Alba Longa (occasionally written
Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient city of
Latium in central
Italy, southeast of
Rome, in the
Alban Hills. Founder and head of the
Latin League, it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century BC. In legend,
Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, had come from the royal dynasty of Alba Longa, which in
Virgil's
Aeneid had been the bloodline of
Aeneas, a son of
Venus.