His son Ascanius was as yet too young to assume the government; nevertheless his title to the sovereignty remained unimpeached, until he arrived at maturity. During this interval, and under the regency of Lavinia, a woman of great capacity, the Latine state, and the united subjects of the prince’s father and grandfather, continued firm in their allegiance. I am not without some doubts (for who can affirm with certainty in a matter of such antiquity?) whether this was the same Ascanius mentioned above, or one older than him, born of Creusa, wife to ?neas, before the destruction of Troy, and who accompanied his father in his flight from thence; whom, being also called Iulus, the Julian family claim as the founder of their name. This Ascanius, wheresoever, and of whatsoever mother born, certainly the son of ?neas, finding the number of inhabitants in Lavinium too great, left that city, then in a flourishing and opulent state, considering the circumstances of those times, to his mother, or step-mother, and built a new one on the Alban mount, which, from its situation being stretched along the hill, was called Alba Longa.? Between the building of Lavinium, and the transplanting the colony to Alba Longa, the interval was only about thirty years; yet so rapidly had this people increased in power, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians, that, not even on the death of ?neas, nor afterwards, during the regency of a woman, and the first essays of a youthful reign, did either Mezentius and the Etrurians, or any other of the bordering nations, dare to attempt hostilities against them. A peace was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the river Albula, now called the Tiber, should be the boundary between the Etrurians and Latines. Ascanius’s son, called Sylvius, from his having by some accident been born in the woods, succeeded him in the kingdom. He begat ?neas Sylvius, who afterwards begat Latinus Sylvius. This prince planted several colonies, who have obtained the name of Ancient Latines. The surname of Sylvius was henceforward given to all those who reigned at Alba. Of Latinus was born Alba; of Alba, Atys; of Atys, Capys; of Capys, Capetus; of Capetus, Tiberinus; who, being drowned in endeavouring to cross the river Albula, gave to that river the name so celebrated among his posterity. Agrippa, son of Tiberinus, reigned next; after Agrippa, Romulus. Sylvius received the kingdom from his father, and being struck by lightning, demised it to Aventinus, who, being buried on that hill which is now a part of the city of Rome, gave it his name. To him succeeded Procas, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, as being the first-born, he bequeathed the ancient kingdom of the Sylvian family; but force prevailed over both the will of their father, and the respect due to priority of birth. Amulius dethroned his brother, took possession of the kingdom, and adding crime to crime, put to death the male offspring of Numitor, making his daughter Rhea Sylvia a vestal, under the specious pretence of doing her honour, but, in fact, to deprive her of all hope of issue, the vestals being obliged to vow perpetual virginity.*