Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans (c. 900BC to 400 BC) when it was inhabited by a tribe called the Saina. The Etruscans were an advanced people who changed the face of central Italy through their use of irrigation to reclaim previously unfarmable land, and their custom of building their settlements in well-defended hill-forts. Then, at the time of the Emperor Augustus , a Roman town called Saena Julia was founded in the site. The first document mentioning it dates from 70AD.
The Roman origin accounts for the town's emblem – a she-wolf suckling the infants Romulus and Remus. According to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Statues and other artwork depicting a she-wolf suckling the young twins Romulus and Remus can be seen all over the city of Siena.
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