Procas or Proca (said to have reigned 817-794 BC) was one of the Latin kings of

Alba Longa Alba Longa (occasionally written Albalonga in Italian sources) was an ancient Latin city in Central Italy, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it w ...

in the mythic tradition of the

founding of Rome The tale of the founding of Rome is recounted in traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves as the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous ...

. He was the father of Amulius and

Numitor In Roman mythology, King Numitor () of Alba Longa, was the maternal grandfather of Rome's founder and first king, Romulus, and his twin brother Remus. He was the son of Procas, descendant of Aeneas the Trojan, and father of the twins' mother, ...

and the great-grandfather of

Romulus and Remus In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (, ) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf sucklin ...

, Rome's legendary founders.

The name

The names of the Alban kings are often related to

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name o ...

s around Rome, or to legendary figures in the early

history of Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced m ...

. The constructed genealogies in which they appear may reflect the desire of status-seeking families in the Late Republic to lay claim to Trojan ancestry. The name ''Procas'' or ''Proca'' may be related to the mythological figure Prochyte, a kinswoman of

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both ...

Gary D. Farney, ''Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 57. who died when the fleet carrying the refugees of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Çan ...

to Italy was within sight of the coast. She was buried on the island that bore her name.Pierre Grimal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'' (Blackwell, 1986, 1996), p. 392.

Family tree

References

Kings of Alba Longa Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid {{AncientRome-myth-stub