XVI. [1] Meanwhile Lavinia had been left pregnant by Aeneas. Driven by the fear that Ascanius would hunt her down, she fled into the woods to Tyrrhus, the master of her ancestral herd, and there she gave birth to a boy who was named for the geography of the location: Silvius.

[2] But the common people amongst the Latins imagined that she had been secretly assassinated by Ascanius. They had inflamed great hostility against him to such an extent that they were threatening him with force of arms. [3] Then Ascanius tried to exculpate himself by an oath, but found that that didn't do him any good with them; so he sought time for a search, and broke a little of the mob's impending wrath by promising that he would greatly enrich with huge rewards whoever found Lavinia for him. Soon he had her recovered and led her back with her son into the city of Lavinium, and he loved her with all the honour due a mother. [4] This affair once again procured great favour for him amongst the people, as Gaius Caesar and Sextus Gellius write in the Origin of the Roman People.

[5] But others tell the story that when Ascanius was compelled by the whole population to restore Lavinia, and to swear that he had not done away with her and did not know where she was, Tyrrhus, who was in that crowded assembly, asked for silence and he offered proof, as long as a promise was given that no harm would be done to him, Lavinia, or the son that had been born to her. Then, when he had accepted this promise, he led Lavinia back to the city with her son.