical king of Alba, who in some traditions is connected with the founders of Rome.
Once a phallus was seen rising above one of his flocks. In compliance with an oracle he ordered one of his daughters to approach the phallus; but she sent one of her maid servants, who became pregnant, and gave birth to the twins Romulus and Remus. Tarchetius caused them to be exposed, but they were suckled by a she-wolf and brought up by a shepherd, and when they had grown up to manhood they dethroned Tarchetius. (Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans By Plutarch)
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyFrom Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans By Plutarch. Romulus
For to Tarchetius, they say, king of Alba, who was a most wicked and cruel man, there appeared in his own house a strange vision, a male figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed there for many days. There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which Tarchetius consulted, and received an answer that a virgin should give herself to the apparition, and that a son should be born of her, highly renowned, eminent for valor, good fortune, and strength of body. Tarchetius told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and commanded her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger imprisoned them both, purposing to put them to death; but being deterred from murder by the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment the working a web of cloth, in their chains as they were, which when they finished, they should be suffered to marry; but whatever they worked by day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night. In the meantime, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to destroy them; he, however, carried and laid them by the river side, where a wolf came and continued to suckle them, while birds of various sorts brought little morsels of food, which they put into their mouths; till a cow-herd, spying them, was first strangely surprised, but, venturing to draw nearer, took the children up in his arms. Thus they were saved, and, when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. This one Promathion says, who compiled a history of Italy.
