The City of Rome celebrated its birthday with a day-long series of events on Wednesday -- but, due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, the commemorations were muted. According to legend, Rome was founded on this date 2,774 years ago by twins Romulus and Remus, who washed up on the shore of the Tiber River and were fed by a she-wolf who found them there. Over the centuries, the city has survived wars and famines, sackings and plagues, Maurizio Stefanini, a native Roman who has written about the plagues, viral pandemics, and pestilences that have hit the city, told Xinhua. Though the current pandemic is a new phenomenon for most of the 4.3 million people living in the greater Rome area, as a city, Rome has seen it all. "There were a few big outbreaks that hit the city, starting in the second century and through medieval times, and dozens of smaller waves of disease, many of which have been lost to history," Stefanini said. "We think a pandemic was one of the main factors behind the fall of the Roman Empire. These pandemics have been part of human history since the start of time," he said. (Xinhua)