_Faëry Queen_, iv. (1596).

AEMIL'IA, wife of Aege'on the Syracusian merchant, and mother of the
twins called Antiph'olus. When the boys were shipwrecked, she was
parted from them and taken to Ephesus. Here she entered a convent, and
rose to be the abbess. Without her knowing it, one of her twins also
settled in Ephesus, and rose to be one of its greatest and richest
citizens. The other son and her husband Ægeon both set foot in Ephesus
the same day without the knowledge of each other, and all met together
in the duke's court, when the story of their lives was told, and they
became again united to each other.--Shakespeare, _Comedy of Errors_
(1593).

AENE'AS, a Trojan prince, the hero of Virgil's epic called _Aeneid._
He was the son of Anchi'ses and Venus. His first wife was Creu'sa (3
_syl_.), by whom he had a son named Asca'nius; his second wife
was Lavinia, daughter of Latinus king of Italy, by whom he had a
posthumous son called Aene'as Sylvius. He succeeded his father-in-law
in the kingdom, and the Romans called him their founder.

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth "Brutus," the first king of Britain
(from whom the island was called _Britain_), was a descendant of
Æneas.

AENE'ID, the epic poem of Virgil, in twelve books. When Troy was taken
by the Greeks and set on fire, Aene'as, with his father, son, and
wife, took flight, with the intention of going to Italy, the original
birthplace of the family. The wife was lost, and the old father died
on the way; but after numerous perils by sea and land, Æneas and his
son Asca'nius reached Italy. Here Latïnus, the reigning king, received