in Roman legend, king of the aborigines in Latium and eponymous hero of the Latin race. The Greek poet Hesiod (7th century BC), in Theogony, calls him the son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe. The Roman poet Virgil, in the Aeneid, makes him 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 Virgil's 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. Latinus is portrayed as a good man who is helpless to control the passions of his wife, Queen Amata, and Turnus, the rejected suitor for his daughter.