Editing Founding of Rome (section)

=== Aeneas ===
[[File:Batoni, Pompeo — Aeneas fleeing from Troy — 1750.jpg|thumb|Eighteenth century painting by [[Pompeo Batoni]] depicting Aeneas fleeing from Troy. Aeneas carries his father.]]
[[File:Aeneae exsilia.svg|thumb|Aeneas's route in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]''. The epic poem was written in the early first century BC.]]

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The tradition of Romulus was also combined with a legend telling of Aeneas coming from Troy and travelling to Italy. This tradition emerges from the [[Iliad]]'s prophecy that Aeneas's descendants would one day return and rule Troy once more.<ref>{{harvnb|Cornell|1995|pp=63, 413 n. 45|ps=, citing ''Iliad'' 20.307f}}.</ref> Greeks by 550&nbsp;BC had begun to speculate, given the lack of any clear descendants of Aeneas, that the figure had established a dynasty outside the proper Greek world.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|pp=63–64}} The first attempts to tie this story to Rome were in the works of two Greek historians at the end of the fifth century BC, [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]] and [[Damastes of Sigeum]], likely only mentioning off hand the possibility of a Roman connection; a more assured connection only emerged at the end of the fourth century&nbsp;BC when Rome started having formal dealings with the Greek world.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|pp=64–65}}

The ancient Roman annalists, historians, and antiquarians faced an issue tying Aeneas to Romulus, as they believed that Romulus lived centuries after the Trojan War, which was dated at the time {{circa|1100&nbsp;BC}}. For this, they fabricated a story of Aeneas's son founding the city of [[Alba Longa]] and establishing a dynasty there, which eventually produced Romulus.<ref>{{harvnb|Forsythe|2005|p=94|ps=. "Troy's unhistorical connection with Rome was maintained by inventing the Alban kings, whose reigns were made to span the chronological gap between Troy's destruction (1184/3&nbsp;BC according to Eratosthenes) and Rome's foundation".}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cornell|1995|p=141|ps=. "In the developed legend of the origins of Rome, the son of Aeneas founded a hereditary dynasty at Alba Longa. But this Alban dynasty was an antiquarian fiction devised for chronographic reasons".}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Momigliano|1989|p=58|ps=. "Hence [from chronological difficulties] the creation of a series of intermediate Alban kings, which the poet Naevius had not yet considered necessary, but which his contemporary Fabius Pictor admitted". }}</ref>

In Livy's first book he recounts how Aeneas, a demigod of the Trojan royal [[Anchises]] and the goddess [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], leaves Troy after its destruction during the [[Trojan War]] and sailed to the western Mediterranean. He brings his son – Ascanius – and a group of companions. Landing in Italy, he forms an alliance with a local magnate called [[Latinus]] and marries his daughter [[Lavinia]], joining the two into a new group called the Latini; they then found a new city, called [[Lavinium]]. After a series of wars against the [[Rutuli]] and [[Caere]], the Latins conquer the [[Alban Hills]] and its environs. His son Ascanius then founds the legendary city of [[Alba Longa]], which became the dominant city in the region.<ref>{{harvnb|Lomas|2018|p=47}}, citing {{harvnb|Livy|loc=1.1}}.</ref> The later descendants of the royal lineage of Alba Longa eventually produce Romulus and Remus, setting up the events of their mythological story.{{sfn|Lomas|2018|p=47}}

Dionysius of Halicarnassus similarly attempted to show a Greek connection, giving a similar story for Aeneas, but also a previous series of migrations. He describes migrations of [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadians]] into southern Italy some time in the 18th century BC,{{sfn|Cornell|1995|pp=37–38}} migrations into Umbria by Greeks from Thessaly, and the foundation of a settlement on the [[Palatine hill]] by [[Evander of Pallantium|Evander]] (originally hailing also from Arcadia) and [[Hercules]],{{sfnm|Cornell|1995|1p=38|Lomas|2018|2p=47}} {{cn span |text=whose [[labors of Hercules|labour]] with the [[Labours of Hercules#Tenth: Cattle of Geryon|cattle]] of [[Geryon]] was placed in the [[Forum Boarium]] by the Romans. |date=January 2024 }} 

The introduction of Aeneas follows a trend across Italy towards [[Hellenization|Hellenising]] their own early mythologies by rationalising myths and legends of the [[Greek Heroic Age]] into a pseudo-historical tradition of prehistoric times;<ref>{{harvnb|Cornell|1995|pp=37, 39|ps=. "The legendary material [Greek myths] became a coherent body of pseudo-historical tradition and was the object of intense research".}}</ref> this was in part due to Greek historians' eagerness to construct narratives purporting that the Italians were actually descended from Greeks and their heroes.<ref>{{harvnb|Cornell|1995|p=39|ps=, referencing also Greek claims that Persians, Indians, and Celts also were all descended from Greek gods or heroes. }}</ref>{{sfn|Lomas|2018|p=47}} These narratives were accepted by non-Greek peoples due Greek historiography's prestige and claims to systematic validity.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=39}}

Archaeological evidence shows that worship of Aeneas had been established at Lavinium by the sixth century BC.{{sfn|Lomas|2018|p=47}} Similarly, a cult to Hercules had been established at the [[Ara Maxima]] in Rome during the archaic period.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=40}} By the early fifth century BC, these stories had become entrenched in Roman historical beliefs.{{sfn|Forsythe|2005|p=93}} These cults, along with the early – in literary terms – account of [[Cato the Elder]], show how Italians and Romans took these Greek histories seriously and as reliable evidence by later annalists, even though they were speculations of little value.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=37}} Much of the syncretism, however, may simply reflect Roman desires to give themselves a prestigious backstory: claim of Trojan descent proved politically advantageous with the Greeks by justifying both claims of common heritage and ancestral enmity.{{sfn|Cornell|1995|p=65}}