THE SCENE: The Latin people were famously founded by Aeneas after he fled from Troy. The following passage provides the story of the foundation of the first Latin city, Alba Longa.
THE TEXT: Aeneas’ son Ascanius succeeded him on the throne and founded Alba Longa, as it is now called, naming it after the river which was then called Alba and now bears the name Tiber. As for the name of the city, however, Fabius, who wrote a history of the Romans, presents a different story. This is what he says: An oracle was given to Aeneas, stating that a four-footed animal would lead him to the place where he should found a city, and once, wen he was in the act of sacrificing a sow, white in colour, which was pregnant, it escaped from his hands and was pursued to a certain hill, where it dropped a farrow of thirty pigs. Aeneas was astounded at this strange happening, and then, calling to mind the oracle, he made preparations to found a city on the spot. In his sleep he saw a vision which strictly forbade him to do so and counselled him to found the city thirty years hence, corresponding to the number of the farrow of pigs, and so he gave up his design.
Upon the death of Aeneas his son Ascanius ascended the throne, and after thirty years he founded a settlement of the hill and gave the city the name of Alba after the colour of the sow; for the Latins call what is white alba. Ascanius also added another name, Longa, which translated means “the long,” since the city was narrow in width and of great length.
– Bibliotheca Historica, Diodorus Siculus, 1st Century BC
[Image Credit: Dido and Aeneas by Antonio Zucchi]
