ÆNEAS, (fab. hist.) a famous Trojan prince, the son of Anchises and Venus. At the destruction of Troy, he bore his aged father on his back, and saved him from the Greeks; but being too solicitous about his son and household-gods, lost his wife Creusa in the escape. Landing in Africa, he was kindly received by queen Dido: but quitting her coast, he arrived in Italy, where he married Lavinia the daughter of king Latinus, and defeated Turnus, to whom she had been contracted. After the death of his father-in-law, he was made king of the Latins, over whom he reigned three years: but joining with the Aborigines, he was slain in a battle against the Tuscan. Virgil has rendered
the name of this prince immortal, by making him the hero of his poem.