Relevant Rome

  Book 3 continues the story of Aeneas’ flight from Troy and the events that occurred before he and his men were washed ashore in Dido’s lands. The remaining Trojans set out from the harbors, not knowing exactly where they were going, but knowing they couldn’t stay in Ilium. They sail to a nearby land and, soon after coming ashore, Aeneas uproots a bush and it bleeds. Filled with horror, he pulls up another plant which also bleeds. He prays to the gods to give him a good omen on the next one, but when he uproots a third bush, it bleeds as well. It is then that a voice on the air tells him the story of Polydorus, who had departed from Troy with gold to go live in Thrace. However, Thrace joined with Agamemnon, murdered Polydorus, and stole all of the gold. Aeneas tells the elders what happened and they decide to leave that land, calling it cursed. They hold a proper funeral for Polydorus, then set sail.  They arrive next in Delos, an island. There they meet with a priest of ...

  Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off. Aeneas succumbs to peer pressure and tells Dido and her many minions the story of what happened in Troy. Well educated Romans would have read Homer, and knew about the Trojan War from the Iliad and the Odyssey . The Iliad and Odyssey tell the story of the fall of Troy from the perspective of the Greeks, while the Aeneid tells the story from the perspective of the Trojans.  Aeneas begins the story on the day they discover the giant wooden horse outside the walls of Troy. The Greeks had left it there and sailed to a nearby island to hide. The Trojans try to figure out why the Greeks had built a horse and left it there on the shore. Some think it’s an offering to the gods, others think it is a war machine. They are really uncertain. Laocoon comes and immediately condemns the horse. He throws a spear which embeds in the horse’s side. Just as the Trojans are beginning to agree with Laocoon, a group arrives with a Greek man they had c...

This post is a snapshot of Virgil, the great Roman poet. There is little known about him, but his works speak for themselves as great pieces of Roman literature. Publius Vergilius Maro, born in 70 BC, could best be described as a sickly introvert who just wanted some peace and quiet to work on his poetry. He was born in Andes, a small village in Northern Italy near Mantua. The original spelling of his name is Vergilius with an “e”, but it later changed and is now spelled Virgil with an “i”. He began his education in Milan, and finished it in Rome. Upon completing his education, he decided to go back North. He wrote his Eclogues, about pastoral life and love. Then he completed his Georgics , a work of didactic poetry concerning farming and nature. Eventually, he began working on his great Homeric epic poem, the Aeneid. He died in 19 BC while traveling home from Greece. Before he left on his trip, he requested that if he were to die, the twelve books of the Aeneid should be burned. Ho...

  “Arma virumque cano…” (Virgil 1.1) This phrase, which begins Virgil ’s  Aeneid, haunts the memories of most Latin students. Many of those memories are good, many are painful, as Latin is a tricky language to learn. Virgil , like Homer, begins his work by calling upon the Muses. This tradition is also an easy way to tell if someone’s work is an epic poem, or just a poem. The Aeneid spans twelve books, following the hero Aeneas as he departs from a fallen Troy and travels to the Italian Peninsula. There, he begins the groundwork for a great civilization, which eventually leads to the founding of Rome herself.  This is the first entry in a series about Virgil ’s Aeneid . Each month there will be the summary of a book from the Aeneid. There is enough going on in the Aeneid to fill books, so this will consist of a basic summary. A starting point for further research. By the end of this summary, you should have a fairly good understanding of the events which occur in book ...