Lusus Troiae

[3] The fullest description of the exercise is given by Vergil, Aeneid 5.545–603, as the final event in the games held to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Aeneas's father, Anchises.

The lusus Troiae was "revived" by Julius Caesar in 45 or 46 BC,[6] perhaps in connection with his family claim to have descended from Iulus, the son of Aeneas who in the game of the Aeneid rides a horse that was a gift from the Carthaginian queen Dido.

is based in part on a late 7th-century Etruscan wine-server (oinochoë) from Tragliatella (near Caere) which depicts mounted youths emerging from a labyrinth with the legend TRUIA, one possible meaning of which is Troy.

[11] Vergil explicitly compares the patterns of the drill to the Cretan Labyrinth, which was associated with the geranos ("crane dance") taught by Theseus to the Athenian youth he rescued from the Minotaur there.

[14] Initiation iconography similar to that of the Etruscan oinochoë is found on a panel of the Gundestrup Cauldron, generally regarded as presenting Celtic subject matter with a Thracian influence in workmanship.

[18] Vergil uses two forms of the verb "to weave" to describe the equestrian movements, and in some versions of the Theseus myth, the hero's return from the labyrinth is made possible by following a daedalean thread provided by Ariadne.

[25] The children in eastern dress on the Ara Pacis have sometimes been interpreted as Gaius and Lucius Caesar in "Trojan" garb for the game in 13 BC.