Editorial note — URBIS RŌMAE VIRĪ INLŪSTRĒS Complete text as printed

Among the few Trojans who escaped after the fall of Troy was Aeneas, the son of Venus and the hero Anchises. After many wanderings Aeneas reached Italy, married there Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, king of the Latins, and founded a town called Lavinium, from the name of his wife. He was succeeded by his son Ascanius, who founded a second city, called Alba Longa, and transferred thither the seat of government. The date traditionally assigned to the capture of Troy was 1184 B.C. Hence it is clear that Alba Longa was settled more than 400 years before the foundation of Rome in 754 B.C. To fill this gap a list of fourteen Alban kings, all descendants of Aeneas, was given by the Roman writers. How Rome itself was founded from Alba Longa is described in the text. It should be kept constantly in mind that little faith is to be put in these traditional accounts of Rome’s early history, at least as far as details are concerned. Latin writers tell us that the oldest records of the city perished in the sack of Rome by the Gauls in 388 B.C. The first historical work written by a Roman was published about 215 B.C., more than 500 years after the foundation of the city. Many of the stories were obviously invented to account for institutions which existed in the later times, and the traditional narrative is full of inconsistencies and contradictions.