Capetus Silvius appears in classical chronologies and later summaries as a member of the Silvius dynasty descended from Aeneas. In regnal and genealogical lists (as found in Livian fragments, Eusebius' Chronicle, and later summaries), he occupies a position in the ordered sequence of Alba Longa rulers used to link Trojan origins to Latin and Roman institutions. Authors vary in his exact placement, name-form, and stated reign-lengths (variant forms include Capetus, Calpetus, Epitus, Epytus), but the consistent function across sources is as a dynastic node connecting predecessors (e.g., Capys) and successors (notably Tiberinus).
No classical or later source in the provided corpus gives a physical, corporeal, or iconographic description of Capetus Silvius. He is represented solely as a name in lists and genealogies rather than as an individual depicted in narrative detail or visual art.
The sources attribute no supernatural powers, distinctive deeds, or characteristic behaviors to Capetus Silvius. Classical and medieval compilers record him as having 'reigned' for a stated number of years in regnal summaries, and his cultural role is genealogical/regnal: serving as a named link in the chain of Alba Longa kings that explains succession and, by extension, some place-name etymologies (for example, sequences that lead to the eponymous Tiberinus).
Capys
Capys is a personal name in Greco‑Roman legendary history borne by several legendary human figures connected to the Trojan and early Roman genealogies. Bearers of the name appear as a king of Dardania, a Trojan who warned against bringing the wooden horse into Troy, and a mythic king of Alba Longa in Roman annalistic tradition; a later Victorian poet (Macaulay) renders a Capys figure as a prophetic elder.
Tiberinus
Tiberinus is the Roman name attested for the divine personification of the River Tiber and separately for a legendary king, Tiberinus Silvius, listed among the early kings of Alba Longa. The name thus appears in two registers of Roman tradition: as a river-god tied to Rome's central watercourse and as a figure in mytho-historical genealogies.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Aborigines (mythology)
A mytho-historical label used in Roman and general reference sources to denote the oldest inhabitants of a region (specifically central Italy in the cited Roman context). The term functions as an identity/category for original human populations rather than as a characterized supernatural being in the provided sources.
Abundantia
Abundantia is the Roman divine personification of abundance and material plenty, used primarily in imperial propaganda and public iconography to signify secure grain supplies, wealth, and the promise of a 'Golden Age' under the emperor. She also appears in later medieval European folklore as Domina Abundia / Dame Habonde, a household benefactor in accounts condemned by ecclesiastical writers.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Acerbas
Acerbas (also recorded as Sychaeus, Sycharbas, Zacherbas) is a figure in classical Greco‑Roman accounts of Phoenician/Tyrian tradition: a wealthy priest of Melqart (the Tyrian Hercules) whose concealed riches and murder by King Pygmalion precipitate Elissa/Dido's flight from Tyre and the foundation of Carthage. He is presented as a human priestly figure of high social rank rather than as a supernatural being.
Acestes
Acestes is a Roman/Greek founder-hero associated with the Sicilian city Segesta (Aegesta/Acesta). Presented as son of a Trojan woman and, in one tradition, the Sicilian river-god Crinisus (in animal form), he hospitably receives Aeneas and the Trojans, participates in the funeral games in Virgil's Aeneid (Book V), and functions as an eponymous culture-founder and local ruler.
Achaemenides
Achaemenides is a literary mortal figure introduced into Virgil's Aeneid as a marooned member of Odysseus' crew whom Aeneas rescues on Sicily. In Roman epic he functions as a chance survivor and eyewitness who helps link the Homeric tradition to the Trojan refugees and to illustrate Aeneas' magnanimity.
Community Record
- [1]Capetus Silvius (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Capetus Silvius, summary entrywiki
- [2]Silvia gens (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: Silvia gens (discussion of the Silvius dynastic name and variant forms)wiki
- [3]Eusebius, Chronicle, Book 1 (translation). Eusebius, Chronicle, Book 1 (translated, regnal lists referencing Capetus/Capetus reigned twenty-six in some recensions)literary
- [4]Eusebius, Chronicle (alternate translation). Eusebius, Chronicle translation (variant recensions and name-forms noted)literary
- [5]Livy: early kings and genealogical fragments. Livy (genealogical fragments and regnal sequences mentioning the Alba Longa kings and associated names)literary
- [6]Troy - Greek Mythology Link (compilation). Modern compilation noting Trojan-Aeneadic traditions and descendants used in Roman foundation narrativesother
- [7]Roman Foundation Myths – Mythoi Koinoi. Modern summary of Roman foundation myth materials and use of genealogical frameworksother
- [8]Eusebius, Chronicle, Book 1 (CCEL translation). Eusebius, Chronicle (alternate online translation and presentation of regnal lists)literary