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Comment by t_mann | Hacker News Reader

> In fact, Rome’s legendary founder, Romulus, was the son of a Vestal priestess—Rhea Silvia.

This is far from fact, it is, with near certainty, a legend (which also tells us that the father is the god Mars, btw; or Aeneas, or unknown, depending on the version). The illustrations are from a completely different era that projected a lot of its own politics into its reading of Rome's history and the article does not provide this contextualization.

Not sure what to make of the parts of the article that are new to me, when parts I know about are at least debatable.

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The phrasing is slightly ambiguous, but I don't think the author is saying that Rhea Silvia's son was Romulus as a fact.

I think the author is using the fact that the Roman's had a legend/myth that their founder who was the son of a Vestal priestess (even amongst other, perhaps mutually contradictory legends) as evidence that the Roman's held the Vestal priesthood in high regard.

This would be akin to the whole Washington cutting down the tree thing. It's a myth, but you could also use it as evidence that Americans for centuries admired honesty in their leaders.

The word "legendary" explicitly tells you that the author is referring to a legend. That the legend tells this is, indeed, a fact.

The ‘fact’ is that the legend claims Romulus is the son of a Vestal priestess, not that he was in reality. Calling Romulus the ‘legendary founder’ implies his mother is also legendary.

> Rome’s legendary founder, Romulus, was the son of a Vestal priestess—Rhea Silvia.

I note that she was a vestal priestess, not a vestal Virgin. Though around that time such a thing was supposedly possible.

Aeneas is several generations removed from Rhea Silvia, as the founder of the ruling dynasty of Alba Longa whence Rhea Silvia emerged.

"In fact" is a turn of phrase, it does not literally mean "in factuality."

No, it does literally mean "in factuality". Anyone using it as a fanciful turn of phrase is using the phrase incorrectly.

In fact, it turned out that Darth Vader was Lukes father.

Contextual fictional facts are really common in language. I remember doing it in philosophy first year. It conundrum-y philosophically, but usually understood effortlessly in normal discourse.

Well, you can be a descriptivist all you want, but it's commonly understood to not mean "in factuality" even if people use it "incorrectly."

In fact, Santa Claus is a man

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