LATINUS

in Roman legend, king of the aborigines in Latium and eponymous hero of the Latin race. He was believed to be either the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe or the son of the Roman god Faunus and the nymph Marica. Latinus was a shadowy personality who was perhaps invented to explain the origin of Rome and its relations with Latium. According to the Aeneid, the hero Aeneas landed at the mouth of the Tiber River and was welcomed by Latinus, the peaceful ruler whose daughter Lavinia he ultimately married.