Rubens, Mars and Rhea Silvia
“[Amulius] drove out his brother [Numitor] and seized the throne [of Alba Longa] … he proceeded to murder his brother’s male children, and made his niece, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal [Virgin], ostensibly to do her honour, but actually by condemning her to perpetual virginity to preclude the possibility of issue. But (I must believe) it was already written in the book of fate that [Rome] … should arise, and the first steps to be taken to the founding of the mightiest empire the world has known – next to God’s. The Vestal Virgin was raped and gave birth to twin boys. Mars, she declared, was their father.” [Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, Liber I [translation: Aubrey de Sélincourt]