Ascanius

Ascanius, also known as Iulus, was a legendary figure in Roman mythology, traditionally described as the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and his wife Creusa. He is said to have been born in the city of Lavinium after Aeneas’s arrival in Italy, and his name is often associated with the later Latin term for the Julian family line. Ancient authors such as Virgil in the Aeneid and later historians like Livy recount that he was named after an altar of Acestes, an ancient king of the Audens.

According to Roman tradition, Ascanius was raised by Aeneas and played a key role in the migration of the Trojans to the Italian peninsula. The Aeneid portrays him as a steadfast companion during the hardships of journeying from Troy to the lands that would become Rome. He is credited with founding the city of Alba Longa, establishing an important center from which the Roman patrician lineage would later claim descent. Ascanius’s descendants, the Alban kings, were considered progenitors of the Roman aristocracy, especially the Julii family, who would later claim ancestry from the named figure as a divine ancestor.

Later Roman annalists classified Ascanius as a deity in some rites, identifying him with the god Iulus or a protective spirit of the nation. He appears in numerous Roman genealogies as a divine ancestor of Julius Caesar and other notable Romans, reinforcing the political importance of mythic legitimacy. While little physical evidence exists to confirm his historicity, Ascanius remains a cornerstone of the Roman narrative linking Rome’s origins to the heroic age of the Trojan War, embodying continuity between Greek heroic tradition and Roman state mythology.