If then we deny the historical truth of a legend which seems to have
been universally credited by the Romans, how are we to account for the
origin of the tale? Was the tradition of native growth, or was it
imported from Greece when the literature of that country was
introduced into Latium? These are questions that can only be answered
by guess; but perhaps the following theory may in some degree be found
satisfactory. We have shown that tradition, from the earliest age,
invariably asserted that Pelasgic colonies had formed settlements in
central Italy; nothing is more notorious than the custom of the
Pelasgic tribes to take the name of their general, or of some town in
which they had taken up their temporary residence; now AEne'a and AE'nus
were common names of the Pelasgic towns; the city of Thessaloni'ca was
erected on the site of the ancient AEne'a; there was an AE'nus in
Thrace,[A] another in Thessaly,[A] another among the Locrians, and
another in Epi'rus:[1] hence it is not very improbable but that some
of the Pelasgic tribes which entered Latium may have been called
the AEne'adae; and the name, as in a thousand instances, preserved after
the cause was forgotten.
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