The cities which were said to be founded by the AEne'adae were, Latin Troy, which possessed empire for three years; Lavinium, whose sway lasted thirty; Alba, which was supreme for three hundred years; and Rome, whose dominion was to be interminable, though some assign a limit of three thousand years.

These numbers bear evident traces of superstitious invention; and the legends by which these cities are successively deduced from the first encampment of AEne'as, are at variance with these fanciful periods.

The account that Alba was built by a son of AEne'as, who had been guided to the spot by a white sow, which had farrowed thirty young, is clearly a story framed from the similarity of the name to Albus (_white_,) and the circumstance of the city having been the capital of the thirty Latin tribes.

The city derived its name from its position on the Alban mountain; for _Alb_, or _Alp_, signifies lofty in the ancient language of Italy, and the emblem of a sow with thirty young, may have been a significant emblem of the dominion which it unquestionably possessed over the other Latin states.

The only thing that we can establish as certain in the early history of La'tium is, that its inhabitants were of a mixed race, and the sources from whence they sprung Pelasgic and Oscan; that is, one connected with the Greeks, and the other with some ancient Italian tribe.