The
kings of Alba Longa, or
Alban kings (
Latin:
reges Albani), were a series of legendary kings of
Latium, who ruled from the ancient city of
Alba Longa. In the
mythic tradition of
ancient Rome, they fill the 400-year gap between the settlement of
Aeneas in Italy and the
founding of the city of Rome by
Romulus. It was this line of descent to which the
Julii claimed kinship. The traditional line of the Alban kings ends with
Numitor, the grandfather of Romulus and Remus. One later king,
Gaius Cluilius. is mentioned by Roman historians, although his relation to the original line, if any, is unknown; and after his death, a few generations after the time of Romulus, the city was destroyed by
Tullus Hostilius, the third King of Rome, and its population transferred to Alba's daughter city.