ASCANIUS  , in

Roman legend, the son of Aeneas by Creusa or Lavinia . From Livy it would appear that tradition recognized two sons of Aeneas called by this name, the one the son of his Trojan, the other of' his Latin wife . According to the usual account, he accompanied his father to Italy on his flight from Troy . On the death of Aeneas, the government of Latium was left in the hands of Lavinia, Ascanius being too young to under-take it . After thirty years he left Lavinium, and founded Alba Longa . Ascanius was also called Ilus and Iulus, and the Julian gens claimed to be descended from him . Several more or less contradictory traditions may be found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo and other writers . Virg . Aen. ii . 666; Livy i . 3; see also Klausen . Aeneas and die Penaten (184o) .