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Roman

Rutuli

01Identity

Ardea was the capital of the Rutuli, an Italian people who lived in southern Latium. No divine parentage or separate origin is given for them. They appear as a collective people in the myths of Aeneas, Latinus, Lavinia and Turnus.

Turnus was their king and hoped to marry Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, king of Laurentum. When Aeneas arrived in Italy, Latinus promised Lavinia to him instead. The Rutuli then joined the other Latins in war against Aeneas and his allies. They are portrayed as the people ruled by Turnus and drawn into the conflict over Lavinia and Aeneas's arrival in Italy. The Rutuli have no separate story in which they act as the protagonist.

Top questions
02Who it is

The myths across MythSource where Rutuli features, each on that figure’s page.

The film

The Underdrawing video on Rutuli embeds here once it publishes.