ASCANIUS

My name is Ascanius. I am the son of Aeneas and Creusa. I am also known as Iulus. A great destiny awaits me. The city of Rome will be founded by my descendants.

My grandfather Anchises put all his hope of rebirth for the Trojan people in me. He interpreted what happened to me on the night when we fled from burning Troy as a premonitory sign of a glorious future. We were still in the house when a flame suddenly appeared above my head, and my frightened parents immediately tried to extinguish it with water. It was this sign of good fortune that convinced my grandfather to leave Troy and leave with us towards a new homeland.

My young age inspires tenderness and emotion. At Butrint, Andromache sees in me her son Astianax, killed by the Greeks. In Carthage, Queen Dido treats me like a son.

When – after eight years of wandering in the Mediterranean – we finally land on the coast of Latium, we are so hungry that we even eat the focaccia we usually use to hold our food. It seems so strange to me that, without thinking about it, I jokingly exclaim: ‘Oh, we are even devouring the tables‘. But my father immediately sees in this naive statement of mine the long-awaited sign of the end of our long journey and is so happy about it that he imprints it on his heart. The words of Anchises come back to his mind: he had told him that hunger would one day force us to devour even the tables, and that when that happened, we would be in the place where we would found our new home.

My father is an important reference point for me. Before his final duel against Turnus, king of the Rutuli, he embraces me, kisses me, and urges me to learn from him the right values, the true virtues and the correct models of behaviour. A moral message that seems to be addressed not only to me, but also to all my future descendants, the Roman people.

Lavinium will be founded by my father, while I will found Alba Longa, giving rise to a dynasty of kings that will last until Romulus and Remus and the birth of Rome. I will also be the founder of the Julia family, from which Julius Caesar will descend, and his adopted son Octavian, who will later become Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.

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