Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Ascanius.
The gallery
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1618–1619
Bernini's early Borghese marble stacks three generations in flight from Troy: Ascanius follows at his father's heel while Aeneas bears Anchises — the boy who will found Alba Longa already walking out of the sack.
Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia
Claude Lorrain, 1682
Claude's late Ashmolean landscape restages Aeneid 7: Ascanius' arrow kills Silvia's stag and lights the war in Latium — the boy's hunt as the spark that turns Trojan refugees into Italian enemies.
Aeneas' Flight from Troy
Federico Barocci, 1598
Barocci's Borghese canvas keeps Ascanius beside his father in the burning city — the small heir of the Julian line escaping with Anchises on Aeneas' shoulders.
In music & on stage
In play
Aeneid
Virgil
Virgil's epic makes Ascanius — also Iulus — the living pledge of Rome: the child who flees Troy, founds Alba, and lends his name to the Julian house.
Ascanius
Aeneas' son, legendary founder of Alba Longa — the Trojan boy whose other name, Iulus, Rome's rulers claimed as their own.