Caeculus

Caeculus was in Roman mythology, a son of Vulcan. He is the legendary founder of the city of Praeneste (now Palestrina).

According to the Greek reading not Caeculus but Praenestes was the founder of Praeneste

His mother was a shepherdess, who was pregnant by a spark that jumped into her lap from the heat (which is why he was considered a son of Vulcan ). She put the child out, but that was found and brought to the brothers of the mother. Because of his small, twinkling eyes he is called Caeculus ( caecus "blind" ), but actually it is called after the brothers Depidius. After spending a right robber youth under the hardships, he finally sets out with a group of companions to the founding of the city of Praeneste. When he asks the neighbors at the inauguration ceremony under Notices on his descent from Vulcan to settle in his city, it give the no faith. Then he asks his father for a sign, whereupon suddenly all his neighbors are on fire, the extinguished only by order of Caeculus again. Thus all convinced of his divine origins and Praeneste is facing a bright future.

He is regarded as the ancestor of the gens Caecilia.

Swell

• Cato Origines 59 Peter
• Virgil 's Aeneid 7.678 to 81
• Servius commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 7,678
• Solinus 2.9, after libri Praenestini
• Festus De verborum significatione S.V.