Founding of Rome the line of Romans through his son Iulus, the namesake of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The national epic of mythical Rome, the "Aeneid" of Virgil, tells the story of how Trojan prince Aeneas came to Italy. The "Aeneid" was written under Augustus, who claimed ancestry through Julius Caesar from the hero and his mother Venus. According to the "Aeneid", the survivors from the fallen city of Troy banded together under Aeneas and underwent a series of adventures around the Mediterranean Sea, including a stop at newly founded Carthage under the rule of Queen Dido, eventually reaching the Italian coast. The Trojans
Aeneas the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr. Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας ("Aineías"). In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας ("Aineías") for the αὶνóν ἄχος ("terrible grief") he caused her, where "Aineías" derives from the adjective αὶνóν ("ainon", meaning "terrible"). It is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, because the Aeneid was written by a philosopher it is meant to be read philosophically.