| Aeneas | [ee-NEE-as] Son of Aphrodite (Venus) and Anchises, a mortal Trojan prince, and the hero of Virgil's Aeneid. After Troy's fall, he journeyed to Italy, where he founded a dynasty that eventually produced Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.
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| Alba Longa | In the Aeneid, an Italian city founded by Aeneas's son Ascanius.
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| Ascanius | [as-KAY-nih-uhs] Son of Aeneas by the Trojan princess Creusa. He is also called Iulus.
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| Augustus | First Roman emperor (30 b.c.–a.d. 14), and indirect sponsor of Virgil's Aeneid.
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| Ceres | [SEE-reez] Roman equivalent of Demeter, goddess of grain and earth's fertility.
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| Cupid | The Latin name for Eros, god of love.
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| Ilia | Daughter of the Roman king Numitor, a Vestal Virgin who became by Mars the mother of Romulus and Remus. She is also called Rhea Silvia.
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| Juno | Roman name for Hera, queen of the gods.
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| Jupiter | The Roman equivalent of Zeus, king of the Olympian gods.
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| Lares | [LAR-eez] In Roman religion, the deified spirits of family ancestors.
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| Mars | Roman god of agriculture and war identified with the Greek Ares.
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| Minerva | Italian goddess of crafts and trade guilds, later identified with Athene as martial defender of the state. With Jupiter and Juno, she was a member of the chief Roman triad of divinities.
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| Pax Romana | The "Roman Peace," the political stability that Roman imperial efficiency imposed on the Mediterranean world from the reign of Augustus (30 B.C.–A.D. 14) until the death of Marcus Aurelius in A.D. 180.
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| Penates | [pe-NAY-teez] Roman deities of hearth and home, their images were kept in each Roman house and in a temple of the state.
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| Remus | Son of Mars and a Vestal Virgin, he was the twin brother of Romulus.
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| Rhea Silvia | [REE-a SIL-vih-a] In some myths, the Vestal Virgin mother of Romulus and Remus. She is also known as Ilia.
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| Romulus | Son of Mars and Rhea Silvia (a Vestal Virgin) and founder of Rome (traditionally 753 B.C.), he killed his twin brother Remus for criticizing the inadequacy of the walls he had built around Rome.
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| Sabines | [SAY-binz] In Roman tradition, inhabitants of central Italy at the time of Romulus, whose women were abducted by the Romans.
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| Vesta | [VES-tuh] Roman name for Hestia, goddess of the hearth. In Rome, the Vestal Virgins were charged with the sacred duty of keeping alight the Eternal Flame signifying the Roman state.
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