However, in the Aeneid, Vergil claims that Mezentius fought in the Italian Wars at the time Aeneas was alive. In the Aeneid, it is Aeneas who kills Lausus after harming Mezentius, who escaped while his son faced the Trojan king. When the news about Lausus' death reaches Mezentius, he comes back to face Aeneas, and is killed too. In this account Ascanius does not participate in these deaths.
Nevertheless, Vergil shows Ascanius' first experience at war. In the Aeneid, Ascanius is a teenager without real war experiences, but while besieged by the Italians, Ascanius launches an arrow against Numanus, the husband of the youngest sister of Turnus. After killing Numanus, Apollo comes and says to Ascanius:
Macte nova virtute, puer: sic itur ad astra, dis genite et geniture deos.
This phrase can be translated into English as: "Go forth with new value, boy: thus is the path to the stars; son of gods that will have gods as sons." or "Blessings on your fresh courage, boy, scion of gods and ancestor of gods yet to be, so it is man rises to the stars." In this verse, Vergil makes a clear reference to the offspring of Iulus, from whom Augustus Caesar claimed descent Therefore, in this verse Vergil refers to the Gens Julia, the family of Augustus and Julius Caesar, who was deified after his death.
The sic itur ad astra become almost proverbial and several mottos use an ad astra phrase. After this episode, Apollo orders to the Trojans to keep Ascanius away from the war.
In this same episode Ascanius, before launching the fatal arrow in Numanus, prays to Jupiter, saying:
Jupiter omnipotens, audacibus annue cœptis
The translation is : "Omnipotent Jupiter, please favour my audacity" or "All-powerful Jupiter, assent to my bold attempt". The last part of the hexameter became the United States motto annuit coeptis.
The name Iulus was popularised by Virgil in the Aeneid: replacing the Greek name Ascanius with Iulus linked the Julian family of Rome to earlier mythology. The emperor Augustus, who commissioned the work, was a great patron of the arts. As a member of the Julian family, he could claim to have four major Olympian gods in his family tree: (Jupiter, Juno, Venus and Mars), so he encouraged his many poets to emphasize his supposed descent from Aeneas.
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