Some of Rome's prominent patrician families such as the Julii, Servilii, Quinctii, Geganii, Curiatii and Cloelii were of Alban descent.
[1] According to Roman mythology, Ascanius, son of Trojan War hero Aeneas, founded the Alban tribe when he settled in Alba Longa around 1152 BC.
[3] Dionysus of Halicarnassus reports that:[4] The Albans were a mixed nation composed of Pelasgians, of Arcadians, of the Epeans who came from Elis, and, last of all, of the Trojans who came into Italy with Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, after the taking of Troy.
But all these people, having lost their tribal designations, came to be called by one common name, Latins, after Latinus, who had been king of this country.Based on limited archaeological evidence, experts say the Alban tribe inhabited the long ridge between the modern-day Lake Albano and Monte Cavo.
In particular, literary sources such as Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis state that Alba Longa headed a league of city-states in Latium, possibly called Prisci Latini.
[7] The Prisci Latini are the colonists sent out by the Alban king, Latinus Silvius, who would be made to submit to Roman authority following the destruction of Alba Longa in the mid-7th century BC.