Aeneas (died 1176 BC) was a Trojan prince who, from 1183 to 1176 BC, led a band of Trojan refugees on a series of wanderings across the Mediterranean before finding a new homeland in Latium in central Italy. There, Aeneas married the daughter of the Latin king Latinus, founded the city of Lavinium as the new capital of the Latins, and became King of the Latins. On his death, Aeneas's on Ascanius became the new ruler of the Latins.
Biography[]
Aeneas and Anchises fleeing Troy
Aeneas was born in Troy, the son of Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. He was the great-grandson of Ilus, the founder of Troy, and he was the second cousin of Hector and Paris. During the Trojan War, he led the Dardanians, who were allied with the Trojans, and Aphrodite and Apollo frequently came to his aid on the battlefield. In 1193 BC, the Achaean Greeks breached the city walls with the Trojan Horse and proceeded to destroy the city, slaying King Priam and his sons, among many others. Aeneas gathered a group of Trojan refugees, the Aeneads, and they began a series of wanderings for six years. They briefly stopped on Sicily, where Anchises died of old age at Drepanum, and Aeneas and his fleet made landfall at Carthage in 1177 BC. He had a year-long affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido, who proposed that the Trojans settled in her lands, and that she and Aeneas jointly rule over their peoples. However, the messenger god Apollo was sent by Zeus and Aphrodite to remind Aeneas of his journey and purpose, compelling him to leave secretly, leading to Dido uttering a curse which would pit Carthage against Rome forever. She then stabbed herself with the sword which she had gifted to Aeneas upon their first meeting.
Arrival in Italy[]
Aeneas as a wanderer
After the sojourn in Carthage, the Trojans returned to Sicily to arrange funeral games for Anchises, and the company then landed on the western coast of Italy. Aeneas was said to have entered the Underworld, where Dido turned away to go to her husband, while Anchises told Aeneas of the future of his descendants and thus the history of Rome. Aeneas then settled the Trojans in Latium, where he courted the princess Lavinia, the daughter of the King of the Latins, Latinus. Although Aeneas wished to avoid a war, hostilities eventually broke out, and Aphrodite stirred up trouble, demanding that Lavinia instead marry King Turnus of the Rutuli. However, Aeneas convinced Latinus to allow for him to marry Lavinia, and the Latins allied with the Trojans. He allied with the Tuscans and the Arcadians, and, despite the deaths of the Trojan heroes Nisus and Euryalus in a midnight raid on the Trojan camp, Aeneas scared off the Rutuli with his Tuscan and Arcadian reinforcements. Aeneas' ally Pallas was slain by Turnus, but Turnus' close associate Mezentius was slain in single combat by Aeneas. Aeneas made a daring attack at the city of Latium, forcing the queen to hang herself in despair, and Aeneas fought Turnus in single combat, wounding him through the leg. He initially considered sparing him, but, after seeing that he was wearing Pallas' belt over his shoulder as a trophy, Aeneas slew Turnus.
Aeneas' followers founded the city of Lavinium, named for Lavinia, and it became the capital of Latium after Latinus' death. Aeneas died in 1176 BC, and his son Ascanius succeeded him as King of the Latins. The descendants of the Latins and Aeneads would go on to become the Romans.
